Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci ( 1452 - 1519 ) ( TV : " City of Death " ) was an Italian Renaissance polymath known for his painting and inventions . Biography . " Da Vinci " meant " of Vinci " , his birthplace . Circa 1469 , 17 - year - old Leonardo was swept up in a Rift storm and deposited in Torchwood Three ' s Hub in 1967 , where he met Jack Harkness . Leonardo was returned to his time using a Rift Key he had to take with him . The genius managed to disable the self - destruct mechanism and drew the inner workings of the Rift Key . The only copy of this drawing was stored in Torchwood . Leonardo helped the Torchwood team with the mathematical equation necessary to send him back . He worked it out in his head . ( PROSE : " Cultural Firsts " ) Circa 1492 , Leonardo and his then - patron the Duke of Milan were among the guests invited to the masque organised by the young Duke Giuliano of San Martino . Being caught up in the Mandragora Helix ' s attempt to conquer 15th century Earth , the Fourth Doctor missed this opportunity to meet Leonardo , later noting it was probably for the best . ( TV : " The Masque of Mandragora " ) According to one account , in 1503 , " old Lenny " began painting the first " Mona Lisa " . ( COMIC : " Art Attack " ) According to another account , circa 1505 , Leonardo painted it . His model for the painting was Clara Oswald , and the Twelfth Doctor gave him critique on it . ( COMIC : " The Swords of Kali " ) Later that year , he was hired by a new patron he knew as " Captain Tancredi " , in reality , Scaroth of the Jagaroth . Tancredi asked him to paint six extra copies of the " Mona Lisa " . ( TV : " City of Death " ) One of these copies was painted using oil pigments he borrowed from a neighbouring artist , Giuseppe di Cattivo . Unbeknowst to both of them , the minerals used in this paint would bring the painting to life in future . ( TV : " Mona Lisa ' s Revenge " , SJAF 5 ) The Fourth Doctor arrived from 1979 Paris to 1505 Florence to seek clues to the plot of Count Scarlioni ( another of Scaroth ' s time - splintered selves ) to steal the " Mona Lisa " from the Louvre . He found the design of a helicopter among the papers in his laboratory . After being briefly captured and interrogated by Tancredi , the Doctor wrote " This is a fake " in felt pen on the boards Leonardo would paint the extra Mona Lisa copies . Before returning to the future to try to stop Count Scarlioni , he left him a message written in mirrored font . ( TV : " City of Death " ) When Leonardo was approximately 60 years old , he used the Rift Key to return to Torchwood Three , this time around 2007 . He managed to escape from the Hub into Cardiff , where he saw smart phone s . Soon he was apprehended by Gwen Cooper , given retcon and sent back . This time the Torchwood team made sure that the internal workings of the Key would burn out after the travel . ( PROSE : " Cultural Firsts " ) In 1516 , Leonardo was forced to sell the Mona Lisa to King Francis , an action which the Ninth Doctor claimed " broke his heart " . ( COMIC : " Art Attack " ) Leonardo was one of the guests at Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane ' s wedding in Cheldon Bonniface on 24 April 2010 . ( PROSE : " Happy Endings " ) After Leonardo ' s death , his soul passed through the Moon ' s influence on its way to Heaven and was captured by the Lunaries , who offered to give him a new body . He accepted , and in 1590 he greeted the Florentine ambassadors who had arrived on the Moon in spacecraft based on his designs . He later tried to greet Iris Wildthyme , whom he had met before , but she refused to speak to him . ( PROSE : " Minions of the Moon " ) Undated events . The behaviour of the Fourth Doctor in the laboratory of Leonardo in 1505 implied they had already met each other . ( TV : " City of Death " ) The Eighth Doctor recounted a tale to Alex Campbell that he took Leonardo for a trip in the TARDIS to around 0 AD , in Bethlehem , where Leonardo checked the lighting for his painting " Adoration of the Magi " . There , he was given the possibility to watch the nativity of Jesus Christ , but he didn ' t dare to . ( AUDIO : " Relative Dimensions " ) The Monk ' s logbook recorded a meeting with Leonardo in which he discussed with Leonardo the principles of powered flight . ( TV : " Checkmate " ) Legacy . The flying machine design was used by Astrolabus while he was fleeing from the Sixth Doctor . ( COMIC : " Voyager " ) By the late 21st century , his sketches or a copy thereof , were displayed on the wall of Professor Daniel Eldred ' s space museum ; the TARDIS landed in front of the sketches , carrying the Second Doctor , Jamie McCrimmon , and Zoe Heriot . ( TV : " The Seeds of Death " ) Among a long strip of business cards owned by the Sixth Doctor for various famous scientists and luminaries was one which read " da Vinci " . ( TV : " The Two Doctors " ) Grace Holloway had a print of a Leonardo sketch in her home . The Eighth Doctor , upon seeing it , noted that he had a cold when he drew it . ( TV : " Doctor Who " ) One of the copies of the " Mona Lisa " painted by Leonardo came to life in the 21st century . ( TV : " Mona Lisa ' s Revenge " , " Sarah Jane ' s Alien Files " episode 5 ) In 2020 , the Eleventh Doctor used Leonardo as one example of people who had dyslexia that did great things , in order to encourage Elliot Northover to continue trying . ( TV : " The Hungry Earth " ) An airport in Rome was named after Leonardo da Vinci . ( PROSE : " Cultural Firsts " )