© Francesco Melzi / Wikimedia Commons · public-domain
Léonard de Vinci
1452-1519
PainterHistorical Figure
A universal genius of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years in France as a guest of François I. Painter, engineer, and anatomist, he embodies, more than anyone else, the ideal of the complete Renaissance man.
In 1516, the king invited him to the manor of Cloux, near Amboise, in the Loire Valley, later known as the Clos Lucé. Leonardo arrived with his disciples and a handful of paintings, including the Mona Lisa, which would remain in France.
He died there in 1519. Tradition, popularized by a painting by Ingres, holds that he died in the king's arms, a symbol of the bond forged between France and the Italian Renaissance.
