After more than five hundred years, thousands of books and millions of words written about Leonardo da Vinci, there are not many mysteries left surrounding him.

After more than five hundred years surely everything there is to be known about the most famous painting in the world is known? Isn’t it? No.

Among world famous artists such as Turner, Ruskin and Whistler who visited Amboise to sketch the famous Château, was Whistler’s friend Rodin.

In 1888, in Amboise, James McNeill Whistler had never been so happy. He was on his honeymoon, with his beloved Trixie in his beloved France. He was fifty, Beatrix was thirty. It was his first marriage, her second. They had known each other for many years.

Turner’s book, Wanderings By The Loire, inspired English artists to paint Château Amboise.

A Dutch artist with the wonderful name of Lambert Doomer, arrived in Amboise in the summer of 1646. He left with a sketchbook of wonderful drawings which captured the spirit of the age.

Millions flock to Rome to gaze on Michelangelo’s Pietà, one of the most magnificent works of art the world has ever seen but how many of them know that it was commissioned by a French man?

To mark the fifth centenary of Leonardo’s death in 1519, the Vatican loaned it to the Château to be exhibited to the public. This was the first time in 500 years it had been seen outside the Vatican and Italian Museums.