The first of his drawings, Da Vinci sketched "La Valle dell'Arno" when he was 21. It is one of the first pieces to show a landscape without any religious symbols or human. With the Renaissance occurring at this time, it only goes to show how daring Da Vinci was in terms of separating the church from the artistic and scientific aspects of life. Instead, viewers see an approximately to scale scene of the Arno Valley and without any elements beings completely distorted to show how God may see the world. This was an essential development as maps at this time were influenced by artists' views and Da Vinci showed that not everything needed to have a relation to God or the church. Additionally, it encouraged the idea that scale can be shown in an image with human viewers in mind, thus there should be a direct relationship between the actual landscape and that drawn.

Source: “Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria Della Neve - by Leonardo Da Vinci.” Leonardodavinci.net, www.leonardodavinci.net/landscape-drawing-for-santa-maria-della-neve.jsp.