Francesco Melzi

Francesco Melzi
Portrait by Giovanni Boltraffio, c. 1496~1498
Born	1491 Italy
Died	1570(1570-00-00) (aged 78–79) Italy
Nationality	Italian
Movement	Renaissance
Spouse	Angiola di Landriani ​ ​ (m. 1519)​
Patron(s)	Charles II d'Amboise Francis I of France

Francesco Melzi, or Francesco de Melzi (1491–1567), was an Italian painter born into a family of the Milanese nobility in Lombardy. He became a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci and remained as his closest professional assistant throughout his career. After da Vinci's death he became the literary executor of all da Vinci's papers, editing them into a manuscript on painting he published as Trattato della Pittura [Treatise on Painting] or a compilation entitled the Codex Urbinas.