Leonardo da Vinci: From Vinci to Amboise

Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452 in, or close to, the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. The birth house lies about 3 km northeast of town, in Anchiano, but the sources only say he was born in or near Vinci. In town, the Museo Leonardiano shows more than 60 models built from his drawings. The museum opened in 1953 thanks to a gesture from IBM, and you enter it from Piazza dei Guidi.

Location precision: The sources say he was born in or near Vinci; the pin marks the Museo Leonardiano in town, not a birth house.

Visitor guidance: The Museo Leonardiano is entered from Piazza dei Guidi; the birth house site lies about 3 km northeast, in Anchiano.

In Milan, Leonardo painted The Last Supper on an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, working from about 1495 to 1498, though not continuously. The mural measures 460 by 880 centimetres. When a prior of the monastery reportedly complained about the delay, Leonardo wrote back that he had been struggling to find the perfect villainous face for Judas. His patron, Duke Ludovico Sforza, meanwhile planned to turn the church into a family mausoleum.

In 1503 Leonardo was commissioned to paint one long wall of the great hall of Florence's town hall with a battle scene celebrating a famous Florentine victory: the Battle of Anghiari. He had been tied to this building before: in 1478 he took an altarpiece commission for the Chapel of Saint Bernard. The Anghiari painting did not survive. When Giorgio Vasari enlarged the hall so that Grand Duke Cosimo I could hold his court there, the work was lost.

In March 1513 Giovanni de' Medici became Pope Leo X, and that September Leonardo went to Rome, where the pope's brother Giuliano received him. Until 1516 he spent much of his time living in the Belvedere Courtyard in the Apostolic Palace, where Michelangelo and Raphael were both active. He was given an allowance of 33 ducats a month and practised botany in the Vatican Gardens. The pope gave him a painting commission of unknown subject, but cancelled it when Leonardo set about developing a new kind of varnish.

Location precision: The sources say he lived in the Belvedere Courtyard area of the Apostolic Palace, not in which room; the pin marks the courtyard.

Under King Francis I, Leonardo spent his last years at Clos Lucé, with a pension of 700 gold ecus and the title of first painter, engineer and architect of the King. On 19 June 1518 he organised a feast here to thank the king. He died in his room on 2 May 1519. The house has been restored to look as in his time, including his bedroom and basement studio, and the basement holds 40 IBM models of his machines.

Visitor guidance: The house sits in a park; the rooms of Leonardo have been restored and open to visitors.

Leonardo was buried in the collegiate church of Saint Florentin at the Château d'Amboise on 12 August 1519. The church was demolished in 1802, and where his remains lie today is unclear. Bones now rest in the chapel of Saint Hubert, re-interred there in 1874. A plaque above the tomb states that its contents are only presumed to be those of Leonardo.

Location precision: Where his remains lie is disputed; the pin marks the château, whose chapel holds a tomb presumed to be his.

Visitor guidance: The tomb is in the chapel of Saint Hubert at the château.