The Leonardo da Vinci, Master of Water exhibition at the Château du Clos Lucé

Exhibition at the Château du Clos Lucé: Leonardo da Vinci, Master of Water

From June 6 to September 13, 2026, the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise hosts an exceptional exhibition dedicated to one of Leonardo da Vinci‘s great scientific passions: water.

Forty-five years of endless fascination

Throughout his life, Leonardo da Vinci observed water. Its rivers, its eddies, its currents, its invisible forms… So many mysteries he sought to unravel for nearly forty-five years, with the rigor of a scientist and the eye of an artist. A visionary, he imagined how to capture, transport, and distribute water to serve humankind, at a time when mastering this element was a major challenge for Renaissance engineers.

It is this continuous research, from the observation of nature to its most concrete applications, that the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci, Master of Water, retraces.

A journey through six themed areas

Spread across 300 square meters in the museum hall of the Clos Lucé park, the exhibition is organized into six thematic sections. Through drawings and models, visitors discover the numerous hydraulic projects conceived by Leonardo da Vinci: pumps, Archimedes’ screws, mills, canals, locks, drainage systems, bridges, paddle steamers… Technical ingenuity that, five centuries later, still impresses.

The exhibition design fully embraces immersion: shades of blue, plays of light evoking water and its movements, and soothing music punctuated by the sounds of the sea. The exhibition also establishes a dialogue between Renaissance research and contemporary issues related to water management and sharing, a subject that remains decidedly relevant today.

Original drawings loaned by Milan

The highlight of the exhibition: Clos Lucé presents two original drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, exceptionally loaned by the Ambrosian Library in Milan, alongside Renaissance manuscripts. A rare opportunity to encounter the handwritten traces of this genius in the very place where he spent the last years of his life.

The exhibition also explores Leonardo’s river and land development projects, both in Italy and the Loire Valley, giving this exhibition a particularly strong resonance with our region.