Laure Fagnart, F.R.S-FNRS research associate and director of the Transitions Research Unit. (Faculty of Philosophy and Letters) publishes, at the Presses Universitaires de Rennes, a book entitled Léonard de Vinci à la cour de France. A book that reports on cultural and artistic exchanges between Italy and the northern Alps in the 16th century.

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ares are those whose names have been remembered in history more than five hundred years after their death. Leonardo da Vinci is one of them. His bearded and thoughtful old man's face, like that of the Mona Lisa, is known to almost everyone. For most of us, he is the embodiment of genius, a scientist with universal knowledge, an inventor of extraordinary machines, an artist who has changed the course of art history. It is also emblematic of the Renaissance, whether Italian, French or European.

Among the images that posterity has left us of Leonardo da Vinci, that of his alleged death in the arms of King Francis I is one of the most striking. However, the history of relations between the artist and France has many other episodes. What links did Leonardo have with the French kings? What were his commitments to Louis XII in the Duchy of Milan and then to Francis I in Touraine? How did his paintings - undoubtedly among the most famous of the Renaissance - come into the possession of the French sovereigns? Were they the result of royal commissions, were they seized during the Italian Wars, were they acquired from other prestigious collectors of the time? What was their career path in the French royal collection of paintings under Francis I and his successors, Henri IV and Louis XIV in particular? Under what conditions and in which royal residences have they been preserved? The book Léonard de Vinci à la cour de France, published on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Italian master's death, proposes to answer these questions and thus to reconstruct a part of the history of the relationship between the Italian master and France.