While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic tale

While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic talents, as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed plans for a flying machine, a double-hulled ship, and concentrated solar power before the technology even existed to make their creation possible.

1) While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic talents,-----> Dependent Clause

While: Subordinator
Leonardo da Vinci: Subject
IS: Verb

After Comma there Should be an Independent Clause because a sentence is an Independent clause, which contains a Subject and verb and which completes the meaning of the sentence.
Sentence Structure Rule:
1) Dependent Clause, Independent Clause
2) Independent Clause, FANBOYS Independent Clause
3) Independent Clause Dependent Clause


2) as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man,---> Dependent Clause

Usage of idiom is incorrect: both Y as well as Y is an incorrect idiom
Correct Idiom is: both x and Y

While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic talents,--is dependent clause, it should be followed by Independent clause but it is again followed by dependent clause " as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man,"
(Remember: Dependent clause, Independent clause= Independent Clause)

" as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man," is followed by Independent Clause---> This type of sentence structure is correct.


3) he also designed plans for a flying machine, a double-hulled ship, and concentrated solar power before the technology even existed to make their creation possible.-----> Independent Clause

HE--Subject
Designed---Verb


A. as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed----> Incorrect Idiom
Parallelism Error : Both an accomplished painter as well as drafting....WRONG
Correct Parallelism: Both an accomplished painter and a draftsman....CORRECT
B. as well as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he had also designed
1) Incorrect Idiom
2) had also designed---> Past perfect tense is incorrect. It should be Simple Past

C. and as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing

1) Correct Usage of Idiom
2) Parallelism Error : Both an accomplished painter and as a draftsman....WRONG
Correct Parallelism: Both an accomplished painter and a draftsman....CORRECT
3) There is no Independent Clause. " Also Designing" Is not a subject or a verb

D. and drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
1) Correct Usage of Idiom
2) Parallelism error: Both an accomplished painter and drafting numerous sketches....WRONG
Correct Parallelism: Both an accomplished painter and a draftsman....CORRECT
3) There is no Independent Clause. " Also Designing" Is not a subject or a verb

E. and a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed

1) Correct Idiom
2) Correct Parallelism
3) Independent clause with Simple past verb

I did my eliminations on only one single element; often not a great idea, but it's so compelling enough in this case that there is not need to look further.

Idiom "Both X and Y" is only correct.
A and B are out: "Both" and "as well as" combination is wrong.
C: as both _x_ and as __y_ .... preposition has to follow 'once outside or twice inside' rule
D: "accomplished painter" and "drafting" are not parallel for "Both X and Y" usage
E: as both X and Y... correctly follows 'once outside' rule... CORRECT CHOICE.

While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic talents, as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed plans for a flying machine, a double-hulled ship, and concentrated solar power before the technology even existed to make their creation possible.

Explanation:

A. as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
Idiomatic construction error.As both X and Y is the 'correct idiom'
.
B. as well as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he had also designed
Idiomatic construction error.As both X and Y is the 'correct idiom'

C. and as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
Parallelism error.As both X and Y structure requires elements X and Y in parallel.

D. and drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
Parallelism error.As both X and Y structure requires elements X and Y in parallel.

E. and a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
Correct.Proper idiomatic usage of As both X and Y idiom,elements X and Y are also parallel

Hence E is the correct answer

While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic talents, as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed plans for a flying machine, a double-hulled ship, and concentrated solar power before the technology even existed to make their creation possible.

A. as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
<incorrect> usage of both x as well as y is incorrect. However, The usageof while x,y is correct here
B. as well as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he had also designed
<incorrect> usage of both x as well as y is incorrect. Also, the usage of past perfect tense is incorrect
C. and as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
<incorrect> usage of both x and as y is incorrect. While x, y is incorrectly used here. ",also designing" does not convey the intended meaning
D. and drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
<incorrect> usage of both x and y is incorrect. an accomplished painter and drafting numerous sketches are not parallel.
While x, y is incorrectly used here. ",also designing" does not convey the intended meaning
E. and a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
Correct

Official Explanation

While Leonardo da Vinci is most often recognized for his artistic talents, as both an accomplished painter as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed plans for a flying machine, a double-hulled ship, and concentrated solar power before the technology even existed to make their creation possible.

A. as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
B. as well as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he had also designed
C. and as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
D. and drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
E. and a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed

After a quick glance over the options, we have 3 main differences we can focus on:
1. as well as / and (Idioms)
2. drafting / a draftsman of (Parallel Structure)
3. he also designed / he had also designed / also designing (Construction & Verb Choice)

Let’s start with #1 on our list because it’s an either/or split. No matter which direction we go in, we’ll eliminate 2-3 options rather quickly. This is an idiom issue, and the idiom we’re dealing with is:

Both X and Y

We need to eliminate any options that don’t follow this format:

A. as well as drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
B. as well as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he had also designed
C. and as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
D. and drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
E. and a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed

We can eliminate options A & B because “both X as well as Y” is not idiomatically correct. Now that we have it narrowed down a bit, let’s tackle the next item on our list: Parallel Structure. We need to make sure the X and Y in the “both X and Y” idiom are parallel in kind. To make problems easier to spot, let’s add in the first half of the idiom, “both an accomplished painter.”

C. both an accomplished painter and as a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
This is INCORRECT because the two items aren’t written using parallel structure. This sentence is structured “both X and as Y,” which isn’t correct. If the word “as” had been after the word “both,” this would have been correct: “both as X and as Y.” Since it’s not, let’s rule this one out.

D. both an accomplished painter and drafting numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, also designing
This is INCORRECT because the two items aren’t parallel: “an accomplished painter” is a job title, and “drafting” is an action.

E. both an accomplished painter and a draftsman of numerous sketches and the famed Vitruvian Man, he also designed
This is CORRECT! Both items are job titles, and both items are written using parallel structure!

There you have it – option E is our winner! By focusing on either/or splits first, we were able to eliminate 4 out of 5 options without having to deal #3 on our list (which is a bit more complex).

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Well done, DeepaNandwalkar! You cracked the code on this one, and we look forward to seeing how you tackle Question 4! Kudos to you!

Well done sa1859! Great job looking for the "either/or" splits to help you narrow down your choices! Kudos to you!

Well done prateekchugh! Great explanation, too! Kudos to you, and we look forward to seeing how you tackle Question 4!

Well done, sameerm22! Kudos to you for figuring out the question, and great job explaining your thought process!

Well done Akp880! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you, and we look forward to seeing how you tackle Question 4!

Another great explanation, Gmat410! Kudos to you, and we look forward to your explanation for Question 4!

I shall be having a different approach to tackle this one.

Meaning: da Vinci is often recognized for his artistic talents, as both X & Y. One of his famous sketches is "Vitruvian Man" and he also designed plans for bla bla BEFORE the technology even existed to make their creation possible.

a) We also need to analyze that "had" is used to define timelines and is helpful to make sure that something happened before something.

b) Here what follows "both" should be in parallel. Since the phrase is "as both an accomplished....", (An) is an article, hence we need an article before Y also. The article could be anything among "a", "an" or "the".



I believe, it is always good to sort out as many issues as possible for the answer choices.
Thanks