France and Italy mark 500 years of da Vinci death

The Presidents of France and Italy would on Thursday mark the 500th anniversary of the death of artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci in the Loire Valley town of Amboise.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born in April 15, 1452 and died May 2, 1519.

More commonly called Leonardo da Vinci, a polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention and drawing.

Other interests included painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography.

He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology and architecture, and he is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time.

He was sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank; he epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were due to receive Italy’s Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura at the town’s royal palace.

Afterwards, they are scheduled to have a private lunch together at the Clos Luce chateau, the nearby mansion where the Renaissance genius breathed his last.

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Later in the day the two presidents would join several hundred young French and Italian citizens who are due to take part in workshops on architecture, literature and science at Chambord, another chateau in the Loire Valley.

Macron announced the joint commemoration in March in an apparent effort to mend fences with Italy, whose populist coalition party leaders Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio have repeatedly sparred with the liberal French president.

The Italian government has also sought to renegotiate a loan agreement with France that would see a number of Leonardo works sent to the Louvre in Paris later this year for a major exhibition.

dpa/NAN