François Ier reçoit les derniers soupirs de Léonard de Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci, come to France at the invitation of Francis I, died at Amboise in 1519; the episode, probably fictitious, of his death in the king’s presence comes from Vasari’s Lives. Ingres painted the scene in 1818, the year after he left Rome, composing the deathbed with the gravity of his Roman years — the dying master sinking in the king’s arms, the court gathered in shadow behind, the light falling on Leonardo’s face. Famous paintings in the Louvre served him as models for the figures, and the small canvas condenses the historical tableau he would return to throughout his life. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris.