Leonardo da Vinci dies at Amboise in France
On this day · 2 May 1519
The painter of the Mona Lisa and ultimate Renaissance polymath died at Amboise in France, far from the Italy that shaped him.
On 2 May 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died at the Manoir du Clos Lucé, a manor house a short walk from the royal Château d’Amboise on the Loire. He was 67.
Leonardo had spent his final three years in France as a guest of King Francis I, who admired him and reportedly gave him the run of the manor along with a pension. The man who travelled with him to Amboise had already painted the Mona Lisa, sketched flying machines and human anatomy, and earned a reputation as the consummate Renaissance polymath.
A cherished legend has Francis I cradling Leonardo as he died — a touching scene most historians now doubt.
Leonardo asked to be buried in the palace church of Saint-Florentin. That church was later destroyed, and in the 19th century his presumed remains were moved to the Chapel of Saint-Hubert on the château grounds, where his tomb is marked today.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
