Etching after a painting by Francois-Guillaume Menageot called "The Death of Leonardo da Vinci in the Arms of Francis I." Leonardo died at Clos Luce, on May 2, 1519. Francis I had become a close friend. Vasari records that the king held Leonardo's head in his arms as he died, although this story, beloved by the French it is most likely more legend than fact. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.