In 1516, therefore, Leonardo left Rome and headed out of Italy for the first time in his long life, to serve yet another patron: Francis I, the young and charismatic new king of France. More than forty years younger than Leonardo, Francis was a true child of the Renaissance. Like his contemporary and sparring partner, Henry VIII of England, Francis was commandingly tall, handsome, and possessed of an instinctive love for fine things and the rich fruits of humanism. He came to the throne at age twenty on the first day of 1515, and met Leonardo with the pope at the end of the same year. Tempting
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