HISTORY AND PRESTIGE

Get ready for a refreshingly new experience amidst the green utopia of the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire with its 2020 Art Season! Like every year, fifteen or so new artists will be imbuing the Domaine’s château and grounds with the grace and subtlety of their creative worlds. Joël Andrianomearisoa, for example, will be beckoning us on a poetic meditation about night and day in a series of spaces in the Farmyard, with an altogether spell-binding installation. Two sculptures by Giuseppe Penone will be urging us to “breathe the shadow” and transcend appearances, while the artist’s sublime, newly exhibited drawings in the château will reveal his obsessive relationship with trees and branches.

From 2016 to 2019, 500 years after he resided in Amboise, this historic town on the banks of the Loire is dedicating an array of events to him, where aesthetics and creativity will be the two guests of honour.

An exceptional Renaissance figure, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was invited to join King François 1er and his court in Amboise in 1516. During his time here he was able to reveal the entire breadth of his talents: artist behind the 1517 drawing of the royal château, painter of decors, mechanical engineer of machines for the royal court’s sumptuous festivities, hydraulic engineer and town planner for the town of Romorantin. In Amboise, he found financial stability and the confidence of a king who invited him to, “dream, think and work” in complete freedom. Thus, Leonardo resided in Amboise until the end of his days on 2nd May 1519 and was even buried in the heart of the royal château where his tomb is preserved today.