This painting by Ingres kind of exploits the death of da Vinci for Francis I’s personal gain.

The two were definitely friends, but the French love the idea that Francis and da Vinci were absolutely two peas in a pod and that Francis was the one who held da Vinci’s head as he exhaled his last breath. This, in all likelihood, was not the case, despite the fact that many artists have painted this scene just like Ingres. Da Vinci did live in the King’s royal Chateau Amboise for the last three years of his life with Count Francesco Melzi, his most devoted pupil and the primary heir of da Vinci’s estate. But when death was approaching, da Vinci called for a priest so he could make his confessions and receive Communion one last time. He requested that after his death sixty beggars carry his casket to his grave. So not really anything like what is going on in this highly dramatic painting which seems to indicate a deathly ill da Vinci uttering his last words to Francis I, the best friend he ever had. It may be fiction, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good story.

This considerably exaggerated piece was commissioned by Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas. He was the first person to ever commission Ingres, which seemed risky at the time because Ingres had dropped out of school and painted using just his memory. The nerve. But he wasn’t sorry. Ingres turned out to be great and his works turned out to be priceless. This piece represents the classic Ingres style – intense emotion represented by rich color (or in an almost dead da Vinci’s case, lack of color). Ingres does justice to the sorrow felt at the loss of one of the greatest geniuses to ever grace the planet.