Out of the thirty or so paintings which have been authenticated to be by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci, six are in France. That is an enormous proportion. And they found themselves there practically on being completed. Behind this collecting lies the taste – or the political will? – of the king, François the 1st, which was quickly imitated by his entourage. A superb work (1) by Laure Fagnart, an FNRS researcher in the department of the history of art and archaeology of the modern era, narrates this French infatuation with the Italian genius.

As Laure Fagnart reminds us in the preface to her book, certain legends die hard. This is also the case for the one which has François the 1st (1494-1547) rushing to the bedside of a Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) dying in his Clos Lucé chateau. The legend is a beautiful one, but no reliable source has ever confirmed it. On the other hand, it served the reputation of the monarch and, beyond that, that of the French monarchy. But if this anecdote is not true in its facts, it is true in spirit: there was well and truly a privileged link between Leonardo and France, between the Italian artist and the French monarchy. It is this very special link which Laure Fagnart has established in her doctoral thesis, defended at the University of Tours, at the Centre for Higher Education Renaissance Studies, and supervised by Professor Maurice Brock.

Through this study of the interest the French had for Leonardo da Vinci, essentially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Liégois art historian has pursued a triple objective. First of all to identify the paintings by the Master, or which have been attributed to him, which were found on French soil at that time. Then, to retrace the journeys taken by these works in France and to determine where they have been situated and in what conditions they have been preserved. Finally, to figure out the influence of these paintings on French artistic production. The book, which leaves the presses today, mainly focuses on the first two parts of her thesis, the last part constituting a separate theme in itself and being worthy of a separate publication.

The origins of Laure Fagnart’s research are to be found in her previous work, a dissertation for both her honours and Masters degrees: ‘I’m a bit of a monomaniac about Leonardo’s oeuvre,’ she confesses. This experience would turn out to be useful, as there was no lack of difficulties in establishing the facts on the basis of often controversial sources. ‘There is an overabundance of material related to Leonardo da Vinci,’ explains Laure Fagnart. ‘There are a great number of hare-brained books. At the same time there is a lot of repetition, a little as if certain specialists, scared of attacking such a body of work, have repeated previously expressed opinions. Because of this Leonardo is paradoxically sometimes marginalised in serious academic studies.’ It was thus necessary to return to the primary sources and to go through the documents, preserved notably at the French National Archives, related to royal collections and the collections found in enthusiasts’ display rooms. And to do this whilst at every moment trying to get round a major difficulty: these collections are classified according to the names of public notaries, and not according to the names of the people who have died. This difficulty becomes greater when, as is the case of Laure Fagnart, one is considering not only the most famous works – ‘The Mona Lisa’ has always been ‘tracked’ in a very precise manner, as it experienced extraordinary fame from as soon as it was completed – but also paintings which are only known through a few textual references and which we have thus lost trace of. ‘There is an imbalance in the sources,’ continues Laure Fagnart. ‘An excessive amount for well known paintings, sometimes a few lines for the others. It is frustrating for someone who is passionate about Leonardo and who must sometimes be content with a brief written citation, without being able to contemplate the painting it makes reference to!’