What you need to know about… Leonardo da Vinci

Name: Leonardo da Vinci

Date of birth: April 14, 1452, in Vinci

Date of death: May 2, 1519, in Amboise

Mother: Caterina di Meo Lippi (peasant)

Father: Pierre de Vinci (Notary)

His biography

Born April 14, 1452 in Vinci in the province of Florence in Tuscany, Leonardo da Vinci is both a man of universal spirit, a painter, an engineer, a sculptor, an architect, a musician, a poet, a philosopher, a genius writer and scientist.

First raised by his grandparents in the cult of observation and curiosity, the young Leonardo finds his father in Florence at the age of ten years. Detecting in his son talents for drawing, his father placed him as an apprentice in the studio of the famous Andrea del Verrocchio where he rubbed shoulders with other gifted people named Botticelli or Le Perugin. He will stay there for more than 10 years, developing his art and his technique.

During the following decades, between Florence and Milan, Leonardo da Vinci then worked on prestigious commissions, notably on behalf of the powerful Medici and Borgia families, or even at the court of Ludovico Sforza. In 1516, after the loss of his last protector -Julian de Medici-, confronted with the emergence of a new generation of artists (Michelangelo, Raphael…) he finally decided to respond favorably to repeated invitations from the Court of France . He left for the Loire Valley, to join Amboise and François I.

At the royal castle of Amboise

Leonardo will live for the last three years of his life at the Manoir du Clos Lucé, not far from the royal castle of Amboise. If the archives are imprecise, we know that he will play a central role in the logistical organization of the great ceremonies organized at the castle, in the spring of 1518. His talents as a “party director” are put to use on these occasions for the creation of monumental sets and the design of special effects.

At the twilight of his life, Leonardo da Vinci wrote a will in which he expressed his wish to be buried in the Château d’Amboise. This privilege will be granted to him and he will be buried in the Saint Florentin church, located in the heart of the palace. This burial will be moved to the Saint Hubert chapel in the middle of the 19th century. She is still there.