The camera can freeze the wing-beat of a bird, but Leonardo had to arrest the motion of the wings in his mind and he drew hundreds of times the positions of birds in flight. 'A bird makes the same use of wings and tail in the air as a swimmer does of his arms and legs inthe water'. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian Renaissance architect, musician, anatomist, inventor, engineer, sculptor, geometer and painter.