Believe it or not, Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life in France. Why did he leave Italy? At age 64, he had lost his patron. However, François I admired Leonardo's work and genius and wanted him to be free to work, think, and dream. The king dubbed Leonardo his “first painter, first engineer and first architect of the king.”
François had met the famous artist in Bologna shortly after the Battle of Marignan in 1515 and was immediately seduced by the artist and visionary scholar. In 1516, François invited Leonardo to live and work at Clos Lucé. Leonardo accepted the king's offer and stayed there until he died three years later on May 2, 1519.
Château du Clos Lucé is a relatively small 15th century palace in Amboise. The chateau was the childhood home of François. Today, it is a museum on the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci with period furniture and many models of his designs on display.
Leonardo brought three paintings with him (below) and his countless notebooks on art, architecture, painting, anatomy, invention, science, engineering, and urban planning, and a vast curiosity that defines what it is to be a Renaissance Man and a genius.
Actually, Leonardo da Vinci suffered from rheumatism and paralysis of his right arm. He painted little but instead directed the hands of his students: Francesco Melzi and Battista da Villanis.
Clos Lucé also includes a large landscaped garden that has further models, art, and civil engineering works inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.
Every day, François used to visit Leonard, whom he called "my father", through a secret underground passageway that connected Clos Lucé with the Amboise Château 500 meters apart.
DaVinci dying in the arms of King Francis I was painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). It shows the depth of love that the king had for the artist who did not disappoint him in his expectations. Da Vinci was buried in a crypt near the Château d'Amboise. This painting hangs in Château du Clos Lucé.
Paintings
Leonardo took these three paintings and all his manuscripts with him to Clos Lucé. After his death,
the paintings became a part of François I’s personal collection and later were given to The Louvre in 1797 where they are to this day.
In art terms, it is the
earliest Italian portrait to focus firmly on the sitter in a half-length
portrait and set the standard for future artists. Depicting the subject in front of an
imaginary landscape, Leonardo was one of the first painters to use
perspective in this way. He also pioneered a shadowing technique at the
corners of her lips and the corners of her eyes, which give her a
remarkably life-like appearance and look of amusement. https://joyofmuseums.com
Leonardo’s innovative depiction shows a youthful saint in isolation with a strong contrast between the dark background and the illumination of the figure. This technique called chiaroscuro makes the figure appear to emerge from the shadowy background. He is dressed in pelts, has long curly hair, and is smiling an enigmatic smile reminiscent of the "Mona Lisa". He holds a reed-cross and points up toward heaven.
Kenneth Clark noted the sense of “uneasiness” that the painting imbues while other critics have commented on its “disturbingly erotic” depiction. This painting is believed to be Leonardo’s final painting, which may be his view of the grace that awaited him. https://joyofmuseums.com
The "Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” depicts the grandmother of Jesus, her daughter, the Virgin Mary, and the infant Jesus. Leonardo’s composition depicts the mother-daughter relationship between the two women with St Anne is looking at Mary, as Mary sits on her lap, and looks into her son's eyes.
Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion. The painting and its theme had long preoccupied Leonardo, who took many years to complete it as he struggled to capture their relationships and personalities. https://joyofmuseums.com
Medieval depictions of the three generations were very popular albeit more staid as each figure sat on each other's lap, as shown in this sculpture from Polignac, not far from Le Puy.
Leonardo studied human and animal anatomy in order to paint as closely as possible to reality. His originality lay in his interest both in veins and in internal organs in young and old bodies alike. He always thought of his models from the inside out, which enabled him to capture the movements, strength, and the soul of those he depicted.
Da Vinci's Inventions
Leonardo may be best known for being a humanist, an artist, a scientist, and a philosopher, but he also was a military engineer who came up with some fearsome inventions. While working for Ludovic Sforza, the duke of Milan, he created several war machines including: catapult, crossbow, steam canon, assault chariot, fortress, machine gun and the wheel-lock musket which replaced the tedious use of fuses. He also used new materials like steel and developed the ball bearing to reduce friction.
The Da Vinci museum at Clos Lucé includes 40 models of the machines he designed but never built. His extensive notes on these machines, however, allowed IBM to re-create them for the museum. They were built with the materials of the time.
Flying machine
aerial screw helicopter
Machines with gears
Parachute
cut-away of a tank
Architect and Urban Planner
The king loved the countryside south of Paris and decided to move the French capital to the Loire Valley. He asked DaVinci to design an ideal city in Romorantin.
Leonardo had already thought about a planned city while living in Milan, Italy, and to solve the same public health problems that had ravaged Europe throughout the Middle Ages thought at the time to be related to poor sanitation. He likened a city to a living organism that focused on the movement of people, goods, and waste. His conception for the city involved a series of arcades on two levels. Below were the pipes, roads, and sewers for industrial and commercial activities. Above were the palaces and gardens for the wealthiest citizens of the city.
For example, to develop the economy, he planned to redirect rivers and manipulate water levels. He cleaned air and water with a series of windmills to circulate it. He wanted that animal stables built on canals so that waste water could be safely removed and streets to be cobbled to facilitate travel and the movement of building supplies. He also liked prefabricated houses to relocate townspeople.
Romorantin was never built and as da Vinci's health failed, François' interests turned to the opulent Château de Chambord, the king's hunting lodge. Scholars believe that many of the designs intended for Romorantin ended up in Chambord, including an intricate, helix-like spiral stairway where you can cross sides without ever meeting. It was an ideal castle with telephony, a water alley, pier, and automatic doors.
Click here to see the blog on Château de Chambord
Feast of Paradise
As a designer of royal festivities, Leonardo directed sumptuous feasts at the château. Mathurine, his cook, prepared the meal. She worked in this kitchen with copper pots and served the food on Hispano-Moorish glazed earthenware dishes.
Leonardo's Bed Chamber and Studio
Leonardo slept here until he died on May 2, 1519. The canopied four-poster bed is carved with chimeras, cherubs, and sea creatures.
The fireplace is decorated with the French coat of arms and the chain of the Order of Saint Michael.
The 17th century cabinet has secret compartments and is inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl.
Leonardo’s reconstructed workshop is on the ground floor of Clos Lucé and extends over 3 rooms with original wall frescoes repainted using pigments used
in the Renaissance. Thanks to Leonardo's "Treatise on Painting", researchers were able to discover the pigments of sanguine, soil of sienna, and wash, as well as his tools: silver point and dry
point. The large work table is equipped with a compass, ruler,
paper weft, goose feather, candle, magnifying glass, and world map.
Bedchamber of Margaret of Navarre
Margaret of Navarre spent part of her childhood at Clos Lucé with her brother, François, and her mother Louise of Savoy. Celebrated for her grace, wit, spirituality, and refined culture, she was involved in the literary and religious world of the time. She wrote The Heptameron, which was inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron, only it takes place at Clos Lucé with descriptions of the place in rich detail. Margaret and her mother lived with Leonardo.
Château Amboise
The Château Amboise is surrounded by fortifications and towers. It was the home of the French kings since Charles VII confiscated it in 1434 after its owner, Louis d'Amboise, Viscount of Thours, was convicted of plotting against his father, Louis XI. Charles eventually pardoned him from execution, but took his château.
Charles
VIII turned Château Amboise into a beautiful place after he saw what the Italians
were doing with their castles. He hired 22 Italian artists, decorators,
and gardeners to make the changes to "the first Italianate palace in France". His cousin, the future François I, was born in this château and became king at age 22.
Henry II (1547-59) and his wife, Catherine de Medici, raised their children in the Château d'Amboise.
The château fell into decline in the second half of the 16th century
and most of the interior buildings demolished. In its time, it was five times bigger than it is today.
Clos Lucé is located at 500 meters from Château d'Amboise and connected by an underground passageway that François and Leonardo used to use to visit each other.
Leonardo organized parties here and provided shows with special effects and machines to carry things. Actually, Leonardo had a genius for building shows, and in his earlier years, it helped him make a living.
The Loire River Valley
This area along the Loire has been inhabited since the Middle Paleolithic--about 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. For the French kings and noblemen, it was a place of pleasure and not one of defense against enemies. It was quiet in the country, teeming with game for hunting, and far enough away from the very dirty and congested city of Paris. In fact, the area has a concentration of 300 châteaux and fortresses. The French kings started living here in 1422.
The Loire River in the 16th and 17th centuries was a very busy river even though there was not always enough wind or depth of water for shipping. Turin and the Loire River Valley supplied wine, food products, and stone. A series of canals were built to accommodate movement. In the 19th century, the railroads replaced most of the shipping activity.
Today, it is often referred to as the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards, artichoke, and asparagus fields that line the banks of the river. Montlouis-sur-Loire produces a sparkling white wine while Saumur and Tours produce both red and white wines. Loire wines are known for a fruitiness taste with fresh, crisp flavors.
The Town of Amboise
These house are referred to as "troglodyte houses", that is, they are built from the rock. Troglodyte suggests that they are like "cave-man" houses, although they are modern homes. The stone is tufa, a variety of limestone that is a soft, yellow, and easy to shape. Empty quarries of this stone afterward became storage places for wine because the temperatures were steady and even.
Amboise is a medieval town with narrow streets and half-timbered houses.
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