# Sketch for the Royal Palace of Romorantin [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LEONARDO da Vinci]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Pencil drawing ## Commentary Leonardo's claim to being a practicing architect was based on sketches for representative secular buildings. In his project for the Royal Palace of Romorantin, his pencil sketches clearly reveal his mastery of technical as well as artistic architectural problems. The grandest of Leonardo's plans for a residential structure dates from the last years of his career, when he was in France. His scheme for the château at Romorantin, involving a large rectangular palace block, formal gardens and a rectangular network of canals, has been reconstructed from a group of sketches. The style appears to marry indigenous French elements, such as the round corner towers, with Italian Renaissance elements in a way that is typical of Leonardo's undogmatic exploitation of Classical vocabulary. His sense of form and function ultimately took precedence over strict allegiance to Classical rules. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Allegory with wolf and eagle]() - [Anatomical studies \(larynx and leg\)]() - [Anatomical studies of a male shoulder]() - [Anatomical studies of the shoulder]() - [Anatomical studies]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()