Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is the star in a blockbuster retrospective that opened Oct. 24 at the Louvre museum in Paris to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master.

After months of negotiations, the largest exhibition dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death, was opened in the Louvre.

The exhibition will feature drawings, sketches, paintings and other 160 works by the Italian Renaissance artist. Currently, over 220,000 tickets have been sold.

Butterflies flutter around centuries-old olive groves in Vinci, the Tuscan village where Leonardo da Vinci was born and honed his inventor skills as a child by studying the local flora and fauna.