So here’s a tidbit.  Leonardo da Vinci’s mother is believed to have been an Arabic slave.  Studies of Leonardo’s finger prints reveal a pattern found in people of this lineage and further investigation of the details of his birth support the theory.  While this is fascinating I was even more intrigued to learn that he was also a vegetarian.  The guy was both multicultural AND progressive.

Among this polymath’s catalogue of conceptual inventions is the parachute.  100 years later Renaissance stunt man Faust Vrancic mustered the courage to build one and alight from a tower in Venice.

Isca Greenfield-Sanders makes it all look like a breeze.

Gallery representation:  John Berggruen Gallery