"Receiving" the last breath of a dying person - common practice?

Factual Questions
1

This painting is labeled as “Francis I receiving the last breath of Leonardo da Vinci.” During his final years, Leonardo lived in France where he was under the patronage of King Francis. I don’t know if the king was actually at Leonardo’s bedside when he died, or not. If he was, and this painting is depicting something that actually happened, then I can only assume he literally hovered over Leonardo as he lay dying, and breathed in the air exhaled by his final breath before he passed - to try to absorb his “essence” or something? It seems sort of occult, actually.

What was the deal with this? Was this a common thing to do with people who were dying, back then? Was it a religious ceremony of some kind? I’m having trouble finding any information about the practice.

2

This was painted in 1818, so an extra question would be how far this cheesy Romanticist painting is from what would have been practiced in 16th-c France and Italy, and what Ingres is trying to project onto the 19th-century fantasy view of the Renaissance.

3

Don’t have to go back near that far. Edison’s last breath:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/873/is-thomas-edisons-last-breath-preserved-in-a-test-tube-in-the-henry-ford-museum

4

If I were da Vinci, I’d say, “Geez, I’m dying here, would you get this froofy king off my lap already?”