In 1516 François I offered Leonardo a house near Amboise. The artist brought three paintings with him: the Mona Lisa, the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and Saint John the Baptist. All three now hang in the Louvre, thirty metres from where he once walked.
Leonardo died in 1519. The king kept the paintings. Centuries later they followed the court to Paris and ended up in the museum built inside the old palace. The connection is rarely mentioned, yet it is one of the quietest ironies of the collection.
The Salle des États where Mona Lisa hangs today was part of the royal apartments François I decorated with Italian artists. Leonardo’s own room in Clos Lucé was small; this gallery is vast. His last three works now live under the same roof that once housed the king who gave him shelter.
Stand in front of Saint Anne on a quiet afternoon and the circle feels complete. The man who crossed the Alps with canvases on his mule never left France, and France never let his paintings leave the Louvre.