Leonardo da Vinci moved to France in 1516 to work for King Francis I. The move came near the end of Leonardo’s life, after years of work in Milan and Rome and a period of declining health.
Francis I had recaptured Milan in 1515 and became an important patron of Italian Renaissance artists and intellectuals. In 1516, the French court arranged Leonardo’s relocation. Leonardo entered the king’s service and was given the use of Clos Lucé, a manor house near the royal Château d’Amboise in the Loire Valley.
Leonardo traveled with his longtime companion and assistant Francesco Melzi. Francis I granted him a substantial pension and treated him as a respected court adviser rather than merely as a painter. Leonardo worked on plans for an ideal town and other engineering and architectural projects, although many remained unrealized. He is also associated with a mechanical lion created for a royal pageant.
The date is sometimes confused with 1515, the year Francis I recaptured Milan, or 1517, when Leonardo’s presence in France was documented. The actual relocation to France is conventionally dated to 1516.