Leonardo da Vinci's Château du Clos Lucé Hosts Renaissance Perfume Exhibition

The Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final three years, is hosting the exhibition "Léonard de Vinci et les Parfums à la Renaissance" until September 15. Curated by Carlo Vecce and Pascal Brioist, the show features 60 objects and 30 fragrances, using olfactory devices to create a multisensory experience. The exhibition originated from the discovery of a document in Florence about a woman named Caterina, identified as Leonardo's mother, written by his father. This led the curators on a journey from Istanbul (then Constantinople) to Italy and Amboise. The multisensory path begins with Caterina's story and explores Renaissance perfume culture, highlighting Leonardo's use of scent to add three-dimensionality to his works. Fragrances evoke rose water, wood, olive, and musk, tracing routes through Constantinople, the Mediterranean, and the Orient. The exhibition covers extraction techniques like maceration and distillation, and includes reconstructions of Leonardo's designs such as "L'uccello di Cipro" and the collar from "Lady with an Ermine." It emphasizes that scent was a luxury for the elite, used for seduction and masking odors, stored in ornate boxes crafted by sculptor-artisans. The evolution of fragrances blended Byzantine and Arab influences. The journey concludes with a reflection on how Leonardo embedded olfactory elements in all his works, linking scent to memory through the temporal lobe.