THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 , ,1
 
 Printed by DrueyeL-, Poii?
 
 Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, by HimsclJ^ 
 
 (royal I.IBRAin
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Artist^ Thinker^ and Man of Science 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 EUGÈNE MÙNTZ 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE 
 KEEPER OF THE COLLECTIONS IN THE ÉCOLE DES BEAUX ARTS 
 
 With Forty-eight Plates and Two Hundred and Fi/ty-two Text Illustrations 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 First Volume 
 
 LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN 
 
 NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 MDCCCXCVIII
 
 Ai.L Rights Reserveu. 
 
 RiciiAKD Clav and Sons, Limited, 
 
 LONDON AND BUNGAV.
 
 ARTS 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THERE is no name more illustrious in the annals of art and 
 of science than that of Leonardo da Vinci. And yet this 
 pre-eminent genius still lacks a biography which shall make 
 him known in all his infinite variety. 
 
 The great majority of his drawings have never been reproduced. 
 No critic has even attempted to catalogue and classify these master- 
 pieces of taste and sentiment. It was to this part of my task that 
 I first applied myself. And, among other results, I now offer the 
 public the first descriptive and critical catalogue of the incomparable 
 collection of drawings at Windsor Castle, belonging to her Majesty 
 the Queen of England. 
 
 Among the many previous volumes dedicated to Leonardo, 
 students will seek in vain for details as to the genesis of his pictures, 
 and the process through which each of them passed from primordial 
 sketch to final touch. Leonardo, as is conclusively shown by my 
 researches, achieved perfection only by dint of infinite labour. It 
 was because the groundwork was laid with such minute care, with 
 such a consuming desire for perfection, that the Vii'gitt of the 
 Rocks, the Mona Lisa, and the 5". Anne are so full of life and 
 eloquence. 
 
 Above all, a summary and analysis was required of the scientific, 
 literary, and artistic manuscripts, the complete publication of which was 
 first begun in our own generation by students such as Messrs. Richter, 
 Charles Ravaisson-Mollien, Beltrami, Ludwig, Sabachnikoff and 
 Rouveyre, and the members of the Roman Academy of the " Lincei."
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 Thanks to a methodical examination of these autographs of the 
 master's, I think I have been able to penetrate more profoundly than 
 my predecessors into the inner life of my hero. 1 may call the special 
 attention of my readers to the chapters dealing with Leonardo's attitude 
 towards the occult sciences, his importance in the field of literature, his 
 religious beliefs and moral principles, his studies of antique models — 
 studies hitherto disputed, as will be seen. 
 
 I have further endeavoured to re-constitute the society in which 
 the master lived and worked, especially the court of Lodovico il Moro 
 at Milan, that interesting and suggestive centre, to which the supreme 
 evolution of the Italian Renaissance may be referred. 
 
 A long course of reading has enabled me to show a new signi- 
 ficance in more than one picture and drawing, to point out the true 
 application of more than one manuscript note. I do not, indeed, flatter 
 myself that I have been able to solve all problems. An enterprise such 
 as that to which I have devoted myself demands the collaboration of 
 a whole generation of students. Individual effort could not suffice. 
 But at least I may claim to have discussed opinions I cannot share with 
 moderation and with courtesy, and this should give me some title to the 
 indulgence of my readers. 
 
 The pleasant duty remains to me of thanking the numerous friends 
 and correspondents who have been good enough to help me in the 
 course of my long and laborious investigations. 
 
 They are too many to mention here individually, but I have been 
 careful to record my indebtedness to them, as far as possible, in the 
 body of the volume. 
 
 EUGENE MUNTZ. 
 
 Paris, October, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GENIUS OF LEONARDO — HIS CHILDHOOD — HIS FAMILY — SER PIERO — FIRST 
 STUDIES AND EARLIEST ATTEMPTS— IN VERROCCHIO'S STUDIO — METHODS OF 
 TEACHING— HIS FELLOW-STUDENTS : PERUOINO, LORENZO DI CREDI, ATALANTE 
 — MASTER AND PUPIL 
 
 -44 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 FIRST ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS: THE SHIELD— THE " MEDUSA "—" THE FALL" — 
 PICTURES ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO—' THE ANNUNCIATION" OF THE LOUVRE AND 
 "THE ANNUNCIATION" OF THE UFFIZI— THE PORTRAIT OF BANDINI BARONCELLI 45— 6o 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE " ADORATION OF THE MAGI " — THE " S. JEROME " — DEPARTURE FROM 
 FLORENCE— SUPPOSED JOURNEY TO THE EAST 61 — 88 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LODOVICO IL MORO AND BEATRICE D'ESTE — THE COURT OF THE SFORZI — PRINCES, 
 HUMANISTS, AND SCHOLARS— THE MILANESE SCHOOL— LEONARDO'S PRECURSORS 
 AND RIVALS 89 — 140 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 LEONARDO'S DÉBUT AT THE COURT OF MILAN — HIS PROGRAMME — THE EQUES- 
 TRIAN STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA — LEONARDO AS A SCULPTOR — HIS INFLU- 
 ENCE ON THE SCULPTURE OF NORTHERN ITALY T4I — 160 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 'THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS" — OTHER MADONNAS OF THE MILANESE PERIOD . 161— I76 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 "THE LAST supper" I77— 224 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LEONARDO'S ACADEMY— HIS WRITINGS ON ART — FRA LUCA PACIOLI AND THE 
 TREATISE ON PROPORTION — LEONARDO'S " ATELIER" AND ITS TEACHING . . . 225 — 256
 
 LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I 
 
 PHOTOGRA VU RES 
 
 To fate 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Studies of Youthful Heads. (The Louvre) 4 
 
 II. Study of Drapery. (Windsor Library) i5 
 
 III. Study for a Head of the Virgin, ascrihed to Leonardo (The Uffizi, 
 
 Florence) 4^ 
 
 IV. Study for a Head of the Virgin, ascribed to Leonardo (Windsor Library) 56 
 V. Bust of Scipio. School of Leonardo. (M. Paul Rattler's Collection) . . 158 
 
 VI. First Idea for "The Virgin of the Rocks" (Duke of Devonshire's 
 
 Collection, Chatsworth) 162 
 
 VII. "The Virgin of the Rocks" (The Louvre) 170 
 
 VIII. "The Last Supper." (Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan) . 182 
 
 IX. Study for the Head of Christ. (The Brera, Milan) igo 
 
 X. Head of S. John. An Early Copy from "The Last Supper." (Weimar 
 
 Museum) 194 
 
 XI. Study for " The Madonna Litta." (The Louvre) 200 
 
 XII. "The Madonna Litta." (The Hermitage, S. Petersburg) 204 
 
 XIII. Portrait of a Young Princess. (The Ambrosiana, Milan) 208 
 
 COLOURED AND TINTED PLATES 
 
 1. Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, by Himself. (Royal Library, Turin.) Frontispiece 
 
 2. The Angels from Verrocchio's Picture of the " Baptism of Christ." 
 
 (The Angel on the right by Leonardo, the Angel on the left by Verrocchio.) 
 (Accademia delle belle Arti, Florence.) 44 
 
 3. Head of a Young Woman. (The Uffizi, Florence.) 60 
 
 4. Study for the "Saint Jerome." (Windsor Library.) 80 
 
 5. Studies for the Virgin with the Infant Jesus (ascribed to Leonardo). 
 
 (British Museum.) 94 
 
 6. Studies of Horses. (Windsor Library.) 144 
 
 7. Study for the Head of the Infant Jesus in the "Virgin of the Rocks." 
 
 (The Louvre.) 174 
 
 8. Studies for the Head of the Infant Jesus in the "Virgin of the 
 
 Rocks." (The Louvre.) 176 
 
 9. Study for the Head of an Apostle. (Windsor Library.) 186 
 
 10. Head of an Old Man. (British Museum.) 214 
 
 11. A Study of Draperies. (The Louvre.) 236 
 
 12. Portrait of an Old Man. (British Museum.) 240 
 
 13. Head of a Young Wo.man. (Windsor Library.) 250 
 
 14. Studies in Proportion. (Windsor Library.) 254
 
 LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IN VOLUME I 
 
 PACE 
 
 La Belle Ferronnière. (The Louvre.) xii 
 
 The Annunciation (ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci). (The Uffizi, Florence.) i 
 
 Life Study. (British Museum.) i 
 
 Study of a Youth. (Windsor Library.) 4 
 
 Study of a Young Woman. (Windsor Library.) 4 
 
 Study of a Young Girl. (Windsor Library.) 5 
 
 Study of a Youth. (Windsor Library.) 5 
 
 View of the Town of Vinci S 
 
 Study of an Old Man. (The Uffizi, Florence.) 9 
 
 Studies of Infants (for the "Saint Anne"). (Musée Condé, Chantilly.) .... 12 
 
 Study of a Young Woman. (Windsor Library.) 13 
 
 Study of a Youth (for the "Ador.4tion of the Magi"). (The Valton Collection, 
 
 Paris) 16 
 
 Study of Helmeted Heads. (Windsor Library.) 16 
 
 The Unbelief of S. Thomas, by Verrocchio. (Or San Michèle, Florence) ... 17 
 The Beheading of S. John the Baptist, by Verrocchio. (Museum of the 
 
 Duomo, Florence.)- 20 
 
 The Child with a Dolphin, by Verrocchio. (Palazzo V'ecchio, Florence.) .... 21 
 
 Bust of Coi.leone, by Verrocchio. (Piazza di SS. Giovanni e Paoli, Venice.) . . 24 
 Head of a Saint, by Perucino. (Church of Santa ^Laria Maddalena dei Pazzi, 
 
 Florence.) 25 
 
 Study of a Horseman (ascribed to Verrocchio) 28 
 
 Study of a Horseman (ascribed to Verrocchio) 2S 
 
 Leonardo's first dated Landscape. (The Uffizi, Florence.) 29 
 
 Verrocchio's Head of david. (Museo Nazionale, Florence.) 32 
 
 Study of a Head by Leonardo for Verrocchio's "David.' (V\eiinar 
 
 Museum.) 33 
 
 Three Dancers. (Accademia, Venice.) 36 
 
 Sketch, School of Verrocchio. (Tiie Louvre.) 37 
 
 Head of John the Baptist, from Verrocchio's " Baptism of Christ." (Acca- 
 demia, Florence.) 40 
 
 Statue of Colleone, by Verrocchio. (The Base by Leopardi.) (Piazza di SS. 
 
 Giovanni e Paolo at V'enice ) 41 
 
 Study of a Horseman. (Windsor Library.) 44 
 
 "The Annunciation" (attributed to Leonardo). (The Louvre.) 45 
 
 Study for the "Ador.\tion of the Magi." (The Valton Collection, Paris) ... 45 
 
 Study of Heads, dated 1478. (The Uffizi, Florence.) 48 
 
 Bust of S. John the Baptist (ascribed to Leonardo). (South Kensington 
 
 Museum.) 49 
 
 Study for the " Adoration of the Magi." (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) .... 52 
 
 Sketch of Baroncelli. (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 53 
 
 Portrait of a Warrior. (Malcolm Collection, British Museimi.) 57 
 
 Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Uffizi, Florence.) 61 
 
 Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Lo.vre.) 61 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 X T.TST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 Tup. "Adoration of thk Maci," p.v Fii.ii'Pino Lippi. (The Uffizi, Florence.) ... 64 
 Si'UDV I'os THE '■' Adoration ov thic Maci." (The Lmivrc. Formerly in the 
 
 Galichon Collection.) 65 
 
 The Madonna of the "Adoration of the Magi." (Fragment from the Cartoon.) 68 
 
 Cartoon of the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Uffizi, Florence.) 69 
 
 Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (Malcolm Collection, British Musemn.) 72 
 
 SruDv FOR THE "ADORATION OF THE Magi." (The Louvre.) 72 
 
 Tvpes of Virgin and Child. School of Leonardo. (Bonnat Collection, I'aris.) 73 
 
 .Study for the " Adora'tion of the Magi" (fragment). (The Valton Collection.) 76 
 
 Study for the "Adoration of the Magi" (fragment). (Cologne Museimi.) . . 77 
 
 Study for the " Adoration of the MAra." (The Louvre.) So 
 
 " S. Jerome in the Desert." (Vatican Gallery.) 81 
 
 Head of Christ. (Accaclemia, Venice.) 88 
 
 A Milanese Miniature of the Fifteenth Century (Frontispiece of the 
 
 " LsroRiA del Duca Francesco Sforza," by G. Simoneita). (British Museum.) Sg 
 
 Study of a Horse. (Windsor Library.) 89 
 
 Frontispiece of the "Antiquarie Prospettische." 93 
 
 Portrait of Ippolita Visconti, by Bernardino Luini. (Monastère Maggiore, 
 
 Milan.) 96 
 
 Tomb of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, by Andrea Sansovino. (Church of Santa 
 
 Maria del Popolo, Rome.) 97 
 
 Portrait of the Poet Bellincioni. (From an Engraving of 1493) 100 
 
 The Chronicler Corio. (From a Contemporary Engraving) loi 
 
 BlANCA Maria Sforza. (From a Drawing by G. M. Cavalli.) (Accademia, Venice ) . 104 
 
 The Emperor Maximilian. (From a Drawing by G. M. Cavalli.) (Accademia, Venice.) 104 
 
 Beatrice d'Este : kro.m the Monument by Cristoforo Solari. (Certosa, Pavia.) 105 
 
 Design for Candelabrum. {Coiâ-x AÛa/i/ùi/s.) 108 
 
 Marshal Trivulzio. From a Plaque ascribed to Caradusso 109 
 
 Bramante. After a Medal by Caradosso 112 
 
 "The Martyrdom of S. Sebastian," by Vicenzo Foppa. (The Brcr.i, Milan.; . . 113 
 A Milanese Portico of the Time of Lodovico II Moro (after an engraving 
 
 ascribed to Bramante) 117 
 
 "The Crucifixion," by Montorfano. (Refectory of Santa Maria dellc Grazic, 
 
 Milan.) 120 
 
 Study of a Young Woman. (Windsor Library.) 121 
 
 Designs for War Chariots. (Windsor Library.) 125 
 
 Studies of Horses. (Windsor Library. From a Photograph given by M. Rouvc) re.; . 128 
 Studies of Horses. (Library of the Institut de France ; from M. Ravaisson-MoUicn's 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci. ) 1 29 
 
 Portrait of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, by V. Foppa. (Wallace Museum, London. j . 132 
 
 Study of a Horseman. (Windsor Library.) 133 
 
 An Allegory OF Envy. (Library of Christ Church College, O.xford.) 136 
 
 A Begg.\r or Convict. (Windsor Library.) 137 
 
 Frieze by Caradosso. (Church of San Satiro, Milan.) .141 
 
 Study for The " Ador.ation of the Magi." (The Valton Collection, Paris.) . . , 141 
 Equestrian Bas-Relief of Annibale Bentivoglio (1458), by Niccolù dell' 
 
 Arca. (Church of San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna.) 144 
 
 Equestrian Bas-Relief by Leonardo da Prato (1511). (Church of SS. Giovanni 
 
 e Paolo, Venice.) 145 
 
 Studies for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza. (Windsor Library, 
 
 reproduced from Dr. Richter's Book.) 148 
 
 Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata, p.y Don.vtello, at Padua 149 
 
 Studies of Horses. (Windsor Library.) 152 
 
 Studies of Horses. (Windsor Library.) 153 
 
 Study for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza. (Windsor Library. 
 
 Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) 156 
 
 Study for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza. (Windsor Library. 
 
 Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) 157 
 
 Study for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza. (Windsor Library. 
 
 Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) 160
 
 LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS xi 
 
 PACE 
 
 Study of Horses. (Windsor Library.) i6i 
 
 A Figure for the "Ador.\tion of the Magi." (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) . . . i6r 
 
 Study for the Angel in the "Virgi.v of the Rocks." (Royal Library, Turin.) . 164 
 Study for the Angel in the " Virgin of the Rocks." (Ecole des Beaux Arts, 
 
 Paris.) 165 
 
 The "Virgin of THE Rocks." (National Gallery, London.) 168 
 
 Study for the "Virgin of the Rocks." (Christ Church Library, O.tford.) .... 169 
 
 Study for the Infant S. John the Baptist. (Mancel Gallery, Caen.) 172 
 
 Study for the Infant Jesus. (Mancel Gallery, Caen.) 173 
 
 Study for the Infant S. John the Baptist. (The Louvre.) 176 
 
 Child Playing with a Cat. (Windsor Library.) . ■ 176 
 
 First Idea for "The Last Supper." (Windsor Library.) 177 
 
 First Idea for "The Last Supper." (The Louvre.) ... 177 
 
 LODOVICO IL MORO granting A CHARTER TO THE PRIOR OF SaNTA MaRIA DELLE 
 
 Grazie. (Miniature from the collection of the Marquis d' Adda at Milan.) 180 
 
 The Church of Santa Maria delle Gr.a.zie at Milan 181 
 
 "The Last Supper," by Andrea del C.\Stagno. (Convent of S. ApoUonia at 
 
 Florence.) 184 
 
 First Idea for "The Last Supper." (Accademia, Venice.) 185 
 
 Study for the head of Judas. (Windsor Library.) 188 
 
 Study for the Arm of S. Peter. (Windsor Library.) 189 
 
 Study for the Head of S. M.\tthew. (Windsor Library.) 192 
 
 Study for the Head of S. Philip. (Windsor Library.) 193 
 
 " The Last Supper." Left Side. (In its present state.) 196 
 
 '' The Last Supper." Right Side. (In its present state.) 197 
 
 "The L.\st Supper." Left side. (In its present state.) 200 
 
 "The Last Supper." Right side. (In its present state.) 201 
 
 The Castle of Milan. Fro.m a sixteenth century Drawing 204 
 
 Design for .-v Lighthouse. (Reproduced from Dr. Richtcr's work.) (Vallardi 
 
 Collection, the Louvre.) . 205 
 
 Plan of a Pavilion for the Duchess of Milan. (Library of the Institut de France.) 205 
 
 Mercury OR Argus. A Fresco by Bram.'VNTE(?). (The Castle of Milan ) 20S 
 
 Portrait of an unknown M.^n. (The Ambrosiana, Milan.) 209 
 
 A Sheet of Sketches. (Bonnat Collection, Paris ) 212 
 
 Study for a Standing Figure. (Library of the Institut de France.) 212 
 
 Study OF a Head. (The Louvre.) 213 
 
 Study for the Equestrian Statue of Fr. Sforza. (Windsor Library.) 213 
 
 AMusE(.'). Fro.m AN Engraving ascribed TO Leonardo. (British Museum.) . . 216 
 
 Study of an Old Man. fTrivulzio Library.) 216 
 
 Head of a Woman. From an Engraving ascribed to Leonardo. (British 
 
 Museum.) 217 
 
 Study of a Head. F.\csimile of an Engraving after Leon.\rdo 220 
 
 Studies for the Statue of Francesco Sforza. From an Engr.wing ascribed 
 
 TO Leonardo. (British Museum.) 221 
 
 Design for a Church with a Central Cupola. (Library of ihe Institut de France.) 224 
 
 Models of Weapons, Offensive and Defensive. (The Valton Collection, Paris.) . 225 
 
 Study for the "Ador.\tion of the Magi." (British Museum) 225 
 
 Engraving of Interlaced Ornament, Inscribed "Academia Leonardi Vinci." 
 
 (The Ambrosiana, iVIilan.) 22S 
 
 Engraving of Interlaced Ornament, inscribed "Acade.mia Leonardi \'inci." 
 
 (The Ambrosiana, Milan.) 229 
 
 Sketch IN the "Tratt.\to della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 230 
 
 Sketch in the "Tratt.^to della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 231 
 
 Engraving of Interlaced Ornament, inscribed "Academia Leonardi Vinci." 
 
 (The Ambrosiana, Milan.) 232 
 
 Head of an Old Man crowned with Laurel. (Windsor Library.) 233 
 
 Sketch in the " Tratt.\to della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 234 
 
 Sketch in the "Tratt.\to della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 234 
 
 Sketch IN the "Tratt.\to DELLA Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 235 
 
 Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 235
 
 xii LIST OF TEXT ILT.USTRATIONS 
 
 PACE 
 
 Hf.ah of an Ol.n Man. (Windsor Library.) 236 
 
 Head of an C ld Man. (The Louvre.) 237 
 
 Sketch in the " TRArr.Aio deli.a Pittuka.-' (Vatican Library.) 23S 
 
 Sketch in the "Traitaio deli.a PirruRA." (Vatican Library.) 239 
 
 Measurements OF the Human Head. (Library of the Institut de France.) . . . .240 
 
 Sketch in the " Tr.\tt.*to della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 240 
 
 Measurements of the Human Body. (Accademia, Venice.) 241 
 
 Sketch IN THE "Tratt.vto DELLA Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 241 
 
 Sketch in the "Traitato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 242 
 
 Sketch IN the "Tratt.ATO DELLA PrnURA." (Vatican Library.) 243 
 
 Sketch in the " Tra TT.UO della Pitiura." (Vatican Library.) 243 
 
 A Sheet of Sketches. (Uonnat Collection, Paris.) 244 
 
 Grotesque Figure. (Windsor Library.) 245 
 
 Model OF Letter composed r.v Leonard. j for the Treatise "De Uivina 
 
 Propokitone" 248 
 
 Grotesque Heads. (Windsor Library.) 249 
 
 Sketch from the "Tratt.vio della Pitiuka." i\"atican Library.) 252 
 
 The Proportions of the Hl'man Head, drawn liv Leonardo for I'acioli's 
 
 Treatise 252 
 
 Sketch from the " Tr.vitato della Pittura.-' (Vatican Liorary.) 253 
 
 Sketch from the "Tratt.ato della Pittura." (V'atican Library.) . . ... 253 
 
 Study of Flowers. (Windsor Librar)-.) 256 
 
 LA BEl.LE FERKO.NNltKE. 
 
 (The Louvre.)
 
 ERRATA 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 P. 20, line 2T,for " Lippo " read " Lippi." 
 
 P. 32, lettering of illustration, ^or " Musée National " read " Museo 
 
 Nazionale." 
 Pp. 52 and 161, /or " Adoration of the Magi " read " Adoration of the 
 
 Shepherds." 
 P. 132, lettering of illustration, /or " Gain " read " Gian." 
 P. 163, line i,/or"p. 167" rea<i "p. 165." 
 P. 164, line 22, /or " p. 171 " read "p. 169." 
 P. i6g, line 20, /or " pp. 165 and 167 " rend " pp. 163 and 165." 
 P. 210, third line of note,yôr " p. 106 " read " p. 104." 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 P. 6, line 11, /or "p. 67 " read " p. 65." 
 
 P. 102, line 12, /or " Romorontino "' read " Romorantin.' 
 
 P. 113, line 34, /or " Fra Pietro da Nuvolaria " read "Tovaglia. ' 
 
 P. 225, line 18, /or "half-a-dozen" read "four."
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO DA VIXCl). 
 
 (The Uffizi, Florence.) 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GENIUS OF LEONARDO — HIS CHILDHOOD —HIS FAMILY — SER PIERO — FIRST 
 
 STUDIES AND EARLIEST ATTEMPTS — IN VERROCCHIO'S STUDIO METHODS OF 
 
 TEACHING — HIS FELLOW-STUDENTS : PERUGINO, LORENZO DI CREDI, ATALANTE 
 
 MASTER AND PUPIL. 
 
 I 
 
 N Leonardo da Vinci we have the most 
 perfect embodiment of the modern in- 
 tellect, the highest expression of the 
 inarriaçre of art and science : the thinker, the 
 poet, the wizard whose fascination is unrivalled. 
 Studying his art, in its incomparable variety, 
 we find in his very caprices, to use Edgar 
 Ouinet's happy phrase with a slight modifica- 
 tion : " the laws of the Italian Renaissance, 
 and the geometry of universal beauty." 
 
 It is true, unhappily, that setting aside his 
 few completed works — the Virgin of the Rocks, 
 the Last Supper, the Saint Anne, and the Mona 
 Lisa — Leonardo's achievement as painter and 
 sculptor is mainly present to us in marvellous 
 fragments. It is to his drawings we must turn to understand all the 
 tenderness of his heart, all the wealth of his imagination. To his 
 drawings therefore, we must first call attention. 
 
 Two periods of human life seem to have specially fixed Leonardo's 
 
 LIFE STUDY. 
 
 (British Museum.)
 
 2 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 attention : adolescence, and old age ; childhood and maturity had less 
 interest for him. He has left us a whole series of adolescent types, 
 some dreamy, some ardent. 
 
 In all modern art, I can think of no creations so free, superb, 
 spontaneous, in a word, divine, to oppose to the marvels of antiquity. 
 Thanks to the genius of Leonardo, these figures, winged, diaphanous, 
 yet true in the highest sense, evoke a region of perfection to which 
 it is their mission to transport us. Let us take two heads that 
 make a pair in the Louvre ; unless I am mistaken, they illustrate 
 Classic Beauty, and the Beauty of the Renaissance period. The first 
 (No. 384) represents a youth with a profile pure and correct as that of 
 a Greek cameo, his neck bare, his long, artistically curled hair bound 
 with a wreath of laurel. The second (No. 382, Salle des Boîtes) has 
 the same type, but it is treated in the Italian manner, with greater 
 vigour and animation ; the hair is covered by a small cap, set daintily 
 on the head ; about the shoulders there are indications of a doublet, 
 buttoned to the throat ; the curls fall in natural, untrained locks. Who 
 cannot see in these two heads the contrast between classic art, an art 
 essentially ideal and devoted to form, and modern art, freer, more 
 spontaneous, more living. 
 
 When he depicts maturity, Leonardo displays vigour, energy, 
 an implacable determination ; his ideal is a man like an oak-tree. 
 Such is the person in profile in the Royal Library at Windsor, 
 whose massive features are so firmly modelled. This drawing 
 should be compared with the other of the same head, at an 
 
 earlier age. 
 
 Old age in its turn passes before us in all its diverse aspects of 
 majesty or decrepitude. Some faces are reduced to the mere bony 
 substructure ; in others we note the deterioration of the features ; the 
 hooked nose, the chin drawn up to the mouth, the relaxed muscles, the 
 bald head. Foremost among these types is the master's portrait of 
 himself; a powerful head, with piercing eyes, under puckered eyelids, 
 a mocking mouth, almost bitter in expression, a delicate, well-pro- 
 portioned nose, long hair, and a long disordered beard ; the whole 
 suggestive of the magus, not to say the magician. 
 
 If we turn to his evocations of the feminine ideal, the same fresh- 
 ness, the same variety delight us here. His women are now candid,
 
 THE CxENIUS OF LEONARDO 3 
 
 now enigmatic, now proud, now tender, their eyes misty with 
 languors, or brilliant with indefinable smiles. And yet, like Donatello, 
 he was one of those exceptionally great artists in whose life the love of 
 woman seems to have played no part. While Eros showered his 
 arrows all around the master, in the epicurean world of the Renais- 
 sance ; while Giorgione and Raphael died, the victims of passions too 
 fervently reciprocated ; while Andrea del Sarto sacrificed his honour 
 to his love for his capricious wife, Lucrezia Fedi ; while Michel- 
 angelo himself, the sombre misanthrope, cherished an affection no 
 less ardent than respectful for Vittoria Colonna, Leonardo, consecrat- 
 ing himself without reserve to art and science, soared above all human 
 weaknesses ; the delights of the mind sufficed him. He himself pro- 
 claimed it in plain terms : " Fair humanity passes, but art endures. 
 (Cosa bella mortal passa e non arte.)" 
 
 No artist was ever so absorbed as he, on the one hand by the 
 search after truth, on the other, by the pursuit of an ideal which should 
 satisfy the exquisite delicacy of his taste. No one ever made fewer 
 sacrifices to perishable emotions. In the five thousand sheets of manu- 
 script he left us, never once does he mention a woman's name, except 
 to note, with the dryness of a professed naturalist, some trait that has 
 struck him in her person : " Giovannina has a fantastic face ; she is in 
 the hospital, at Santa Catarina." This is typical of his tantalising 
 brevity. 
 
 From the very first, we are struck by the care with which Leonardo 
 chose his models. He was no advocate for the frank acceptance of 
 nature as such, beautiful or ugly, interesting or insignificant. For 
 months together he applied himself to the discovery of some remark- 
 able specimen of humanity. When once he had laid hands on this 
 Phoenix, we know from the portrait of the Gioconda with what tenacity 
 he set to work to reproduce it. It is regrettable that he should not 
 have shown the same ardour in the pursuit of feminine types, really 
 beautiful and sympathetic, seductive or radiant, that he showed in that 
 of types of youths and old men, or of types verging on caricature. It 
 would have been so interesting to have had, even in a series of 
 sketches, a whole iconography by his hand, in addition to the three or 
 four masterpieces on which he concentrated his powers ; the unknown 
 Princess of the Ambrosiana, Isabella cfEslc. the Belle Ferronierc , and 
 
 B 2
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 STUDY OF A YOUTH. 
 
 (Windsor Library ) 
 
 the Gioconda. How was it that all the great 
 ladies of the Italian Renaissance did not aspire 
 to be immortalised by that magic brush ? 
 Leonardo's subtlety and penetration marked 
 him out as the interpreter par excellence of 
 woman ; no other could have fixed her features 
 and analysed her character with a like com- 
 mingling of delicacy and distinction. 
 
 And yet, strange to say, by some curious 
 and violent revulsion, the artist who had cele- 
 brated woman in such exquisite transcriptions, 
 took pleasure in noting the extremes of de- 
 formity in the sex whose most precious apanage 
 is beauty. In a word, the man of science came into conflict with the 
 artist ; to types delicious in their youthful freshness, he opposes the 
 heads of shrews and im- 
 beciles, every variety of 
 repulsive distortion. It 
 would almost seem— to 
 borrow an idea from 
 Champfleury — as if he 
 sought to indemnify him- 
 self for having idealised 
 so much in his pictures 
 " The Italian master," 
 adds Champfleury, " has 
 treated womankind more 
 harshly than the pro- 
 fessed caricaturists, for 
 most of these, while pur- 
 suing man with their 
 sarcasms, seem to protest 
 their love for the beautiful 
 by respecting woman." 
 
 As a sculptor, Leo- 
 nardo distinguished him- 
 self by the revival and 
 
 STUDY OF A YOUNG WuMAN 
 
 (Windsor Library )
 
 S/udies of youthful Heads. 
 
 (i-Hi- i.<»t vftr.)
 
 THE CiENIUS OF LEONARDO 
 
 the re-creation — after 
 Verrocchio and after 
 Donatello — of the monu- 
 mental treatment of the 
 horse. 
 
 Painter and sculptor, 
 Leonardo was also a poet, 
 and not among the least 
 of these. He is, indeed, 
 pre-eminently a poet ; first 
 of all, in his pictures, 
 which evoke a whole 
 world of delicious impres- 
 sions ; and secondly, in 
 his prose writings, notably 
 in his Trattato delta Pit- 
 tura, which has only lately 
 been given to the world 
 in its integrity. When 
 he consented to silence the analytic faculty so strongly developed in 
 him, his imagination took flight with incomparable freedom and 
 exuberance. In default of that professional skill, which degenerates 
 too easily into routine, we find emo- 
 tion, fancy, wealth and originality of 
 images ; qualities which also count for 
 much. If Leonardo knows nothing 
 of current formulae, of winged and 
 striking words, of the art of con- 
 densation, he acts upon us by some 
 indwelling charm, by some magic 
 outburst of genius. 
 
 The thinker and the moralist are 
 allied to the poet. Leonardo's apho- 
 risms and maxims form a veritable 
 treasury of Italian wisdom at the time 
 of the Renaissance. They are instinct 
 
 st";dy ok a youth. 
 
 with an evangelic gentleness, an in- (Windsor Library.) 
 
 STUDY OF A VOUNG Gir 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 6 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 finite sweetness and serenity. At one time he advises us to neglect 
 studies the results of which die with us ; at another he declares 
 that he who wishes to become rich in a day, runs the risk of being 
 hanged in a year. The eloquence of certain other thoughts is only 
 equalled by their profundity : " Where there is most feeling, there 
 will also be most suffering." — " Tears come from the heart, not from 
 the brain." It is the physiologist who speaks ; but what thinker would 
 not have been proud of this admirable definition ! 
 
 The man of science, in his turn, demands our homage. It is no 
 longer a secret to any one that Leonardo was a savant of the highest 
 order ; that he discovered twenty laws, a single one of which has 
 sufficed for the glory of his successors. What am 1 saying 1 He 
 invented the very method of modern science, and his latest biographer, 
 M. Séailles ^ has justly shown in him the true precursor of Bacon. 
 The names of certain men of genius, Archimedes, Christopher 
 Columbus, Copernicus, Galileo, Harvey, Pascal, Newton, Lavoisier, 
 Cuvier, are associated with discoveries of greater renown. But is 
 there one who united such a multitude of innate gifts, who brought a 
 curiosity so passionate, an ardour so penetrating, to bear on such 
 various branches of knowledge ; who had such illuminating flashes of 
 genius, and such an intuition of the unknown links connecting things 
 capable of being harmonised ? Had his writings been published, they 
 would have advanced the march of science by a whole century. We 
 cannot sufficiently deplore his modesty, or the sort of horror he had 
 of printing. Whereas a scribbler like his friend Fra Luca Pacioli 
 comes before the public with several volumes in fine type, Leonardo, 
 either by pride or timidity, never published a single line. 
 
 In this brief sketch, we have some of the traits which made 
 Leonardo the equal of Michelangelo and Raphael, one of the 
 sovereign masters of sentiment, of thought, and of beauty. 
 
 It is time to make a methodical analysis of so many marvels — I 
 might say, of so many tours de force, were not Leonardo's art 
 so essentially healthy and normal, so profoundly vital. 
 
 We will begin by inquiring into the origin and early life of the 
 magician. 
 
 The painter of the Last Supper and the Gioconda, the sculptor of 
 ' Léonard de Vinci. L Artiste et k Savant. Paris, 1892.
 
 LEONARDO'S BIRTHPLACE 7 
 
 the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, the scientific genius who 
 forestalled so many of our modern discoveries and inventions, .was 
 born in 1452 in the neighbourhood of Empoli, on the right bank 
 of the Arno, between Florence and Pisa. The little town of Vinci, in 
 which he first saw the light, lies hidden away among the multitudinous 
 folds of Monte Albano. On one side, the plain with its river — now 
 almost dry, now rushing in a noisy yellow torrent : on the other, the 
 most broken of landscapes ; endless hillocks scattered over with villas, 
 and here and there at intervals, a more imposing height, whose bare 
 summit is bathed in violet light at sundown. 
 
 Leonardo's native country was such then as we see it to-day ; 
 austere in character rather than laughing or exuberant, a rocky 
 territory intersected by interminable walls, over which, in the vicinity 
 of the houses, some straggling branch of rose-bush may clamber ; 
 for nucleus of the vegetation, vines and olive trees. Here and there, 
 one catches a glimpse of villa, cottage or farm ; in the distance, 
 the dwelling has a smiling air, with its yellow walls and green 
 shutters ; but penetrate to the interior, and you will find nakedness 
 and poverty — the walls with a simple coating of rough plaster, mortar 
 or brick for flooring ; very little furniture, and that of the humblest, 
 neither carpets nor wall papers ; nothing to give an impression of 
 comfort, not to speak of lu.xury ; finally, no precautions whatever 
 against the cold, which is severe in this part of the country during 
 the long winter months. 
 
 On these stern heights a race has grown up, frugal, industrious, 
 alert, untouched by the nonchalance of the Roman, by the mysticism 
 of the Umbrian, or the nervous e.xcitability of the Neapolitan. 
 The majority of the natives are employed in agricultural pursuits ; 
 the few artisans being merely for local use. As for the more ambitious 
 spirits, for whom the horizon of their villages is too restricted, it is to 
 Florence, to Pisa, or to Siena they go to seek their fortunes. 
 
 Certain modern biographers tell us of the castle in which Leonardo 
 first saw the light ; over and above this, they conjure up for us a tutor 
 attached to the family, a library wherein the child first found 
 food for his curiosity, and much besides. But all this — let it be said at 
 once — is legend and not history. 
 
 There was, it is true, a castle at Vinci, but it was a fortress, a
 
 8 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 stronghold held by Florence. As to Leonardo's parents, they can 
 only have occupied a house, and a very modest one at that, nor do 
 we even know for certain if this house was situated within the walls of 
 Vinci itself, or a little beyond it, in the village of Anchiano.' The 
 domestic service consisted of one faiife, that is, a woman servant, at a 
 wage of eight florins per annum. 
 
 If there ever was a family to whom the culture of the arts was 
 foreign, it was that of Leonardo. Of five forbears of the painter on 
 his father's side, four had filled the position of notary, from which 
 these worthy officials derived their title of " Ser " corresponding to the 
 
 
 
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 VIEW OF THE TOWN OF VINCI. - 
 
 P'rench " Maître " : these were the father of the artist, his grandfather, 
 great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. We need not be 
 surprised to find this independent spirit par excellence developing in 
 the midst of musty law-books. The Italian notary in no wise 
 resembled the pompous scrivener of modern playwrights. In the 
 thirteenth century, Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, was essentially 
 wanting in the pedantic gravity which we are accustomed to associate 
 with his profession. In the following century, another notary — Ser 
 
 ^ This last hypothesis is vigorously contested by Signor Uzielli {Ricerche, 2nd ed. 
 vol. i. pp. 38-40), who shows that Leonardo's father owned no property at Anchiano till 
 after the birth of his son. 
 
 ^ Our illustration reproduces a view of the town of Vinci from Signor Uzielli's Ricerche 
 rntonio a Leonardo da Vitici (ist ed. 1872, vol. i. frontispiece ; 2nd ed. 1896, vol. i. p. 3.)
 
 LEONARDO'S FAMILY 
 
 Vf 
 
 Lappo Mazzei de Prato — made himself famous by his letters, rich in 
 racy traits of contemporary manners, and written in the purest Tuscan 
 idiom. Finally, in the fifteenth century, the notary of Nantiporta 
 edited a chronicle — occasionally far from edifying — of the Roman 
 court. Here too, we may recall the fact that Brunellesco and Masaccio 
 were the sons of notaries. 
 
 One point of capital interest in retracing the origin of Leonardo 
 and his family connections, 
 is the strange freak of 
 fate in bringing forth this 
 artistic phenomenon from 
 the union of a notary and 
 a peasant girl, and in the 
 midst of the most com- 
 monplace and practical 
 surroundings. It is very 
 well in speaking of 
 Raphael, for instance, to 
 talk of race selection, of 
 hereditary predisposition, 
 of educational incitements. 
 The truth is, that with 
 the vast majority of our 
 famous artists the apti- 
 tudes and special faculties 
 of the parents count for 
 nothing, and that the 
 personal vocation, the 
 mysterious gift, is everything. Oh, vain theories of Darwin and of 
 Lombroso, does not the unaccountable apparition of great talents 
 and genius perpetually set your theories at naught ? Just as nothing 
 in the profession of Leonardo's forefathers gave any promise of 
 developing the artistic vocation, so the nephew and grand-nephews of 
 the great man sank to simple tillers of the soil. Thus does nature mock 
 our speculations ! Could the disciples of Darwin carry out their scheme 
 of cross-breeding on the human species, there is every chance that 
 the result would be a race rather of monsters than of superior beings. 
 
 c 
 
 STUDY OF OLD MAN. 
 
 (The Uffizi, Florence )
 
 lo LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 However, if it were not in the power of Leonardo's parents to 
 transmit grenius to him, they at least were able to provide him with 
 robust health, and a generous heart. 
 
 As a child, Leonardo must have known his paternal grandfather, 
 Antonio di Ser Piero, who was eighty-four years of age when the boy 
 was five ; also his grandmother, who was twenty-one years younger 
 than her husband.^ Further details as to these two personages are 
 wanting, and I confess frankly that I shall not attempt to pierce the 
 obscurity which surrounds them. But it would be inexcusable in me 
 not to employ every means in my power to follow up at least some 
 characteristic traits of their son, the father of Leonardo. 
 
 Ser Piero was twenty-two or twenty-three years of age at the time 
 of Leonardo's birth. He was — and despite their apparent dryness, 
 existing documents testify to this — an active, intelligent, and enter- 
 prising man, the veritable builder up of the family fortunes. Starting 
 from the smallest beginnings,^ he rapidly extended his practice and 
 acquired piece after piece of landed property ; in short, from a poor 
 village notary he rose to be a wealthy and much respected personage. 
 In 1498, for instance, we find him owner of several houses and various 
 pieces of land of more or less extent. Judging by the brilliant 
 impulse he gave to his fortunes, by his four marriages, preceded by 
 an irregular connection, and also by his numerous progeny, his was 
 assuredly a vivid and exuberant nature, one of those patriarchal figures 
 
 1 In 1469-70 the family consisted of the grandmother Lucia, aged seventy-four, of 
 Ser Piero (forty), and his wife Francesca (twenty), of Francesco, Piero's brother (ihirty- 
 two), member of the " Arte della seta," of Alessandra, wife of Francesco (iwenty-six) 
 and of Leonardo, Piero's illegitimate son (eighteen). They inhabited a house near the 
 church — "nel popolo di S. Croce," a district of Vinci. In Florence they occupied 
 half a house, for which they paid 24 florins a year. They also owned a house at Fiesole. 
 (Amoretti, Memorie storiche su la vita, gli stiidj e le opère di Lionardo da Vinci, Milan, 
 1804, pp. 7, 9. Uzielli, loc. cit.) 
 
 2 One of his appointments — that of procurator to the Convent of the Annunciation — 
 only brought him in emoluments to the amount of 2 florins (about ^4) a year. In 
 1451, his father's income from real estate came to about ^^^30 of English money. 
 When this fortune came to be divided between the two sons, Ser Piero drew an 
 income of about 400 francs from the paternal heritage. Vasari names Ser Piero, the 
 father of Leonardo, among the organisers of the pageant given in 15 13 to celebrate the 
 accession of Leo X. to the papal throne. But as Ser Piero died in 1504 the office must 
 have been held by one of his sons— Ser Giuliano — of whom we know for certain that he 
 took part in the organisation of the pageants in the carnival of 15 15 — 1516. (Vasari, ed. 
 Milan, vol. vi. p. 251.)
 
 LEONARDO'S FAMILY ti 
 
 Benozzo Gozzoli painted with so much spirit on the walls of the Campo 
 Santo at Pisa. 
 
 While yet very young, Ser Piero formed a connection with her 
 who, though never his wife, became the mother of his eldest son. 
 This was a certain Catarina, in all probability a simple peasant girl of 
 Vinci or the neighbourhood. (An anonymous writer of the sixteenth 
 century affirms, nevertheless, that Leonardo was " per madre nato di 
 bon sangue.") The liaison was of short duration. Ser Piero married 
 in the year of Leonardo's birth, while Catarina, in her turn, married a 
 man of her own standing, who answered to the not very euphonious 
 name of Chartabrigha or Accartabrigha di Piero del Vaccha, a peasant 
 too, most likely — indeed, what was there to turn to in Vinci for a living, 
 except the soil ! Contrary to modern custom and the civil code, the 
 father undertook the rearing of the child. 
 
 In the beginning, Leonardo's position was, relatively speaking, 
 enviable, his first two stepmothers having no children — a circumstance 
 which has not been taken into account hitherto, and which goes far to 
 explain how they came to adopt the little intruder : he usurped no 
 one's birthright. ^ 
 
 Leonardo was three and twenty when his father — who made up so 
 well for lost time afterwards — was still waiting for legitimate offspring. 
 With the arrival of the first brother, however, the young man's 
 happiness fled, and there was no more peace for him under his father's 
 roof. He realised that nothing remained for him but to seek his 
 fortune elsewhere, and did not wait to be told twice. From this 
 moment, too, his name vanishes from the family list in the official 
 records. 
 
 On more than one occasion, Leonardo mentions his parents, 
 notably his father, whom he designates by his title of "Ser" Piero, 
 but without one word by which one may judge of his feelings towards 
 them. One might be tempted to tax him with want of heart, if 
 such an absence of sentiment were not a characteristic feature of the 
 times. Both parents and children made a virtue of repressing their 
 
 1 A certain Alessandro degli Amatori, a brother of Ser Piero's first wife, alludes to 
 Leonardo as his nephew, although, in reality, there was no legal relationship between 
 them. Li 1506 particularly, this person made himself the assiduous interpreter to 
 Leonardo of the wishes of the Marchesa Isabella d'Este. (Yriarte, Gazette des Beaux 
 Arts, 1888, vol. i. p. 128—129.) 
 
 C 2
 
 12 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 emotions ; «guarding themselves especially against the slightest 
 manifestation of sentimentality. No period ever exhibited a more 
 marked aversion for the emotional or the pathetic. Only here and 
 there, in letters — for example, in the admirable letters of a Florentine 
 patrician, Alessandra Strozzi, mother of the famous banker, — some 
 irrepressible cry of the heart escapes. 
 
 This notwithstanding, Leonardo's impassibility exceeds all bounds, 
 
 and constitutes a veri- 
 table psychological 
 problem. The master 
 registers without one 
 word of regret, of anger, 
 or of emotion, the petty 
 thefts of his pupil, the 
 fall of his patron, Lodo- 
 vico il Moro, the death 
 of his father. 
 
 And yet we know 
 what a wealth of kind- 
 ness and affection was 
 stored up in him ; how 
 he was indulgent, even 
 to weakness, towards his 
 servants, deferred to 
 their caprices, tended 
 them in sickness, and 
 provided marriage por- 
 tions for their sisters. 
 Let us forthwith con- 
 clude the story ol Leonardo's connection with his natural family, 
 which was very far from being his adoptive one. Ser Piero died 
 July 9, 1504, at the age of seventy-seven, and not eighty, as 
 Leonardo reports when registering his death in laconic terms.^ Of 
 
 ^ " Adi 9 di Luglio 1504, mercoledi a ore 7 mori ser Piero da Vinci, notaio al 
 palazzo del Potestà, mio padre, a ore 7. Era d'età d'anni 80, lascio 10 figlioli niaschi e 
 2 femmine." (J. P. Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. ii. p. 416. 
 London, 1883. 2 vols. 410. We have borrowed .several ])lates from this richly illustrated 
 work.^ 
 
 STUDIES OF INFANTS (POR THE SAINT ANNE). 
 
 (Musée Condé, Chantilly.)
 
 LEONARDO'S FAMILY 
 
 his four stepmothers, the last only, Lucrezia, who was still alive in 
 1520, is mentioned in terms of praise by a poet-friend of Leonardo, 
 Bellincioni. As to the nine sons and two daughters, all the issue 
 of the two last marriages of his father, they seem to have been rather 
 the adversaries than the 
 friends of their natural 
 brother. After the death 
 of their uncle in 1507, 
 more especially, they 
 raised financial difficul- 
 ties. By his will of 
 August 12, 1504, Fran- 
 cesco da Vinci had left a 
 few acres to Leonardo — 
 hence a lawsuit. Later, 
 however, a reconciliation 
 was effected. In 15 13, 
 during Leonardo's resi- 
 dence in Rome, one of his 
 sisters-in-law charged her 
 husband to remember her 
 to the artist, then at the 
 height of his glory. In 
 his will, Leonardo left his 
 brothers, in token of his 
 regard, the 400 florins he 
 had deposited at the 
 Hospital of Santa Maria 
 Novella in Florence. 
 Finally, his beloved dis- 
 ciple, Melzi, in his letter 
 to Leonardo's brothers 
 informing them of the 
 
 master's death, adds that he has bequeathed them his little pro- 
 perty at Fiesole. The will, however, is silent on this point. 
 Besides all this, one of his youthful productions, the cartoon of 
 Adam and Eve, remained in the possession of one of his kinsmen 
 
 STl'DV OF A YOL'NG WOMAN. 
 (Windsor Library-.)
 
 14 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 (Vasari says his uncle) who afterwards presented it to Ottavio 
 de' Medici. 
 
 No other member of the da Vinci family made his mark in history, 
 with the exception of a nephew of Leonardo, Pierino, an able sculptor, 
 who died in Pisa towards the middle of the sixteenth century at the 
 early age of thirty-three. The sole trait which the Vinci seem to 
 have inherited from their common ancestor is a rare vitality. Ser 
 Piero's stock has survived even to our own times. In 1869 Signor 
 Uzielli, a most lucky investigator, discovered a peasant named 
 Tommaso Vinci, near Montespertoli, at a place called Bottinaccio. 
 After due verification, this peasant who had the family papers in his 
 possession ^ and who, like his ancestor, Ser Piero, was blessed with a 
 numerous progeny, was found to be a descendant of Domenico, one of 
 Leonardo's brothers. A pathetic touch in a family so cruelly fallen 
 from its hit'h estate is the fact that Tommaso da Vinci q^ave his 
 eldest son the glorious name of Leonardo. On page 15 we give 
 the genealogy of the family of da Vinci as drawn up by Signor 
 Uzielli. 
 
 Nothing can equal the vital force of Italian families. That of 
 Michelangelo still exists, like that of Leonardo. But how sadly 
 fallen! When, on the occasion of the centenary festivals in 1875, any 
 possibly remaining members of the Buonarroti family were searched 
 for, it came to light that the head of the family, Count Buonarroti, had 
 been condemned to the galleys for forgery ; another Buonarroti was 
 a cabdriver in Siena, and yet another a common soldier. Let us 
 hope that in honour of his glorious ancestor he was advanced to the 
 rank of general! If the latest scions of Leonardo's house do not 
 occupy a brilliant position, at least there is no stain upon the honour of 
 their name. 
 
 Having acquainted ourselves with the family of Leonardo da Vinci, 
 it is time to analyse the qualities of this child of genius, this splendidly 
 endowed nature, this accomplished cavalier, this Proteus, Hermes, 
 Prometheus, appellations which recur every moment under the pens of 
 his dazzled contemporaries." " We see how Providence," exclaims 
 one of these, " rains down the most precious gifts on certain men, often 
 
 ^ These papers now form part of the archives of the Accademia dei Lincci, Rome. 
 ^ Lomazzo, Trattato del/a Pittura.
 
 LEONARDO'S EARLY YOUTH 15 
 
 with regularity, sometimes in profusion ; we see it combine unstint- 
 ingly in the same being beauty, grace, talent, bringing each of these 
 qualities to such perfection that whichever way the privileged 
 one turns, his every action is divine, and, excelling those of all 
 other men, his qualities appear what, in reality, they are : accorded 
 by God, and not acquired by human industry. Thus it was with 
 Leonardo da \'inci, in whom were united physical beauty beyond all 
 
 GENEALOGY OF THE DA VJXCI FAMILY : 
 
 Ser Michèle da Vinci Notary. 
 
 Ser GuiDO Notary (living in 1339). 
 
 Ser PiERO Notary (living in 138 1). 
 
 Antonio (born in 1372). 
 
 Ser PiERO Notary (1427 — 1504). 
 
 WIVES OF SER PIERO: 
 
 1. Albiera di Giovanni Amadori, 3. Margherita di Francesco di Jacopo 
 
 married 1452. di Guglielnio, married before 
 
 2. Francesca di ser Giuiiano Lan- 1476. 
 
 fredini, married 1465. , 4. Lucrezia di Guglielmo Cortigiani. 
 
 CHILDREN OF SER PIEhO : 
 
 Leonardo Illegitimate. 
 
 Children of the Third Marriage : Children of the Foirth Marria;^e : 
 
 Antonio born 1476. 
 
 Ser Giuiiano born 1479. 
 
 Lorenzo born 1484. 
 
 Margherita born 1 49 1 . 
 
 Benedetto born 1492. 
 
 Pandolfo born 1 494 
 
 Violante born 1485. 1 Guglielmo born 1496. 
 
 Domenico, born i486. Descendants Bartolommeo, born 1497, ancestor of 
 living at the present day. I'ierino da \"inc.i. 
 
 Giovanni 
 
 praise, and infinite grace in all his actions ; as for his talent, it was 
 such that, no matter what difficulty presented itself, he solved it with- 
 out effort. In him dexterity was allied to exceeding great strength ; 
 his spirit and his courage showed something kingly and magnanimous. 
 Finally, his reputation assumed such dimensions that, wide-spread as 
 it was during: his life-time, it extended still further after his death." 
 Vasari, to whom we owe this eloquent appreciation, concludes with a 
 phrase, untranslatable in its power of rendering the majesty of the 
 person described : " Lo splendor dell' aria sua, che bellissimo era,
 
 i6 
 
 LEONARnO T)A VINCI 
 
 di 
 
 rissereneva ogni animo inesto." (" The splendour of his aspect, which 
 was beautiful beyond measure, rejoiced the most sorrowful souls.") 
 
 Leonardo was gifted by nature with most unusual 
 muscular strength : he could twist the 
 clapper of a bell or a horse-shoe as if it 
 were of lead. A species of infirmity, 
 however, was mingled with this extra- 
 ordinary aptitude : the artist was left- 
 handed — his biographers assert this formally^ 
 — and in his old age, paralysis finally deprived 
 him of the use of his right hand. 
 
 The Renaissance had already produced one 
 of these e.xceptional organisations, combining 
 the rarest intellectual aptitudes with every 
 physical perfection, beauty, dexterity, strength. 
 At once mathematician, poet, musician, philoso- 
 pher, architect, sculptor, an ardent disciple of 
 sTuuv OF YOUTH (FOR THE ADORATION j^e anclcnts, and a darina innovator, Leone 
 
 OF THE magi). 
 
 (Collection P. v.iUon.) Battlsta Albcrtl, the great Florentine thinker 
 
 and artist, e.Kcelled in all physical exercises. 
 The most fiery horses trembled before him ; he could leap over 
 the shoulders of a grown man with his feet touching each other ; in 
 the cathedral at Florence he would throw a coin into the air with 
 such force that it was heard 
 to rino^ against the vaulted 
 roof of the gigantic edifice. 
 The temple of S. Francis at 
 Rimini, the Rucellai palace 
 in Florence, the invention 
 of the camera lucida, the 
 earliest use of free verse 
 in the Italian language, the 
 reorganisation of the Italian 
 
 1 " Quella ineffabile senistra niano a tutte discipline mateniatiche accomodatissima " — 
 " Scrivesi ancora alio rovescia e mancina che non si posson leggere se non con lo 
 specchio, ovvero guardando la carta del suo rovescio contre alla luce, como so m' intendi 
 senz' altro dica, e come fa il nostro Leonardo da Vinci, lume . . . della jnttura, qual' e 
 mancino, come piu volte è detto." (Pacioli, De Diviiia Proportione.) 
 
 STUDV OF HELMETEU HEADS. 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 II 
 
 Study of Drapoy. 
 
 OinSOK J.lhKAI.V.)
 
 ■^\^^^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 ■■y^. 
 
 ■ifS^ 
 
 .ïïSSj 

 
 LEONARDO'S CHARACTER 
 
 theatre, treatises on painting, on sculpture, and many other works of 
 the highest merit — such are Alberti's titles to the admiration and 
 gratitude of posterity. But 
 the Renaissance, on ap- 
 proaching maturity, was 
 to endow another son of 
 Florence with yet greater 
 power, a still wider range. 
 Compared with Leonardo 
 how pedantic, how nar- 
 row, nay, how timorous 
 Alberti appears ! 
 
 These faculties of the 
 mind in no wise prejudiced 
 the qualities of the heart. 
 Like Raphael, Leonardo 
 was distinguished for his 
 infinite kindliness, like him 
 he lavished interest and 
 affection even upon dumb 
 animals. Leonardo, Vasari 
 tells us, had so much 
 charm of manner and con- 
 versation that he won all hearts. Though, in a certain sense, 
 he had nothing of his own and worked little, he always found 
 means to keep servants and horses, of which latter he was very 
 fond, as indeed of all animals ; he reared and trained them with as 
 much love as patience. Often, passing the places where they sold 
 birds, he would buy some, and taking them out of their cages with 
 his own hand, restore them to liberty. A contemporary of Leonardo. 
 Andrea Corsali, writes from India in 15 15 to Giuliano de' Medici, that 
 like "il nostro Leonardo da Yinci " the inhabitants of these regions 
 permit no harm to be done to any living creature.^ This longing for 
 affection, this liberality, this habit of looking upon their pupils as their 
 
 1 It appears from Corsali's letter that Leonardo ate no meat, but lived entirely on 
 vegetables, thus forestalling our modern vegetarians by several centuries. (Richter's The 
 Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. ii. p. 130.) 
 
 D 
 
 THE UNBELIEF OF S. THOMAS, BY VERROCCHIÛ. 
 
 (Or San Michèle, Florence.)
 
 i8 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 family, are traits which the two great painters have in common, hut are 
 the very traits which distinguish them from Michelangelo, the mis- 
 anthropic, solitary artist, the sworn foe of feasting and pleasure. In 
 his manner of shaping his career, however, Raphael approaches far 
 nearer to Michelangelo than to Leonardo, who was proverbially 
 easy-going and careless. Raphael, on the contrary, prepared his future 
 with e.xtreme care ; not only gifted but industrious, he occupied himself 
 early in the foundation of his fortune ; whereas Leonardo lived from 
 hand to mouth, and subordinated his own interests to the exigencies of 
 science. 
 
 From the very beginning — and on this point we do not hesitate to 
 accept Vasari's testimony — the child showed an immoderate, at times 
 even extravagant, thirst for knowledge of every description ; he would 
 have made extraordinary progress, had it not been for his marked 
 instability of purpose. He threw himself ardently into the study 
 of one science after another, went at a bound to the very root of 
 questions, but abandoned work as readily as he had begun it. During 
 the {cw months he devoted to arithmetic, or rather to mathematics, 
 he acquired such knowledge of the subject that he nonplussed his 
 master every moment, and put him to the blush. Music had no less 
 attraction for him ; he excelled particularly on the lute, which instru- 
 ment he used later for the accompaniment of the songs he improvised.^ 
 In short, like another Faust, he desired to traverse the vast cycle of 
 human knowledge, and, not content to have assimilated the discoveries 
 of his contemporaries, to address himself directly to nature in order 
 to extend the field of science. 
 
 We have now pointed out the rare capacities of the young genius, 
 the variety of his tastes and acquirements ; his pre-eminence in all 
 bodily exercises and all intellectual contests ; it is time to consider 
 the use he made of such exceptional gifts. Despite his precocious 
 versatility, one ruling faculty soon showed itself conspicuously in him, 
 and that was a strong, an irresistible vocation for the arts of design. 
 In studying his first original productions, we discover that, to a far 
 greater degree than Raphael, Leonardo was a prodigy. The latest 
 researches have proved how slow and toilsome was the development 
 
 1 On Leonardo as a musician see the Ricerche of Sig. Uzielli, 2nd éd., vol. i. 
 PP- 551—511-
 
 FLORENCE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 19 
 
 of the artist of Urbino, through what arduous labour he had to 
 pass before he could give free play to his originality. There was 
 nothing of this with Leonardo. From the first, he declares himself 
 with admirable authority and originality. Not that he was a facile 
 worker — no artist produced more slowly — but, from the very outset, 
 his vision was so personal, that from being the pupil of his masters, 
 he became their initiator. 
 
 Leonardo's father seems to have resided more often in Florence 
 than in Vinci, and it was undoubtedly in the capital of Tuscan)-, 
 and not in the obscure little town of Vinci, that the brilliant faculties 
 of the child were unfolded. The site of the house occupied bv the 
 family has recently been determined ; it stood in the Piazza San 
 Firenze, on the spot where the Gondi palace now stands, and disap- 
 peared towards the end of the fifteenth century, when Giuliano Gondi 
 pulled it down to make room for the palace to which he gave his 
 name. 
 
 What Florence was during that period of political exhaustion, 
 of industrial and commercial prosperity, of literary, scientific, and 
 artistic exaltation, I shall not attempt to set forth here. Among my 
 present readers there are, perhaps, some who have not forgotten 
 earlier publications of mine, notably Les Préciirseuis de la Renaissance, 
 in whicli I traced a picture — fairly complete, I think — of intellectual 
 life on the banks of the Arno in the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. 
 
 Towards the period when the da \'inci family settled in Florence, 
 the Florentine school had arrived at one of those climacteric crises at 
 which a power must either abdicate, or start afresh on new lines. The 
 revolution inaugurated by Brunellesco, Donatello, and Masaccio had 
 effected all it was capable of effecting ; and we see their successors in 
 the last part of the fifteenth century wavering between imitation and 
 mannerism, powerless to fertilise an exhausted inheritance. In archi- 
 tecture, great as was the talent of the San Galli, the sceptre speedily 
 passed into the hands of Bramante of Urbino, then into those of the 
 representatives of Upper Italy — Vignole, who was born near Modena, 
 Serlio, a native of Bologna, Palladio, most famous of the sons of 
 Vicenza. In sculpture, one Florentine only had achieved a com- 
 manding position since \"errocchio and Pollajuolo ; it is true that his 
 
 D 2
 
 LEONARDO DA MNCI 
 
 THE ItEMbADlNC OF SAINT JuHN THE BAPTIST, 
 BV VERROCCHIO. 
 
 (MuNcum of the Duomo, Florence.) 
 
 name was Michaelangelo ; but what hopeless mediocrity surrounded 
 him, and how one feels that here too the last word had been said ! 
 
 As in all periods in which inspiration fails, there reigned in the 
 Florentine studios a spirit of discussion, of death-dealing criticism, 
 
 eminently calculated, to discourage 
 and enervate. No longer capable 
 of producing strong and simple 
 works like the glorious masters 
 of the first half of the century, 
 IMasaccio, Fra Angelico, Piero della 
 Francesca, or even Andrea del 
 Castagno, every painter strove after 
 novelty, originality, " terribilita " — 
 the word bv which Vasari desisf- 
 nates this tendency — hoping there- 
 by to place himself above criticism. 
 No artists could be more mannered than these Florentine painters of 
 the end of the fifteenth century ; one would willingly give all the 
 cunning of a Pollajuolo for a dash of inspiration. In female beauty, 
 the prevailing ideal was a morbid and suffering type, pale and wasted 
 faces, drooping eyelids, veiled glances, plaintive smiles : if they 
 charm in spite of their incorrect lines it is because they reflect a 
 last ray of the mystical poetry of the middle ages. This ideal, as far 
 removed from the robust and almost virile figures of Masaccio, of 
 Piero della Francesca, of Andrea del Castagno, as it was from the 
 severe though dry distinction of Ghirlandajo's type, was affected, 
 first and foremost, by Fra Filippo Lippo, who was imitated by his 
 son Filippino and by Botticelli. It was mannerism in one of its most 
 dangerous forms. 
 
 But let us hear what Leonardo himself has to say, and how clearly 
 he defines the part played by Giotto and afterwards by Masaccio, 
 whose frescoes he no doubt copied, as did all young Florence at that 
 time. " After these came Giotto the Florentine, who — not content 
 with imitating the works of Cimabue, his master — being born in the 
 mountains, and in a solitude interrupted only by goats and such beasts, 
 and being guided by Nature to his art, began l)y drawing on the rocks 
 the movements of the goats of which he was keeper. And thus he
 
 FLORENCE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 21 
 
 began to draw all the animals which were to be found in the country, 
 and in such wise that after much study he excelled not only all the 
 masters of his time, but all those of many bygone ages." (We may 
 note in passing that Leonardo's testimony confirms the touching 
 account — sometimes questioned— which Ghiberti and \'asari have 
 given us of the early efforts of Giotto). '" Afterwards this art 
 declined again, because every one imitated the pictures that were 
 already done. Thus it went on from century to century until Thomas 
 of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect works, that 
 those who take for their standard any one but Nature — the mistress 
 of all masters — weary 
 themselves in vain.''^ 
 
 According to a story 
 which has all the appear- 
 ance of truth, Ser Piero 
 da Vinci, struck by the 
 marked aptitude of his 
 hon, took some of his 
 sketches to his friend 
 Verrocchio and besr2:ed 
 him to give his opinion 
 on them. The impression 
 made, we are told, was 
 excellent, and Verrocchio 
 did not hesitate to accept 
 the youth as his pupil. 
 
 If we assume that 
 Leonardo was then about 
 fifteen, we shall be within 
 range of probability in 
 default of any certain 
 
 statement on the subject. As I have shown elsewhere,- the majority 
 of the artists of the Renaissance were distinguished for their 
 precocity. Andrea del Sarto began his apprenticeship at seven years 
 of age ; Perugino at nine ; Fra Bartolommeo at ten ; at fifteen 
 
 ' Richter. The Literary ]Vorks of Leonardo da Viiui,\o\.'\.\f. nz. 
 - See my Raphael, jnd éd., [jp. 19, 39 — 40. 
 
 THE CHILD WITH A DOLPHIN, BY VERROCCHIO. 
 
 (Palazzo Vecchto, Florence.)
 
 22 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Michelanyelo executed the mask of a satvr which attracted the 
 notice of Lorenzo the Magnificent ; finally, Mantegna painted his 
 first masterpiece — the Madonna of the church of S. Sophia at Padua 
 — when he war, seventeen. 
 
 Attires temps, auti-es mœurs ! Nowadays, at thirty, an artist is 
 considered young and brilliant, with all his future before him. Four 
 hundred years ago many a great artist had said his last word at that 
 age. 
 
 Apprenticeship properly so-called — by which the pupil entered 
 the family of the master — was for two, four, or six years according to 
 the age of the apprentice ; this was succeeded by associateship, the 
 duration of which also varied according to age, and during which the 
 master gave remuneration to a greater or less amount (Lorenzo di 
 Credi, Leonardo's fellow-student, received twelve florins, about 
 ^24 a year). Mastership was the final point of this long and 
 strenuous initiation.^ 
 
 Before studying the relations between Leonardo da Vinci and 
 Verrocchio we will endeavour to define the character and talents of the 
 latter.2 
 
 Andrea Verrocchio (born in 1435) was only seventeen years older 
 than his pupil, an advantage which would seem relatively slight over 
 such a precocious genius as Leonardo ; we may add that the worthy 
 Florentine sculptor had developed very slowly, and had long been 
 absorbed by goldsmith's work and other tasks of a secondary character. 
 Notwithstanding his growing taste for sculpture on a grand scale, he 
 
 1 These patriarchal customs remained in force till well into the eighteenth century. 
 Thus .Sebastien Bourdon spent seven years under his fir.st master though, it is true, he 
 was only fourteen when he left him. In 1664, the statutes of the Paris Academy of 
 Painting and Sculpture fixed three years as the average term of ap|)renticeship ; each 
 member of the Academy might only receive one pupil at a time. 
 
 - In my Histoire de F Art fendant la Renaissance (vol. ii. y. 497) and in the Gazette des 
 Beaux-Arts (1891, vol. ii. p. 277 — 287) I have endeavoured to describe the evolution 
 of Verrocchio's talent and to draw up a catalogue of his works. I here add a few notes to 
 my former essays. If the tomb of Giovanna Tornabuoni, formerly in the church of the 
 Minerva at Rome, is now generally recognised as a production from the studio of the 
 master, but not by his own hand, a learned critic, H err Bode, attributes to Verrocchio 
 various bas-reliefs in bronze and stucco : the Descent from tlie Cross with the portrait 
 of Duke Federigo of Urbino (?) in the church of the Carmine at \'cn!ce ; the Discord 
 in the South Kensington Museum, the Judgment of Paris, a bronze plaque in the 
 collection of M. Gustave Dreyfus of Paris {Arc/iivio sturico de/P Arte, 1893, pp. 77-84) 
 These compositions are essentially loose and supple in treatment.
 
 ANDREA VERROCCHIO 23 
 
 undertook to the last those decorative works which were the delight 
 of his contemporaries, the Majani, the Civitali, the Ferrucci. We 
 learn from a document of 1488 that up till the very eve of his death 
 he was engaged upon a marble fountain for King Mathias Corvinus.^ 
 Herein he shows himself a true quattrocentist. 
 
 The following are a few dates by which to fix the chronology of the 
 master's work. 
 
 In 146S — 1469 we find him engaged on a bronze candelabrum 
 for the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1472, he executed the bronze sar- 
 cophagus of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici in the sacristy of the 
 church of San Lorenzo. In 1474, he began the mausoleum of 
 Cardinal Forteguerra in the cathedral at Pistoja. The bronze statue of 
 David {\n the Museo Nazionale, Florence) brought him into evidence 
 at last in 1476. Then came (in 1477) the small bas-relief of the 
 Beheading of John the Baptist, destined for the silver altar of the 
 Baptistery; between 1476 and 1483 the Unbelief of S. Thomas; finally, 
 towards the end of a career that was all too short (Verrocchio died in 
 1488, at the age of fifty-three), the equestrian statue of Colleone, his 
 unfinished masterpiece. 
 
 The impetus necessary to set this somewhat slow and confused 
 intelligence soaring was — so the biographer Vasari afiirms — a sight of 
 the masterpieces of antiquity in Rome. For my part, I am inclined 
 to attribute Verrocchio's evolution to the influence of Leonardo, so 
 rapidly transformed from the pupil into the master (A his master ; 
 an influence which caused those germs of beauty, scattered at first but 
 sparsely through Verrocchio's work, attained to maturity in the superb 
 group of The Unbelief of S. Thomas and the Angels of the Forte- 
 guerra monument, rising finally to the virile dignity, the grand style, 
 of the Colleone. 
 
 Compared with the part played by Michelangelo, that of Ver- 
 rocchio, the last great Florentine sculptor of the fifteenth century, 
 may appear wanting in brilliance ; it was assuredly not wanting in 
 utility. Verrocchio was before all things a seeker, if not a finder ; 
 essentially incomplete in organisation, but most suggestive in spirit, he 
 sowed more than he reaped, and produced more pupils than master- 
 pieces. The revolution he brought about with Leonardo's co-operation 
 1 Gaye, Carteggio, vol. i. pp. 569—570. Cl". p. 575.
 
 24 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINTI 
 
 was big with consequences ; it aimed at nothing less than the 
 substitution of the picturesque, sinuous, undulating, living clement, 
 for the plastic and decorative formuLe, sometimes a little over-facile, 
 of his predecessors. Nothing, as a rule, could be less precise than 
 his contours ; the general outline is difficult to seize ; above all 
 things, he lacks the art of harmonising a statue or a bas-relief with 
 the surrounding architecture, as is abundantly proved by his Child 
 
 BUST OF COLLEONE, BY VERROCCHIO. 
 
 (Piazza di SS. Giovanni e Paoli, Venice.) 
 
 zvith a Dolphin with its strained, improbable, and yet delicious, atti- 
 tude. He is the master of puckered faces, of crumpled, tortured 
 draperies ; no one could be less inspired by the antique, as regards 
 clearness of conception, or distinction and amplitude of form. But 
 there is an extraordinary sincerity in his work ; he makes a quiver 
 of life run through frail limbs, reproduces the soft moisture of the 
 skin, obtains startling effects of chiaroscuro with his complex draperies, 
 gives warmth and colour to subjects apparently the most simple. 
 This reaction against the cold austerity of the two Tuscan masters
 
 ANDREA VERROCCHIO 
 
 25 
 
 most in favour at the time, Mino di Fiesole and Matteo Civitale di 
 Lucca, was much needed, though Verrocchio has perhaps rather 
 overshot the mark. 
 
 His favourite type of beauty is somewhat unhealthy, and not wholly 
 devoid of affectation. Ghirlandajo's Florentine women are haughty 
 and impassive ; Botticelli's fascinating in their guileless tenderness ; 
 Verrocchio's are pensive and melancholy. Even his men — take the 
 S. Thomas, for instance 
 — have a plaintive dis- 
 illusioned smile, the Leo- 
 nardesque smile. 
 
 All there is of femi- 
 nine, one might almost 
 say effeminate, in Leo- 
 nardo's art, the delicacy, 
 the viorbidc zza, the 
 suavity, appear, though 
 often merely in embryo, 
 in the work of Andrea 
 Verrocchio. 
 
 To sum up, Verrocchio 
 is the plastic artist, 
 deeply enamoured of 
 form, deliafhtina: in hoi- 
 lowing it out, in fining it 
 down ; he has none of the 
 literary temperament of a 
 
 Donatello, a Mantegna, masters who, in order to give expression to 
 the passions that stir them, to realise their ideal, need a vast theatre, 
 numerous actors, dramatic subjects. There is no nitsc-cii-sccnc, no 
 searching after recondite ideas with Verrocchio, any more than with 
 Leonardo. The simplest subject — a child playing with a dolphin, a 
 woman holdinç; a flower — suffices them for the condensation of all 
 their poetry, all their science. 
 
 A critic has spoken of the natural sympathy between Verrocchio 
 and Leonardo. " In neither artist," says Rio, the eloquent and intole- 
 rant author of L Art Chrétien, " does harmony exclude force ; they 
 
 HK.XD Û1" A SAINT, BV lERLG[NO. 
 
 (Church of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence.)
 
 26 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 show the same admiration for the masterpieces of Greek and Roman 
 antiquity, the same predominance of the plastic qualities, the same 
 passion for finish of details in great as well as small compositions, the 
 same respect for perspective and geometry in their connection with 
 painting, the same pronounced taste for music, the same tendency to 
 leave a work unfinished, and begin a fresh one, and, more remarkable 
 still, the same predilection for the war-horse, the monumental horse, 
 and all the studies appertaining thereto." But are not these points 
 of contact rather due to chance than any intellectual relationship 
 between the two temperaments ? and may not more than one of the 
 arguments brought forward by Rio be equally well turned against him ? 
 Verrocchio was a limited spirit, a prosaic character; Leonardo, on the 
 other hand, was the personification of unquenchable curiosity, of aristo- 
 cratic tastes, of innate grace and elegance. The one raises himself 
 laboriously towards a higher ideal ; the other brings that ideal with 
 him into the world. 
 
 We shall see presently what was Leonardo's attitude with respect 
 to his master's teachinir. For the moment we will confine ourselves 
 to affirming that never did artist revolt more openly against all 
 methodical and continuous work. 
 
 Under this master — so essentially suggestive — Leonardo was 
 thrown with several fellow-students who, without attaining his glory, 
 achieved a brilliant place among painters. The chief of these was 
 Perugino. Born in 1446, and consequently six years older than 
 Leonardo, the young Umbrian artist had passed through the most 
 severe trials before becoming known, perhaps even before winning 
 the attention of so reputed a master as Verrocchio. For long months 
 together, Vasari tells us, he had no bed but an old wooden chest, and 
 was constrained to sit up for whole nights working for his living. 
 When he placed himself under Verrocchio, or when he left him, no 
 one knows. The very fact of a connection between tlie two artists 
 has been questioned. It is true, of course, that Verrocchio only prac- 
 tised painting incidentally and did not shine in that branch of art ; !)>■ 
 trade, we know, he was a goldsmith ; he became a scul[)tor from 
 inclination. Perugino, however, differing in this from the majority 
 of truly universal and encyclopaedic artists of his time, was a painter 
 and nothing else ; why then should he have put himself under a
 
 LEONARDO'S FELLOW-STUDENTS 27 
 
 master to whom this branch of art was practically foreign ? Moreover, 
 if one studies closely the analogies between the productions of 
 Verrocchio and those of his two undisputed pupils, Leonardo da 
 Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi, and then the traces of relationship 
 between the works of the two latter, one is forced to acknowledge 
 that at no period of an extraordinarily prolific career does the manner 
 of Perugino present the slightest family resemblance to that of his 
 reputed master, or his reputed fellow-students. His warm and 
 lustrous scale of colour, his sharply accentuated outlines, and above 
 all, his favourite types, taken exclusively from his native country, 
 and showing all the meagreness of the Umbrian race, are all his 
 own. At the most, his sojourn in Florence and, later on, in 
 Rome, familiarised him with certain accessories then in fashion, for 
 instance, those ornaments in the antique style which he introduced 
 lavishly in his pictures, where they proclaim their want of harmony 
 with the rest of the composition, the sentiment of which is so 
 unclassical. 
 
 We must be careful, however, to question the testimony of an 
 author usually so well informed as Vasari on such evidence. If we 
 consider the house of Verrocchio not as an artist's studio, strictly 
 speaking, but as a laboratory, a true chemical laboratory, the argu- 
 ments just brought forward lose their force. Under this ardent 
 innovator, Perugino may well have studied, not so much the art of 
 painting, as the science of colouring, the chemical properties of colours, 
 their combinations, all those problems which the pupils of Verrocchio, 
 Leonardo as well as Lorenzo di Credi, were unceasingly engaged 
 upon.^ 
 
 Like all his fellow-students, Perugino was rather a colourist than a 
 draughtsman. It were fruitless to demand of him compositions brilli- 
 antly imagined or cunningly put together ; warmth of colour, com- 
 bined with the expression of meditation, of religious fervour — these 
 are his sole qualities, and they are not to be despised. Perugino had, 
 
 1 And, indeed, the group of the Holy Family by Perugino, in the Museum at 
 Nancy, had its origin in the corresponding group of Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks (Crowe 
 and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, vol. iii. p. 225). Nor, most assuredly, is 
 it from simple caprice that Perugino introduces the portrait of Verrocchio into one of 
 his paintings for ihe monastery of the Jesuits in Florence (Vasari, Milanesi's éd., vol. iii, 
 p. 574). Such distinctions were accorded only to patrons or to friends. 
 
 E 2
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 in all probability, already quitted Verrocchio's alelier in 1475. At 
 least, it was suggested that he should paint the great hall of the 
 
 Palazzo Pubblico of Perugia at this 
 date. 
 
 Leonardo, with all his numerous 
 writings, is so chary of details as to 
 his private affairs and connections 
 that we know not whether the rela- 
 tions with Perusfino, besfun in Ver- 
 rocchio's studio, survived the depar- 
 ture of the latter. The two artists 
 STUDY OF A HORSEMAN (ASCRIBED To vERRocLiiio). uiust, howcvcr, have liacl uiauy op- 
 portunities of meeting again later 
 on: first of all, in Florence, where Perugino was working in 1482; 
 then in Lombardy in 1496; then, after 1500, once more in Florence, 
 where Perugino had set up a studio which was much frequented. 
 Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, has perpetuated the memory of 
 this connection in three well-known lines, wherein he speaks of 
 two adolescents of the same age animated by the same passions 
 — Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino, or Pietro della Pieve, a divine 
 painter : 
 
 Due giovin par d'etate e par d'amori 
 Leonardo da Vinci e'l Perusino, 
 Pier della Pieve ch'è un divin pittore. 
 
 Yet another Umbrian, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo of Perugia, appears to 
 have worked in Verroc- 
 chio's studio. His first °^ 
 dated work, the altar- (f?^ 
 piece in the Gallery of 
 Perugia (1472) shows 
 him, at least, to have 
 been influenced by the 
 Florentine master.^ 
 
 STUDY OF A HORSEMAN (ASCRIBED TO VERROCCHIo). 
 
 Lorenzo di Andrea Credi (1459 — 1537), the son and grandson of 
 goldsmiths, was placed, when quite a child, under Verrocchio's tuition, 
 
 ^ Schmarsow, Pititurricchio in Rum, p. 5. Bode, Italie nisc/ie Bi/diiauer, p. 151. 
 Ulmann, Sandra Botticelli, p. 38.
 
 LEONARDO'S FELLOW-STUDENTS 
 
 29 
 
 and was still working under liim, at the age of twenty-one, content with 
 the modest salary of one tlorin (about £2) a month. He was Hving 
 at that time (1480) with his mother " Mona Lisa," a widow aged 
 sixty years. His two sisters, Lucrezia and Lena, were married. 
 The fortune of the little household consisted of a tiny property at 
 Casarotta. 
 
 A tender friendship united Lorenzo and his master, whom he 
 accompanied later to Venice, to assist in the e.xecution of the statue 
 
 LEONARDOS FIRST DATED LANDSCAPE. 
 
 (UfTui, Florence.) 
 
 of Colleone, and who, at his death, named him his executor. His 
 was a nature profoundly contemplative and religious : he was an 
 impassioned follower of Savonarola, as were the great majority of 
 Florentine artists ; but, after the fall of the prophet, discourage- 
 ment followed on boundless enthusiasm. His will bears witness to 
 his sense of contrition : after having; assured the future of his old 
 woman-servant, to whom he left his bedding, and an annuity in kind ; 
 after having made certain donations to his niece and to the daughter 
 of a friend, a goldsmith ; he directed that the rest of his fortune 
 should go to the brotherhood of the indigent poor, and that his
 
 3° LEONARDO DA VIXCI 
 
 obsequies should be as simple as possible: "Quo minimo snm|)tu 
 fieri potest." 
 
 Seven years younger than Leonardo, Lorenzo soon came under 
 th(; influence of his fellow-student. No one, affirms \'asari, could 
 better imitate the latter's manner ; one of Leonardo's pictures, in 
 particular, he copied so perfectly that it was impossible' to distinguish 
 the copy from the original. This picture, as well as another after 
 Verrocchio, went to Spain. 
 
 Lorenzo was a slow and laborious spirit, rather than a livc'ly 
 and original genius. It is said that he prepared his oils himself, 
 and with his own hand ground his colours to an impalpable dust. 
 After having tried the gradations of each colour upon his palette — he 
 made use of as many as thirty shades to the colour — he forbade his 
 servants to sweep his studio, lest one speck of dust should dim 
 the transparency and polish of his pictures, which, in this respect, 
 are like enamels. He was distinguished for deep religious con- 
 victions ; but of what avail are convictions to the artist or the 
 poet without talent, the gift of communicating his emotions to 
 others ? 
 
 Nothing could be more limited than the range of Lorenzo's com- 
 positions ; they are either Holy Conversations or Madonnas, these last 
 usually circular in form. About the only secular picture known as 
 his is his Venus, in the UffizL Gallery. His figures are, for the most 
 part, heavy: the Infant Jesus in particular being remarkable for the 
 inordinate size of the head, and the total absence of expression. His 
 landscape, indeed, has higher qualities, thanks chiefly to the colour, 
 in which firmness has not destroyed harmony. Lorenzo practised 
 portraiture as well as religious painting. If the portraits attributed 
 to him in the Louvre are indeed his, Leonardo's fellow-student must 
 have possessed the power of subtle characterisation in the very highest 
 degree. A few touches, as quiet as they are exact, and of incom- 
 parable lightness, suffice to fix the physiognomy, and suggest the 
 soul of his model, on a sheet of paper, usually rose-tinted. The 
 Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris possesses a portrait of an old 
 man, in body-colour, more closely akin to Lorenzo's pictures, and 
 marked by the same laboured handling : this is the sign manual of 
 the master.
 
 LEONARDO'S FELLOW-STUDENTS 31 
 
 It is not imp^ssible that Leonardo may also have met another 
 artist, much his senior, in Verrocchio's studio, where he was working 
 rather as an assistant than a pupil — I mean Sandro BotticeHi. He was 
 one of the few contemporary masters of whom our hero makes mention 
 in his writings, and he adds to the name the significant qualification 
 '•il nostro Botticelli." Fie invokes Botticelli's testimony, however, 
 only to criticise him. " That artist," he says, " is not universal who 
 does not show an equal taste for all branches of painting. For instance, 
 one who does not care for landscape, will declare that it is a matter 
 for short and simple study only. Our Botticelli was wont to say that 
 this study was vain, for you had but to throw a sponge soaked with 
 different colours against a wall, and you at once obtained upon that 
 wall a stain, wherein you might distinguish a landscape. And indeed," 
 Leonardo adds, " this artist painted very poor landscapes." ^ The 
 end of this demonstration deserves to be quoted. In it Leonardo 
 unconsciously criticises that very species of picturesque pantheism, 
 those optical illusions to which no one sacrificed more than he did 
 himself. "It is true," he declares, "that he who seeks them will 
 find in that stain many inventions, such as human faces, various 
 animals, battles, rocks, oceans, clouds or forests, and other objects of 
 the kinil. It is the same with the sound of bells, wherein each 
 person can distinguish whatever words he pleases. But although 
 these stains furnish forth divers subjects, they do not show us how 
 to terminate a particular point." - How often must Leonardo have let 
 his vision and his imagination tloat thus in the clouds or on the waves, 
 striving to grasp in their infinite combinations the image he was 
 pursuing, or, by an opposite effect, endeavouring to give form and 
 substance to the undulating, intangible masses ! 
 
 Taking into consideration Leonardo's facetious humour, his delight 
 in mystification — there was a touch of the Mephistopheles in him — and 
 his e.xtravagant habits, it is highly probable that he formed a close 
 connection with a band of hare-brained young fellows who frequented 
 
 > See Ulman, Sa/iJro Botticelli, pp. 37 — 38. I shall have occasiun lu return lu ihc 
 numerous motives borrowed h)' Botticelli from Leonardo : in the Virs^in of the Magni- 
 ficat (see the Arc/iivio storico delP Arte, 1897, p. 3, et set]), in the Nativity of the National 
 Gallery, in the Adoration of the J/agi o( the Utifi/i. 
 
 - Trattdto delta Pittura, chap. l.\. Piero di Cosimo attempted, like Leonardo, to 
 form figures with clouds. (See his biography in Vasari.)
 
 32 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Verrocchio's studio, and whose wild doings often scandalised the good 
 citizens of Florence,'' and formed a characteristic trait of Florentine 
 manners. For if in the Umbrian schools the embryo painter (such 
 as Raphael, for instance) had all the gentleness and timidity of a 
 girl, in Florence, from Giotto's time, practical joking never ceased 
 
 to form an integral part 
 of the education of an 
 artist. 
 
 The most brilliant of 
 these fellow - students, 
 who cultivateil art as 
 amateurs rather than as 
 professionals, was Atal- 
 ante dei Migliarotti, born 
 in Florence in 1466 of 
 an unlawful union, like 
 Leonardo himself which 
 was perhaps a bond the 
 more between them. 
 Like Leonardo, he ex- 
 celled upon the lute, and 
 it was in the character 
 of musician, and not as a 
 painter, that he accom- 
 panied his friend to the 
 court of Lodovico Moro. His reputation increased so greatly that in 
 1490 the Marquis of Mantua, wishing to have the Orfco of Poliziano 
 represented, called upon Atalante to fill the principal part. Later on. 
 
 VERKOCCHEO S HKAD OF DAVIU. 
 
 (Musde N.illi)n.-\1 of Florence.) 
 
 ' A calumny long rested on the memory of Leonardo, which was only dissipated 
 when at last the keepers of the Archives of Florence were prevailed upon to give 
 publicity to the docimients connected with certain law proceedings. An anonymous 
 person had denounced him, with three other Florentines, as having had immoral 
 relations with a certain Jacopo Salterello, aged seventeen, apparently apprenticed to 
 a goldsmith. In consequence, the accused appeared, on April 9, 1476, before the 
 tribunal sittiiii; at San .Marco. They were all accjuitted, on condition that they 
 should come up again after a fresh enquiry. At the second hearing, which took place 
 Juno 7, 1476, the case against them was definitively dismissed. \\'e see therefore 
 that his contemporaiies had already exonerated him. {Anhivio slorico dell' Arte, 1896, 
 PP- 313—315-)
 
 STUDY OF A HEAD BV LEONARDO FOK VERROCCHIo's " UAVID.' 
 
 (Weimar Mu>t.u.Ti.)
 
 34 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 having sown his wild oats, Atalante, lilce so many others, resigned 
 himself to a subordinate position, and became a kind of 
 bureaucrat — sorry climax to a career that had begun so 
 brilliantly! In 15 13, the same year in which Leonardo made his 
 triumphal entry into Rome surrounded by a constellation of 
 pupils, Atalante filled the post of inspector of architectural works at 
 the Papal Court. It was, at least, a last slight bond between him and 
 Art; twenty-two years later, in 1535, on the eve of his death, he was 
 still occupying this obscure situation, which left him ample leisure 
 to meditate upon the follies of his youth. 
 
 As to Zoroastro di Peretola, the pupil, and not the fellow-student 
 of Leonardo, we shall consider him later on. 
 
 The reader knows something of the atmosphere that reigned 
 in Verrocchio's studio. Let us now endeavour to trace its action 
 upon so impressionable a mind as that of the youthful Leonardo. 
 First and foremost, the beginner found himself constrained to submit 
 to a certain discipline. How did he bend to the yoke ? Did he 
 bind himself to the programme which he recommended later on to 
 his own disciples, and which he laid down as follows ? — " This is what 
 tlie apprentice should learn at the beginning : he should first learn 
 perspective, then the proportions of all things ; after this, he should 
 make drawings after good masters in order to accustom himself to 
 giving the right proportions to the limbs ; and after that, from nature, 
 in order that he may verify for himself the principles he has learned. 
 Further, he should, for some time, carefully examine the works of 
 different masters, and finally accustom himself to the practice of his 
 art" {Trattato della Pittiira, chap, xlvii.). 
 
 Further (chaps. Ixxxi.), Leonardo lays stress upon the importance 
 of independence and originality : " I say to painters. Never imitate the 
 manner of another ; for thereby you become the grandson instead of 
 the son of nature. And, truly, models are found in such abundance in 
 nature that it is far better to go to them than to masters. I do not say 
 this to those who strive to become rich by their art, but to those who 
 desire glory and honour thereby." 
 
 A noble programme, and, what is more, a noble example! The
 
 LEONARDO'S FIRST EFFORTS 35 
 
 long career of Leonardo da Vinci is a standing witness to the 
 fact that, from youth to old age, he set glory and honour before 
 riches. 
 
 With such tendencies as these, the models created by his pre- 
 decessors would have but little influence upon the youthful beginner. 
 " He was most assiduous," Vasari tells us, ''■ in working from nature, and 
 would sometimes make rough models in clay, over which he then laid 
 moist rags coated with clay ; these he afterwards carefully copied on 
 superfine Rheims canvas or on prepared linen, colouring them in 
 black and white with the point of the brush to produce illusion." 
 (Several of these studies have come down to us.) " He drew, 
 besides, on paper," Vasari adds, "with so much zeal and talent 
 that no one could rival him in delicacy of rendering." Vasari 
 possessed one of these heads in chalk and camaïeu, which he pro- 
 nounced divine. 
 
 However, Leonardo soon abandoned this practice. In the Trattato 
 della Pittura (chap. Dxxxviii) he strongly advises students not to 
 make use of models over which paper or thin leather has been drawn, 
 but, on the contrary, to sketch their draperies from nature, carefully 
 noting differences of texture.^ 
 
 However refractory Leonardo may have been to contemporary 
 influences, it was impossible that there should have been no inter- 
 change of ideas and no affinity of style between him and his master. 
 The better to make them understood, I shall compare the various 
 stages in the development of Verrocchio's art, as I have endeavoured 
 to define them (pp. 22 — 26), with some of the more salient landmarks 
 in the evolution of his immortal pupil. 
 
 We do not know for certain when he entered Verrocchio's studio, 
 but it was long before 1472,- for at that date, being then twenty 
 years of age, he was received into the guild of painters of Florence ; 
 
 1 Among the artists of the sixteenth century who made use of clay models similar to 
 those of Leonardo, we may mention Garofalo and Tintoretto (see my L Histore de VAit 
 pendant la Renaissance, vol. iii. p. 148). 
 
 - Miiller-Walde puts the date at 1466, which is quite within the range of probability, 
 Leonardo being then fourteen years old. 
 
 F 2
 
 :^f^ 
 
 LEONARDO DA \'INCI 
 
 in 1473, as is proved by a study to which I shall revert imme- 
 diately, he already used the pen with perfect mastery ; we may 
 add that the intercourse between the two artists was kept up till 
 1476 at least. 
 
 Shall I be accused of temerity if, armed with these dates, I venture 
 to maintain, contrary to common opinion, that between pupil and 
 master there was an interchange of ideas particularly advantageous to 
 the latter ; that Leonardo gave to Verrocchio as much, if not more, than 
 he received from him ? By the time that a fragrance of grace and 
 beauty began to breathe from Verrocchio's work, Leonardo was no 
 
 THREK DANCERS. 
 
 (Accademia, Venice.) 
 
 longer an apprentice, but a consummate master. The Baptism of 
 Christ, to which I shall refer later, is not the only work in which the 
 collaboration of the two artists is palpable, and the contrast between 
 the two manners self-evident ; this contrast is still more striking 
 between the works of Verrocchio which are anterior to Leonardo's 
 entry into his studio, and those he produced later. 
 
 In their drawings, we have an invaluable criterion whereby to 
 measure the respective value of the work of the master and that of his 
 disciple. It is true that Morelli and his followers have excluded from 
 the works of Verrocchio the twenty-five sheets of the Sketch Book
 
 INFLUENCE OF LEONARDO ON VERROCCHIO 
 
 37 
 
 SO long attributed to him. (In the Louvre, at the Ecole des Beaux 
 Arts, at Chantilly, etc.) We will accept their verdict, and only take 
 into consideration the Five Genii at Play of the Louvre, and the Head 
 of an Angel in the Uffizi, declared to be ultra-authentic by Morelli ^ 
 and by Gronau.- Even here it must be admitted that the execution 
 is cramped and poor, the types either unhealthy or undecided, (after 
 the manner of certain compositions in the Raphael Sketch Book in 
 the Accademia of Venice) ; in short, the drawings are the very 
 antithesis of Leonardo's. 
 
 ■^^r 
 
 
 - > 
 
 To aver that the Sketch 
 Book is not by Verroc- 
 chio's hand can add but 
 little to his reputation. 
 The drawings are not 
 sensibly worse than those 
 which Morelli and Gronau 
 ascribe to him. 
 
 Let us now compare 
 the earliest efforts of 
 Leonardo with these 
 archaic works. A curious 
 pen and ink landscape, 
 with the inscription : " Di 
 di sea Maria della Neve, 
 a di 2 d'aghosto 1473 ' 
 (the day of S. Mary of 
 
 the Snow, August 2, 1473), dates from 1473, when Leonardo was 
 twenty-one. It represents a plain between mountains, two, those 
 which bound it to right and left of the foreground, rising almost 
 perpendicularly. On the one to the left stands a town surrounded 
 by ramparts flanked with towers.'^ All around are trees with 
 
 ^ Die Galérien zii Miinchen und Dresden, pp. 350-351. (English translation by Miss 
 Ffoulkes, 1893, p. 271.) 
 
 " Jahrbucli der k. Pr. Kunstsammluiigen, 1896, i. 
 
 ' One of the erudite writers who has rendered such valuable service in the inter- 
 pretation of Leonardo's literary works claims to have discovered in this landscape a 
 view of the Rigi, on which, indeed, there is a convent dedicated to S. Mary of the 
 
 /^2^^ 
 
 SKETCH, SCHOOL OF VERROCCHIO, 
 (The Lou\Te.)
 
 3» LEONARDO UA VINCI 
 
 smooth trunks and parallel branches, something like pines : the type, 
 as we know, so dear to the Primitives. The composition has none 
 of the clumsiness of Verrocchio's ; the most insignificant details 
 acquire an incomparable delicacy and smoothness under that cunning 
 hand. Nevertheless, the landscape (evidendy a study from nature) 
 is wanting in decision and in intention ; there is something vague about 
 it, as in the vast majority of the productions of the genius which lent 
 itself with such difficulty to any precise and categorical scheme of 
 expression. 
 
 The drawing of 1473 furnishes us with another valuable landmark : 
 Leonardo had already adopted his peculiar system of writing from right 
 to left, after the manner of the Orientals. 
 
 Resides these dates, which are fixed by figures, there are others 
 which may be determined by peculiarities of style. Though bearing 
 no chronological inscription by Leonardo's hand, the two studies I am 
 about to mention belong none the less to a well-defined period of his 
 career ; if, hitherto, they have not attracted the attention of the 
 historians of the master, the question once raised, no one will deny 
 that they must have been executed at the besfinnine of his term of 
 apprenticeship, and in Verrocchio's studio. 
 
 The first, now at Weimar, shows us the head of a youth, in every 
 point the counterpart of Verrocchio's David (1476), but less harsh, 
 more rounded, the mouth less compressed, the cheek-bones and the 
 throat less angular — in a word, the type bears the Leonardesque 
 imprint in every particular. For the rest, we note the same curled 
 locks as in the statue, save that the clusters, which are more 
 abundant, fall lower on the forehead ; the same long eyes. We have 
 here, probably, a model treated at one time by the master, at 
 another by the pupil ; where one is dry and restless, the other is all 
 
 Snows. But de Geymiiller has objected, and with reason, that these mountains have not 
 the Alpine character ; that the heights of the foreground are much lower than the Rigi ; 
 finally, that the latter has never had a city bearing the smallest resemblance to the one 
 in Leonardo's drawing upon one of its slopes. Moreover, there is nothing to show 
 that, at this period, Leonardo had crossed the Alps. In Baron Liphart's opinion, this 
 drawing represents a view of the Apennines, near Lucca. (Miiller-Walde, Leonardo da 
 Vinci, p. 64.)
 
 COLLABORATION OF LEONARDO AND VERROCCHIO 39 
 
 suavity. Here, if I am not mistaken, is the point where that 
 striving aiter beauty begins which, after a certain moment, makes 
 itself felt in Verrocchio's chief works : his Incredulity of S. 
 Thomas} wherein the saint, with his serene and benign counte- 
 nance, is worthy to sit among the Apostles of the Last Supper 
 in Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Angels of the Forteguerra tomb, 
 and the Lady with the Bouquet of the Ufifizi Gallery, that meagre 
 bust which is nevertheless so distinguished and fascinating in 
 expression. 
 
 Another study of Three dancing Girls and a sketch of a head 
 (Accademia at Venice), offers the same points of resemblance, and the 
 same differences. Here we see again the crumpled draperies so dear 
 to Verrocchio, his abruptness of movement, his stiffness of fore- 
 shortening, notably in the dancer in the background holding a scarf 
 over her head like a child with a skipping-rope.- At the same time 
 there is much of the grace peculiar to Leonardo ; one of these 
 dishevelled Bacchantes, in classic costume, is remarkable for her 
 smile, her deep-eyed gaze, the curve of her arm, the rhythm of 
 her gesture. The technique — the drawing is executed in pen-and-ink 
 — recalls the hand of Verrocchio, but it has a freedom and charm 
 unknown to that artist. A curious drawing among those ascribed to 
 \'errocchio in the Louvre (His de la Salle collection, No. 1 18), contains 
 a few words written backwards, in which M. Charles Ravaisson-Mollien 
 does not hesitate to recognise Leonardo's writing.^ Though the 
 Madonna of this sheet is of a somewhat mean and archaic type, not 
 without analogies to that of the Umbrian school, the slight sketch of 
 the youth (S. John the Baptist?) has a grace and freedom that suggest 
 Leonardo. 
 
 1 Great was the impression produced by this group when it was installed, on June 
 21, 1483, in one of the tabernacles of Or San Michèle. A contemporary, Landucci, 
 declares that never before had so beautiful a head of Christ been seen: "la piii bella 
 testa del Salvatore ch' ancora si sia fatta." (Diario fiorentitio dal 1450 at 15 16; 
 Florence, 1S83, p. 45.) 
 
 2 This figure may be compared with the Angels in the Thiers collection at the Louvre, 
 those of the Forteguerra monument, and those of the ciborium of the church at Monteluce, 
 which Venturi attributes to a pupil of Verrocchio, Francesco di Simone Ferrucci of 
 Fiesole {Archivio storico ifclP Arte, 1892, p. 376). 
 
 ^ Mémoires de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, 1S85, p. 132 — 145.
 
 4° 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 It was impossible that Verrocchio should not have employed 
 the most brilliant of his followers in his works. Here again, the 
 pupil revealed his crushing superiority. 
 
 The Baplism of Christ, in the Accademia of Florence, gives 
 us certain valuable indications as to the collaboration of the two 
 artists. Vasar tells us, that after having seen the kneeling angel, 
 painted by Leonardo at the side of the Christ, Verrocchio, in 
 
 despair, threw down his brushes 
 and gave up painting. 
 
 A careful study of the picture 
 confirms the probability of this 
 story. Nothing could be more 
 unsatisfactory, more meagre 
 than the two chief figures, 
 Christ and S. John ; without 
 distinction of form, or poetry 
 ot expression, they are simply 
 laborious studies of some aged 
 and unlovely model, some 
 wretched mechanic whom Ver- 
 rocchio got to pose for him. 
 (Charles Perkins justly criticises 
 the hardness of the lines, the 
 stiffness of the style, the ab- 
 sence of all sentiment.) Look, on the other hand, at the consum- 
 mate youthful grace of the angel tradition assigns to Leonardo ! 
 How the lion reveals himself in the first stroke of his paw, and 
 with what excellent reason did Verrocchio confess himself van- 
 quished! It is not impossible that the background was also the 
 work of the young beginner ; it is a fantastic landscape, not unlike 
 that of the Mo7ia Lisa. The brown scale of colour, too, resembles 
 that which Leonardo adopted, notably in the Saint Jerome, of the 
 Vatican Gallery, in the Adoration of the Magi of the Uffizi (which, 
 however, is only a cartoon), in the Virgin of the Rocks, and in the 
 Mona Lisa. 
 
 To sum up, I will say that Leonardo never dreamt, and for 
 
 HEAU OF JOHN THE BAi'TIST, FROM VEKROCCHlOb " BAPTISM 
 OK CHRIST." 
 
 (Accademia, Florence.)
 
 STATUE OF COLLEONE, BY VERROCCHIO. (THE BASE BY LEOPARDI.) 
 
 (Piazza di SS. Giovanni e Paolo ai Venice.)
 
 COLLABORATION OF LEONARDO AND VERROCCHIO 43 
 
 excellent reason, of looking to Verrocchio for ready-made formulée 
 like those by which Raphael profited so long in Perugino's studio. 
 It was rather he who opened up to his astonished master unsus- 
 pected sources of beauty, which the latter scarcely had time to turn 
 to account.^ 
 
 Several German critics have gone so far as to determine 
 Leonardo's share in his master's pictures to the minutest details. 
 For my own part, I make no pretensions to such powers of 
 divination, and am content to draw my conclusions from facts 
 that are obvious to all open and impartial minds. Signor Morelli, 
 indeed, maintains that the Bapiisnt of Christ is entirely by Verroc- 
 chios hand.- 
 
 Who shall decide in this conflict of opinions ? The reader must 
 forgive me if I respect a tradition that agrees so well with the 
 testimony of the work itself, and continue to believe in the collaboration 
 of master and pupil. 
 
 A sketch in the Turin Museum shows us Leonardo preparing the 
 figure of the angel, whose beauty astounded his contemporaries. 
 
 Another drawing, in the Windsor Collection (reproduced in our 
 Plate 2), a study of drapery on a kneeling figure in profile to the left, 
 also has analogies with the angel in the Baptism. 
 
 It may not be superfluous to point out that Lorenzo di Credi 
 reproduced certain details of the Baptism of Christ in his picture of 
 the same subject in the Church of .San Domenico, near Florence 
 (Photograph by Alinari, No. 7726). There is also a strong likeness 
 between the angel of Verrocchio's Baptism and the Virgin's attendant 
 angel in Domenico Ghirlandajo's picture in the National Gallery 
 of London.^ Ghirlandajo's Infant Jesus, too, with his plump, rounded 
 contours, recalls or foreshadows the type given to the child by 
 Leonardo. 
 
 ' .\n Italian critic, Signor Tumiati, has recently vindicated Verrocchio's claims to the 
 beautiful bas-relief in the church of San Giacomo at Rome, signed " Opus Andreae," which 
 Schmarsow attributed to Andrea da Milano. But this Madonna and Child seem to me 
 too pure and classic a work for our master. It has too little in common with his restless 
 and very individual manner. L'Arte, 1898, p. 218 — 219. 
 
 - Die Galérien zu Berlin, p. 35 tf/ seq. 
 
 ^ Ascribed, in the National Gallery catalogue, to the School of Verrocchio. — Ed. 
 
 G 2
 
 44 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 A terra-cotta model, a study for one of the two angels on Cardinal 
 Forteguerra's tomb in the Cathedral at Prato (see p. 39), may also 
 perhaps have been the result of collaboration between master and 
 pupil. " If they were not by Verrocchio," says M. Louis Gonse, 
 " these angels (now in the Thiers Collection at the Louvre), might 
 well be by the divine hand of Leonardo himself, so strongly 
 does the Leonardesque sentiment that permeates them recall the 
 figures of the angels in the J^irj^iii of the Rocks, and the Baptisvi 
 of Christ!' 
 
 STUDY OF A HORSEMAN. 
 (Windsor Library )
 
 The Angels from Verrocchids Picture of the " Baptism 
 
 of Christ r 
 
 (The Angel on the right by Leonardo, the Angel on the left by Vtrn)cchi<».) 
 (accai)i:mia dfu.k hki.i.e arti, fi.orknck.)
 
 Printed by Draeger, Parts.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION (ATTRIBUTED TO LEONARDO). 
 (The Louvre.) 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 FIRST ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS : THE SHIELD-THE MEDUSA-THE FALL-PICTURES 
 ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO -THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LOUVRE AND THE ANNUN- 
 CIATION OF THE UFFIZl— THE PORTRAIT OF BANDINI BARONCELLI. 
 
 A 
 
 T the beginning of Leonardo's career, 
 as in that of every great artist, 
 we meet with the legend of a first 
 masterpiece. " A farmer," so the story runs, 
 " had asked Ser Piero da Vinci to get a shield 
 he had made out of the wood of a fig-tree 
 on his property decorated in Florence. Ser 
 Piero charged his son to paint something on 
 it, but without telling him where it came 
 from. Perceiving that the shield was warped 
 and very roughly cut, Leonardo straightened 
 it out by heat, and sent it to a turner 
 to plane and polish. After giving it a coat- 
 ing of plaster, and arranging it to his satis- 
 faction, he bethought him of a subject suitable for painting upon 
 it-something that should be of a nature to strike terror to any 
 who might attack the owner of this piece of armour, after the 
 manner of the Gorgon of old. To this end he collected in a 
 place, to which he alone had access, a number of crickets, grass- 
 hoppers, bats, serpents, lizards, and other strange creatures ; by 
 mingling these together he evolved a most horrible and terrifying 
 
 STUDY FOR THE ADORATION OF THE 
 MAGI. 
 
 (Collection, P. Valton.)
 
 46 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 monster, whose noisome breath filled the air with flames as it issued 
 from a rift among gloomy rocks, black venom streaming from 
 its open jaws, its eyes darting fire, its nostrils belching forth smoke. 
 The young artist suffered severely meanwhile from the stench arising 
 from all these dead animals, but his ardour enabled him to endure 
 it bravely to the end. The work being completed, and neither 
 his father nor the peasant coming to claim the shield, Leonardo 
 reminded his father to have it removed. Ser Piero therefore repaired 
 one morning to the room occupied by his son, and knocked at the 
 door ; it was opened by Leonardo, who begged him to wait a moment 
 before entering ; whereupon the young man retired, and placing the 
 shield on an easel in the window, so arranged the curtains that the 
 light fell upon the painting in dazzling brilliancy. Ser Piero, for- 
 getting the errand upon which he had come, experienced at the first 
 glance a violent shock, never thinking that this was nothing but a 
 shield, and, still less, that he was looking at a painting. He fell back 
 a step in alarm, but Leonardo restrained him. ' I see, father,' he 
 said, ' that this picture produces the effect I hoped for ; take it, then, 
 and convey it to its owner.' Ser Piero was greatly amazed, and lauded 
 the strange device adopted by his son. He then went secretly and 
 purchased another shield, ornamented with a heart pierced by an arrow, 
 and this he gave to the peasant, who, nothing doubting, ever after 
 regarded him with gratitude. Afterwards, Ser Piero sold Leonardo's 
 shield secretly to some merchants of Florence for lOO ducats, and they, 
 in their turn, easily obtained 300 for it from the Duke of Milan." ^ 
 
 The biographer has obviously embellished the story, but there is 
 nothing to authorise us in supposing that it is not founded on fact, 
 such pleasantries being extremely characteristic of Leonardo. Who 
 knows but that this shield served him as a passport, when he went 
 to seek his fortune at the Court of the Sforzi ? 
 
 As a pendant to the shield there was, according to the biographers, 
 a picture representing a Gorgon, surrounded by serpents intertwined, 
 and knotted in a thousand folds — "una testa di Megera con mirabilj 
 et varj agruppamenti di serpi." 
 
 ' Vasari . Lomazzo confirms this story, saying that the "rotella" was sent to 
 
 J^odovico il Moro. {TratUito della Pittura, book vii. chap, xxxii.)
 
 FIRST ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS 47 
 
 This picture was long identified with the one in the Uffizi. But 
 the oracles of Art have now decided that this could not have been pro- 
 duced till long after the death of da Vinci, and that it is the work of 
 some cinquecentist, painting from Vasari's description. We know, 
 however, from the testimony of an anonymous biographer ^ that a 
 Medusa painted by Leonardo was included in the collections of Cosimo 
 de' Medici about the middle of the sixteenth century. Cosimo's inter- 
 ventory is not less precise ; it mentions " un quadro con una Furia 
 infernale del Vinci semplice." ^ 
 
 The cartoon of The Fall has shared the fate of the Medusa. Here 
 again we have to content ourselves with Vasari's description, corrobor- 
 ated by the testimony of the biographer edited by Milanesi. "A 
 cartoon was entrusted to Leonardo, from which a portiej-e in cloth of 
 gold and silver was to be executed in Flanders for the King of 
 Portugal. The cartoon represented Adam and Eve in the garden 
 of Paradise at the moment of their disobedience. Leonardo made 
 a design of several animals in a meadow studded with flowers, which 
 he rendered with incredible accuracy and truth, painting them in 
 monochrome, with touches of ceruse. The leaves and branches of a 
 fig-tree are executed with such loving care that, verily, one can 
 scarcely fathom the patience of the artist. There is also a palm, 
 to which he has imparted such elasticity by the curves of its foliage 
 as none other could have attained to but himself. Unhappily, the 
 portière was never executed, and the cartoon is now in the fortunate 
 house of the magnificent Ottavio de Medici, to whom it was given 
 a short time ago by Leonardo's uncle." 
 
 Thus, from his earliest youth, Leonardo showed a taste for 
 bizarre subjects : the monster painted on the shield, the Gorgon 
 surrounded with serpents, so little in harmony with the prevailing 
 taste of contemporary Italian artists, which was becoming more and 
 more literary. Thus in The Fall we see him engaged upon the 
 reproduction of the very smallest details of vegetation. His burning 
 curiosity searched into problems of the most intricate, not to say 
 
 ' IMilanesi, Docuvtciiti iiiediti riguardanti Leoiiardo da Vinci, Florence, 1872, p. ii_ 
 Fabriczy, // Codice dell' Anonimo gaddiano, Florence, 1893, p. 77. 
 
 '^ See my Collections d' Antiques formées par les Medici s au xin'. sikle, \). 61.
 
 48 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 repulsive order. M. Taine has expressed this admirably in one 
 of his penetrating pieces of analysis, in which he teaches us 
 more about the genius of a master in a few lines than we 
 learn from whole volumes by others ; we will set it down as it 
 stands, for it would be impossible to put it better. " It happens now 
 and then," writes the author of the Voyage en Italic, " that among 
 
 these young athletes 
 haughty as Greek gods, 
 we light upon some beau- 
 tiful ambiguous youth, 
 of feminine mould, his 
 slender form contorted 
 into an attitude of lan- 
 guorous coquetry, akin 
 to the androgynes of the 
 Imperial epoch, and like 
 them, giving evidence of 
 a more advanced but 
 less healthy, an almost 
 morbid art, so eager after 
 perfection, so insatiable 
 of delio:ht, that, not con- 
 tent to accord strength 
 to man and delicacy to 
 woman, it must needs 
 confound and multiply 
 the beauty of the two 
 sexes by a strange fusion, 
 and lose itself in the dreams and researches of the ages of decadence 
 and immorality. There is no saying to what the protracted striving 
 after exquisite and profound sensations may not finally lead." 
 Leonardo was not one of those limited spirits for whom nature is 
 nothing but a convenient source of picturesque themes ; he embraced 
 it in all its infinite variety, and it was perhaps because he studied 
 its deformed and hideous aspects that he was enabled to show us 
 its purest, most ideal beauty. 
 
 t^T-S^^rck/!!^ 
 
 STUDY OF HEADS, DATED 147c. 
 
 (Uffizi, Florence.)
 
 Ill 
 Study for a //lai^ of tliv Virs^iii, ascribed to Lcoiiarcio.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION" IN THE LOUVRE 
 
 49 
 
 Modern criticism, inconsolabe at the loss of these early master 
 pieces, has ingeniously endeavoured to fill up so regrettable a gap 
 in Leonardo's work by a series of productions which undoubtedly 
 reveal the influence of the young artist, but which have perhaps 
 been too hastily accepted as his own. 
 
 One of the earliest and most interesting among these is 
 the Annunciation in the 
 Louvre, in the gallery 
 overlooking the river. 
 This picture, which is of 
 very small dimensions 
 (14 cm. high by 59 cm. 
 wide, with figures 15 cm. 
 high), was formerly arched 
 at the top but is now 
 rectangular. It was at- 
 tributed to Lorenzo di 
 Credi until Bayersdorfer, 
 whose opinion was adopted 
 by INIorelli, proposed to 
 give it the name of 
 Leonardo. The curly- 
 headed angel kneeling in 
 a sort of ecstasy in front 
 of the Virgin, suggests 
 the one in the Anminci- 
 ation of the Uffizi, to 
 
 which we shall presently refer. The Virgin, too, presents the 
 Leonardesque type, with an added touch of morbidezza. But this 
 type, as we know, was adopted by Boltrafifio, and many other Milanese 
 pupils of the master. Although the impasto is very fat, the accessories 
 ■ — the desk in front of which the Virgin is seated, the seats near it, 
 etc. — are rendered with infinite care. The little piece of landscape 
 in the background is beautiful, tranquil and imposing. The trees, 
 unfortunately, have blackened. 
 
 The Ammncialion of the Louvre differs from that of the Uffizi 
 
 M 
 
 BUST OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST (ASCRIBED TO LEONARDD). 
 
 (South Kensington Museum.)
 
 50 LEONARIJO DA VINCI 
 
 firstly in its dim-jiisions, its narrowness being quite abnormal, and 
 secondly, in the attitude of the V^irgin, who is here in profile, while 
 in the Ufifizi p'cture she faces three-quarters to the front. This 
 Virgin has been compared with a study of a head in the Uffizi 
 (see our full-page Plate). ^ Another head, three-quarters face, in the 
 library at Windsor, is also akin to it. On the other hand, the angel 
 of the Louvre suggests that of the Uffizi in every way. The attitude 
 is identical ; he kneels on one knee, the right hand raised, the left 
 falling to the level of the knee. 
 
 The Annunciation of the Uffizi Gallery has been restored to 
 Leonardo by authoritative connoisseurs such as Baron von Liphart, 
 ~ Dr. Bode, and Baron de Geymuller, while others, Crowe and Caval- 
 caselle, and IMorelli (agreeing for once!) persist in ascribing it to 
 Ridolfo Ghirlandajo. The picture, which once adorned the Convent 
 of Monte Oliveto near Florence, is in every respect worthy of 
 Leonardo's magic brush ; the grace and freshness of the figures, 
 deliciously juvenile with their coquettishly curled hair and their 
 exquisitely arranged draperies,'- the finish and poetic charm of the 
 landscape, a sea-port — perhaps, according to de Geymuller, Porto 
 Pisano — with beacons and a kind of jetty, backed by mountains of 
 improbable height : all are arguments in favour of Leonardo's author- 
 ship. The angel kneeling on one knee recalls the attitudes, so full of 
 compunction, beloved of Fra Angelico ; it also resembles, in certain 
 points, Lorenzo di Credi's angel in his Annunciation in the Uffizi, 
 saving that in this latter work the drawing is weaker and rounder. 
 
 In spite of the great charni of this composition, we may be per- 
 mitted to hesitate as to its authenticity, and that for various reasons. 
 
 1 MilUcr-Walde (Fig. 66) connects this head witli the Resurnction in the Berlin (lallery. 
 
 ■ It was assuredly thus, in a manner at once affecting and devout, that Leonardo 
 considered the Annunciation should be represented. In his Treatise on Painting (chap, 
 viii.) he criticises the artists who give exaggerated movement to such a subject. " I have 
 recently seen," he says, "an angel, who, in announcing her destiny to the Virgin, apjieared 
 to be driving her from her chamber, for his movements expressed the indignation one 
 might feel in the presence of one's worst enemy, and Our Lady seemed ready to throw 
 herself in desperation from the window." 
 
 It is not impossible that the study of dr.ipery for a seated figure facing the spectator, 
 and slightly turned to the left (Louvre) may relate to the \''w\^\n ui \\\c .Innunciation, 
 desijite the difference in detail. So too, the drajiery of the kneeling figure, turned to the 
 right (Uftizi) may be that of the angel (.Muller-Walde, fig. 191).
 
 "THE VIRdIX WITH THE CARXAriOX" 51 
 
 The Annunciation has a precision, I mean a rigour and firmness of 
 outHne, which is rarely found in the authentic works of Leonardo, who 
 banished architecture as much as possible from his compositions (his 
 only exception to this rule being his Last Supper), in order to leave a 
 wider field for landscape and aerial perspective. The presence of 
 the magnificent classical pedestal which serves the Virgin for a reading- 
 desk is also calculated to inspire some doubt. Would Leonardo, 
 who rarely copied Greek or Roman sculptures, have been likely to 
 reproduce this with such elaboration ? Let us be content to admire 
 a youthful and exquisite work which offers several points of contact 
 v.ith Leonardo's style, and refrain from attempts to solve a problem 
 calculated to exercise the sagacity of the critics for a long time 
 to come. 
 
 Followinsf on the two Annunciations, if we are to believe certain 
 connoisseurs, comes a Virgin and Child, acquired in 1S89 by the 
 Munich Pinacothek, and now known to fame under the title of the 
 Virgin luith the Carnation} The history of this little picture (it 
 measures 40 x 60 centimetres only) is quite a romance. Sold at Gtinz- 
 burg for the modest sum of a guinea, it was bought again almost 
 immediately by the Pinacothek for ^40, and instantly declared to be a 
 masterpiece. It is a most enthralling work, combining a grand and 
 dignified solemnity with extreme finish and consummate modelling ; 
 a penetrating poetic charm breathes from the picture. If the Child, 
 with its puffy cheeks, approaches somewhat too closely to the rather 
 unsympathetic type created by Lorenzo di Credi (see No. 1616 in 
 the same collection), the \'irgin captivates us by the grace of her 
 features, and the elegance of her costume : a pale blue robe of very 
 complicated modulations ; red bodice and sleeves ; yellow scarf falling 
 over the right shoulder and on to the knees. The landscape is 
 vaporous, as is so often the case in Leonardo's works. But the 
 impasto is rich in the flesh-tints (particularly those of the Child) 
 which incline to blue. 
 
 The attribution of this picture to Leonardo was not undisputed. 
 M. Emile IMolinier, pointing out a replica of the Virgin with the 
 
 1 Bayersdorfer.— De Gejmiiller, Gazette des lieaux Arts, i8go, vol. ii. pp.97 — 106 
 Koopmann, Repertoriuni Jiir KunslwissmseJiajt, 1890, pp. 118^122. 
 
 H 2
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 
 Carnation in the Louvre, has insisted on the Flemish character of 
 the composition. I must, however, draw attention to the fact that, 
 compared with the copy in the Louvre, which, though absolutely faith- 
 ful, is without force or warmth, the Munich picture produces the effect 
 of a diamond beside a piece of glass. More recently, Herr Rieffel 
 too pronounced in favour of its northern origin ; he is disposed to 
 look for the author of the Vù-g-in of the Carnation among the painters 
 of the Low Countries or the Lower Rhine, who sought inspiration 
 in Italy and from the Italian masters at the beginning of the fifteenth 
 
 century. Morelli, whose 
 appreciations — frequently 
 hyper-subtle — should be 
 received with extreme 
 caution, unhesitatingly at- 
 tributed the Munich pic- 
 ture to a mediocre Flemish 
 painter, working from 
 some drawings of Ver- 
 rocchio's. Finally, Herr 
 W. Schmidt puts forward 
 Lorenzo di Credi as its 
 author.! For my part, I 
 will add that what seems 
 to mc the main argument against Leonardo's authorship is the type of 
 
 1 See the BiiUdin de la Socicti nationale des Antiquaires de France, 1890. — Reper- 
 toriiim fiir Kunsiwissenschajt, 1891, p. 217 — 220. — Morelli, Die Galérien zii Miinchen 
 Jind Dresden, jip. 349 — 2>i(i.--Zeitschrift fi'ir hild. Kunst., 1893, p. 139 — 147. 
 
 The Virgin with the Carnation has been connected with a drawing in the Dresden 
 Gallery attributed to Leonardo and containing a study for a Virgin, a half-length figure. 
 But it is by no means clear that this drawing is by the hand of Leonardo. Morelli claims 
 it for Verrocchio, and the head has certainly something very poor about it, notably in 
 the modelling of the nose. It offers as many points of divergence as of contact with 
 the Munich picture, and therefore proves nothing cither for or against the authenticity 
 of the latter. 
 
 Critics have even gone so far as to attribute to Leonardo the miserable little picture, 
 in the same Gallery, of the Virgin seated and holding out a blackberry to the Child, lying 
 nude upon her knees, while the infant S. John the Baptist adores him with ujjlifted 
 hands (No. 13). This picture appears to me hardly worthy of Lorenzo di Credi, to whom 
 Herr Woermann ascribes it {Katalog der K. Geindldegalerie zu Dresden, 1887). According 
 to Morelli, its author was a Flemish imitator of Loren/.o di Credi. 
 
 ' , '"'^r^^n^ 
 
 STLDY HOk itlK AUOKATION OF THE MAGI. 
 
 (Hoiinat Collection, Paris.)
 
 PICTUR1':S ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO 
 
 S3 
 
 
 »r»«r-wj'i»ft, 
 
 the Virgin, which is one never met with in his pictures ; and also the 
 absence of that contrast between the lights and shadows, so striking 
 in the Adoration of the Mai^i, the Virgin of the Rocks, the S. Jerome, 
 and the Mona Lisa. 
 
 A picture— very much damaged— in the Berlin Museum, the 
 Resurrection of Christ betiveen S. Leonard 
 and S. Lucy} is also an early work by 
 Leonardo, according to Dr. Bode.- Dr. 
 Bode notes, as particularly characteristic 
 of Leonardo's manner, the contrast of 
 the warm afolden and red-brown tones 
 with the cool blue-green tints, the chiaro- 
 scuro, the " pastoso " of the oil-colours, 
 and the fine net-work which covers the 
 carnations. There are several drawings 
 of absolute authenticity, Dr. Bode adds, 
 which served as preparatory studies for 
 this picture. These are, first, the por- 
 trait of a woman at Windsor ; the model 
 here is represented with downcast eyes ; 
 a large drawing in silver point, a study 
 for the robe of Christ (Malcolm Col- 
 lection in the British INIuseum) ; lastly, a 
 pen-and-ink drawing, a sketch, with the 
 head of Saint Leonard, in the Uffizi 
 (p. 48). That the Resurrection of the 
 Berlin Museum had its origin in Leon- 
 ardo's studio, that its author laid certain 
 studies of the master under contribution 
 for it, no one can doubt ; but to accept it as a picture painted by his 
 own hand is to maintain a conclusion against which the great majority 
 of connoisseurs from one end of Europe to the other have protested. 
 
 K# 
 
 SKETCH OF BARONCELLl. 
 
 (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 
 
 1 The choice of these two saints has been regarded as an alkision to the Christian 
 name of the painter, and that of liis father's mother, the aged Lucia. 
 
 ■ Jahrbucli der Kg. Picuss. Kiiits/samm/ungeii, 1884 — Gazelle des Beaux-Ails, 18S9, 
 vol. i. p. 501—505.
 
 54 LEONARDO DA \I.\CI 
 
 This first series of pictures should be completed, according to some 
 German critics, by the engaging portrait of a woman in the Liechten- 
 stein Gallery in Vienna, formerly attributed to Boltraffio.^ The widely 
 opened eyes, the slender nose, the rather prim mouth, the short chin 
 and flattened jaw certainly recall the type of the Virgin in the Annun- 
 ciation in the Ufhzi. But this is important only if the Annunciation 
 really is by the hand of the master — " quod est demonstrandum." 
 
 If the authenticity of the pictures we have just passed in review 
 arouses many a tloubt, "a fortiori" it would be impossible to fix their 
 chronology. Any attempt in that direction would be premature and 
 hazardous. 
 
 But though we may seek in vain for guiding data in Leonardo's 
 youthful pictures, we are on firmer ground if we turn our attention to 
 his drawings. 
 
 As basis of our operations we should take, as I have already pointed 
 out, the Landscape dated 1473 ; the three Dancing Girls of the 
 Accademia in Venice, which were most certainly executed in the 
 studio of Verrocchio, and perhaps the study for the head of a youth 
 in the Weimar Gallery, a study in which I am inclined to see the 
 portrait of the model who sat to Verrocchio for his David (p. '},'^. 
 
 To judge by a certain heaviness in the manipulation of the pen, 
 we may add to these first efforts a drawing in the Windsor Library, 
 essentially rough in execution. It contains several combinations for a 
 Saint Georoe strikine at the dragon either with a lance or with a 
 club : also sketches of horses turning or lying upon the ground with 
 exaggerated flexibility, as if they had no backbone (the horse in the 
 left-hand corner suggests the horse of the Colleone statue). There 
 is a curious shapelessness in the hoofs of these animals, a strange 
 stiffness in their clumsy necks. 
 
 The pendant to this drawing contains a series of studies for 
 cats and leopards ; a cat watching a mouse, a cat putting up its 
 back, a sleeping cat, a cat washing itself, a leopard crouching before 
 
 1 This opinion was brouglit forward for the first time by Dr. Bode : Italienisc/ie 
 Bi/ii/uuier, p. 156. — According to Miiller-Walde {Leonardo da Vhici, p. 66) the Vienna 
 portrait dates from about 1472.
 
 CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY WORKS 55 
 
 it springs. Among these studies from nature, in \vhich the cat shows 
 its affinity to the tiger, there is a fantastic dragon, such as the 
 imaginative artists of the Middle Ages carved on the gargo\l"s of 
 cathedrals.^ 
 
 To the years 1472-1473 a biographer assigns a series of drawings 
 — studies of heads in the Borghese Gallery at Rome, the Uffizi 
 Gallery, and the collection at Christ Church, Oxford, — which exhibit 
 a type already very marked, very personal, midway between those of 
 Ghirlandajo and Botticelli, by which I mean that it has all the 
 firmness of the former combined with the distinction of the latter. - 
 Though making my own reservations as to the dates assigned to 
 these drawings, I note, more especially in the two first, scarcely per- 
 ceptible traces of archaism : for instance, the rather low square chin. 
 The artist has not yet mastered the gamut of expression ; the note 
 of sentiment is as yet unfamiliar to him. 
 
 It is well known that Leonardo took great pleasure in designing 
 fantastic helmets ; we may note especially that in the superb drawing 
 of the Warrior in the Malcolm collection. Her Miiller-Walde, one 
 of the latest of the master's biographers, has, however, been surely 
 somewhat hasty in connecting these sketches with the order for the 
 helmet of honour presented to the Duke of Urbino by the Florentine 
 Republic after the taking of X'olterra (1472)! Now, Herr Miiller- 
 Walde knows as well as I do that this helmet was made by Antonio 
 del Pollajuolo ; consequently, my honourable opponent has been forced 
 to fall back upon the hypothesis of a competition in which Leonardo 
 is supposed to have taken part. Here again, I can only say, that 
 this is an ingenious conjecture without any solid foundation. Indeed, 
 everything justifies the belief that this broad, am.ple drawing (p. 57), 
 dates from a much later period in the artist's life. 
 
 At tliis time too, according to Herr Mtiller-Walde, Leonardo 
 had begun to w'ork for the Medici. Certain studies of costume in the 
 Royal Library at Windsor" are supposed by him to be connected with 
 
 ^ A draped figure, st.-inding, seen from behind (Windsor Librarv- ; Richter, vol. i. 
 pi. xxviii, no. 7, p. 391), recalls the traditions of the Quattrocento, the types of Perugino 
 and Pinturicchio. It has none of the freedom and ease proper to Leonardo. 
 
 - Miiller-Walde, Leonardo da Viiia\ fig. 7. 
 
 •' Leonardo da Vinci, fig. 36, 37, 3S. Cf. i'. 74.
 
 56 LEONARDO DA VIiXCI 
 
 the tournament of 1475, of which Giuliano de' Medici was the hero. 
 The youthful female figure in a cuirass is, he says, no other than La 
 bella Simonetta, as is proved by her perfect resemblance (!) to Botti- 
 celli's Sinionetta in the Berlin Museum. But I must confess that 
 I have not been able to find the most distant analogy between the 
 features of these personages and those in Leonardo's sketch, which, 
 from their technique, I should judge to be of much later date. 
 
 On the other hand, a sketch in the Windsor Library of a young 
 man in profile, wearing a sort of cap, the upper part of which falls over 
 the back of his neck,^ is not unlike the bust of Lorenzo the Magnificent, 
 formerly in Florence, and now in the Berlin Museum. 
 
 Finally, the young woman with the outstretched left hand of one 
 of the Windsor drawings is, according to Herr Muller-Walde,- no other 
 than Dante's Beatrice, and of the same period as Botticelli's composi- 
 tions. The hypothesis has, in itself, nothing very improbable about it, 
 but, if I am not mistaken, this again is a much later work. 
 
 Concurrently with painting, if we may believe Vasari, our sole guide 
 for this period of the master's life, Leonardo worked at sculpture. 
 At the same time he was studying architecture, sketching out plans 
 of buildings, more picturesque than practical, and lastly, applying 
 himself with ardour to the problem for which he had a passion all 
 his life, the movement of water. It was at this time that he drew 
 up a project for the canalisation of the Arno between Florence 
 and Pisa. 
 
 In his first efforts as a sculptor, the biographer tells us, Leonardo 
 executed busts of smiling women and children, worthy of a finished 
 artist. A bust dating from this period, a Christ, was later in the 
 possession of the Milanese painter-author, Lomazzo, who describes it 
 as marked by a child-like simplicity and candour, combined with an 
 expression of wisdom, intelligence, and majesty truly divine. No 
 trace of these early efforts has come down to us. 
 
 But at least we know the models which inspired the young da Vinci ; 
 these were, after the productions of Verrocchio, the polychrome terra- 
 cottas of the della Robbia. In the Traitato dclla Pittura (chap. 
 XXX vii) he makes special mention of them — he who so seldom mentions 
 ' ]\Iuller-Walde, Leonardo da Vinci, fig. 13. - Ibid. p. 75.
 
 IV 
 
 S/iti/j- /or a Head of the Virgin, as' ribed to Leo 
 
 no I no. 
 
 ( \\ I MtSi IK I il:u \i;v Ï
 
 CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY WORKS 
 
 57 
 
 a name — though only in reference to their technique. His hnter to 
 the commissaries of Piacenza Cathedral is more explicit ; in it he; 
 cites with justifiable pride the works in bronze which adorn his native 
 Florence, and notably the gates of the Baptistery,^ the masterpiece of 
 Ghiberti. Vasari further 
 tells us that he pro- 
 fessed great admiration 
 for Donatello. 
 
 An admirable terra- 
 cotta in South Kensing- 
 ton Museum, formerly 
 in the Gigli-Campana 
 collection, a young Sain/ 
 John tJie Baptist, half 
 length, with thick hair, 
 bare neck and arms, and 
 a strip of sheep's skin 
 across the breast, dis- 
 plays the Leonardesque 
 type in every point. If it 
 cannot with certainty be 
 attributed to the youth- 
 ful master, it may at least 
 show us what the style 
 of his first Florentine 
 sculptures probably was. 
 
 Afr-îr 1478, we feel we are at last on firm ground. A drawing in 
 the Uffizi, to which M. Charles Ravaisson first called attention, 
 furnishes us with some particularly valuable indications bearing upon 
 Leonardo's work after he left Verrocchio. This drawing, inscribed 
 with the date in question, shows us that by this time the young master 
 had already addressed himself to the study of those character-heads, 
 beautiful or the reverse, which were destined to occupy so large a 
 place in his work. He has sketched the portrait of a man about 
 sixty, with a hooked nose, a bold and prominent chin, a very forcibly 
 
 ' Richter, vol. ii. p. 401. 
 
 I 
 
 I'OKTKAIT OF A WAKREOK. 
 
 (Malcolm Collection, British Museum.)
 
 58 LEONARDO DA MXCI 
 
 modelled throat ; the expression is energetic, and the whole composition 
 as free as it is assured. All trace of archaism has disappeared ; the 
 flexibility of the treatment is extraordinary ; the supreme difficulties 
 in the interpretation of the human countenance are triumphantly 
 surmounted. The sketch of 1478, somewhat softened, becomes the 
 marvellous study in red chalk, also in the Uffizi (No. 150 of Braun's 
 photographs). Opposite to this head, which attracts all eyes, there is 
 a head of a young man, very lightly sketched, with those flowing, 
 languorous lines which are the very essence of Leonardo's art. Beside 
 this are sketches of mill-wheels, and something like an embryo turbine 
 — the complete Leonardo already revealed. "On the. . . . 1478, I 
 beçran the two Yirofins," is written above the drawing. We do not 
 know which these two Madonnas were, and their identity opens up 
 a wide field for conjectures. 
 
 By this time, Leonardo's fellow-citizens and even the government 
 had begun to take note of his fam-i. On [anuary i, 147S, the Signory 
 of Florence commissioned him, in the place of Piero del Pollajuolo, to 
 paint an altar-piece for the chapel of S. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio. 
 The fate of this work was, alas, tliat of so many others. Having 
 thrown himself with ardour into the task (on March 16 of the same 
 year he received 25 florins on account) the artist tired of it, and the 
 Signory was obliged, on May 20, 1483, to apply, first to Domenico 
 Ghirlandajo, and subsequently to Filippino Lippi, who carried out the 
 commission in 1484.^ His picture, however, was placed, not in the 
 chapel of S. Bernard, but in the Hall of Lilies in the Palazzo Vecchio. 
 Herr M tiller- Walde identifies the picture left unfinished by Leonardo 
 with the Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi, in which other critics, 
 the present writer among them, see the cartoon designed for the con- 
 vent of San Donato at Scopeto (see next chapter). The Cicerone 
 believes it to have been the S. Jerome in the Vatican. 
 
 In 1479 Leonardo appears to have received an order, less important 
 certainly, but more likely to appeal to an imagination which took 
 such delight in the grotesque. After the conspiracy of the Pazzi, the 
 
 1 " Coniincio a dipingere una tavola nel detto Palazo, la quale dipoi in sul suo disegno 
 fu finiia per Filip])o di Fra Filippo.'' (Anonymous biograjjhy, published by Milanesi, 
 p. II.) — '\\'ù\\<ix-\\i\à.c, Jalirhucli der /;g. Preiiss Kunstsammlungen, 1897, p. 126.
 
 DRAWING OF B. BARON'CELLI 59 
 
 Florentine government resolved to have the portraits of the rebels 
 painted on the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio, that their ignominious 
 effigies might serve as a warning to future conspirators. They 
 addressed themselves, as was customary, to the best known painters 
 — Giottino, Andrea del Castagno, and many others had not hesitated 
 to accept similar missions. The gentle Botticelli undertook one part 
 of the work, Leonardo the other. Such at least would seem to be the 
 case, judging from a curious drawing in the collection of M. Léon 
 Bonnat, in which Leonardo has represented one of the conspirators, 
 Bernardo di Bandini Baroncelli, who, having taken refuge in Con- 
 stantinople, was delivered up by the Sultan — an.xious by this act 
 of extradition to show his good will towards the Medici — and hanged 
 at Florence, December 29, 1479. The care with which the artist 
 has noted every detail of the criminal's costume, even down to the 
 colour of each article of raiment, authorises us in assuming that this 
 sketch was to serve as the groundwork of a portrait which should take 
 its place beside that executed by Botticelli. Here then we have the 
 seraphic painter suddenly transformed into the depicter of criminals, 
 almost, as it were, the assistant of the executioner ! Leonardo, I dare 
 swear, accepted the role without repugnance. For him, science 
 ever went hand in hand with art. The study of the patient's last 
 moments, the observation of the spasms of the death agony, interested 
 him quite as keenly from the physiological as from the pictorial point 
 of view. At Milan, later on. he frequently attended executions, not 
 from morbid curiosity, but from the desire, so legitimate in the thinker 
 and philosopher, to contemplate the supreme struggle between life and 
 death, to seize the precise moment at which the last breath of vitality 
 escapes, at which the gulf opens, whose depths no human eye has 
 fathomed. This tension of every faculty of observation in the artist is 
 eloquently expressed in the drawing in the Bonnat collection. There 
 
 1 Poliziano describes the character of this personage in these forcible terms : " Uomo 
 scelerato, audace, e che non conosceva paura, in quale avendo ancora esso mandate male 
 cio che legli aveva, era involto in ogni sorte di sceleratezza ... il Bandino fu il primo 
 che gli passb (Giuliano) el petto con un pugnale. 
 
 " Bandini, non si contentando di avere con i suoi amazzato Giuliano, se nando alia volia 
 di Lorenzo, il quale di già a punto s'era salvalo con pochi in sccrestia, ma intanto il 
 Bandini passb con la spada la vita a Francesco Nori, uomo accorto e che faceva per i 
 Medici, e I'amazzb." {La Coiigiura de' Pazzi, ed. del Lungo, pp. 92, 95, loi.)
 
 6o LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 is no room here for emotion, for pity ; no attempt even at any misc-cn- 
 schie : a body in loosely hanging garments dangling at the end of a 
 rope, the head bent forward, the hands bound upon the back — this is 
 the whole composition. The dryness of the inscription which accom- 
 panies the drawing : — ■" tan-coloured breeches, black doublet, blue cloak 
 lined with fox-skin, black shoes," — accentuates the impassibility of this 
 young man of twenty-seven in the presence of the most moving dramas. 
 
 Baroncelli was hanged December 29, 1479. Leonardo was there- 
 fore in Florence at this period.^ 
 
 In spite of many uncertainties, we are perfectly justified, if only 
 from the evidences contained in Leonardo's early productions, in 
 affirming that from his very childhood he possessed an extraordinary 
 power of assimilation ; that his mind took hold upon exterior forms, 
 and made them his own with a facility that amounted to the marvellous. 
 How different to Raphael, who was indebted in turn to the Umbrians, 
 the Florentines, and the antique, before he finally created a type 
 and a style exclusively his own ! Even Michelangelo, in spite of the 
 originality and loftiness of his genius, more than once laid his pre- 
 decessors under contributions, notably Jacopo della Querela and 
 Signorelli, not to mention the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 Predecessors and contemporaries were alike powerless over 
 Leonardo. Indifferent to the motives created by others, he was 
 indebted to no man but himself. 
 
 ' Richter, vol. i. p. 346, ^loU.
 
 Head of a Yoimo J] oma/i. 
 
 . -..-lî.)
 
 Prinled by Draeger, Paris.
 
 STUUV FOR "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. 
 
 (Uffizi, Florence.) 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI — "THES. JEROME — DEPARTURE FROM FLORENXE 
 — SUPPOSED JOURNEY TO THE EAST. 
 
 LEONARDO'S thirtieth birthday 
 was approaching, and he was 
 working on his own account.^ 
 His reputation was now so far estab- 
 lished that in March, 14S1, the monks 
 of the rich monastery of San Donato 
 at Scopeto, beyond the Porta Romana, 
 commissioned him to paint the altar- 
 piece for their high altar, " la pala per 
 I'altare maggiore.'' - 
 
 ' In August, 1 48 1, he was settled in his own 
 house, "casa sua propria," at Floience. MuUer- 
 \Va\de,/a/irùuc/i der kg. Preuss. Kiinstsammluiigen, 
 
 1897, p. 121. 
 
 - The time allowed him for the completion of 
 the altar-piece was two, or two and a half years. He was to receive in payment the third 
 of a little property in the Val d^Elsa, but the abbey reserved the right of redeeming this 
 third within a term of two years, for 300 florins " di suggello." Finally, on this third, 
 Leonardo undertook to furnish the sum necessary to secure a dowry of 150 florins on 
 the Monte di I'iuta of Florence for a young girl mentioned in the act. He was also 
 bound to provide his own colours, gold, &c. 
 
 The monastery of San Donato, which contained pictures by Filii)pino Lippi, Botticelli- 
 
 STUDY FOR "the AUUK.^TIQN 
 (JF iHB MAGI." 
 
 (The Louvre.)
 
 62 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 The artist set to work at once, but yielding to a fatal tendency — he 
 was all flame at the beginning, all ice at the end of a few weeks — he 
 soon put the unfinished work aside.^ The monks waited patiently for 
 about fifteen years. At last, in despair, they addressed themselves to 
 Filippino Lippi. In 1496 he, more expeditious than Leonardo, 
 delivered the beautiful Adoration of the Magi, the brilliant and 
 animated work that now hangs in the same room with Leonardo's 
 unfinished cartoon in the Ufifizi. From the fact that the subject given 
 to Filippino was the Adoration of the Magi, it was concluded that this 
 was also the subject of the altar-piece begun by Leonardo ; hence the 
 identification of the cartoon with that in the Uffizi. True, the works 
 ol the two artists are almost of the same size, a fact that has escaped 
 my predecessors. Signor Ferri, Keeper of the Prints and Drawings 
 at the Uffizi, informs me that Leonardo's cartoon measures 2 metres 
 30 cm. by 2 m. 30 cm., and Filippino's picture 2 m. 53 cm. by 2 m. 43 
 cm. Both, in short, adopted a square, or almost a square shape, a very 
 unusual one for such pictures. 
 
 But there are several objections to this argument. The interval 
 between Leonardo's commission (1481) and Filippino's (about 1496) is 
 so great that the friars may very well have changed their minds, 
 and chosen a new subject. On the other hand, it is, of course, possible 
 that Leonardo may have treated the same subject twice. But the ne.Kt 
 objection is a weightier one. In June, 1481, the picture ordered bv 
 the monks of San Donato was so far advanced that the brothers made 
 a purchase of ultramarine, a precious substance used on))- on definitive 
 paintings. Now the Uffizi cartoon is simply a sketch in bistre. A 
 further objection is, that one of the studies for the Adoration of the 
 Magi appears on the back of a sketch for Leonardo's masterpiece, the 
 Last Supper. This juxtaposition is difficult to explain, if the cartoon 
 
 and otlicr famous masters, was, like so many other monuments outlying,' the city, 
 destroyed by the Florentines as a precautionary measure in view of the siege of 1529. 
 (See Carocci, Dintorni di Firenze, \). 196. Florence, 1881.) 
 
 ' The registers of the monastery for July, 1481, mention various small advances: 
 first, twenty-eight florins to secure the dowry in question, then a florin and a half to buy 
 colours. .'\t an earlier date, June 25, the brothers had advanced four lire ten soldi, to 
 buy an ounce of blue and an ounce of giallolino (pale yellow). They further sent Leonardo 
 at Florence a load of faggots and a load of large logs, with one lira six soldi, for painting 
 the clock, " per dipintura fece di uriolo."
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" 63 
 
 was really painted in 1481, some ten years before the fresco. Finally, 
 the style of the cartoon is akin, in parts, to that of Leonardo's works of 
 1500, rather than to that of youthful achievements, such as the Virgin 
 of the Rocks. It has the supple modelling, the over-elastic attitudes, in 
 which the bony substructure is apt to disappear altogether. We may 
 add that the inclination the artist shows to represent horses in a great 
 variety of attitudes points to the period of his studies for the Battle of 
 Anghiari and the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, rather than 
 his initial stages.^ 
 
 If the date 1481 adopted by certain writers should be received with 
 great reserve, that of 1478 put forward by others, who look upon the 
 Ado7'ation of the Magi as identical with a picture ordered in this year 
 for one of the chapels of the Palazzo Vecchio,- must be uncompro- 
 misingly rejected. The chapel in question was dedicated to Saint 
 Bernard, who figured in the altar-piece by Bernardo Daddi (1335). 
 which Leonardo was invited to replace, and also in Filippino Lippi's 
 work, which was finally substituted for that begun by Leonardo. How- 
 are we to reconcile the presence of Saint Bernard with an Adoration 
 of the Magi ? 
 
 1 may add that Herr Miiller-Walde believes the picture ordered by 
 the monks of San Donate to have been a Christ bearing the Cross.^ 
 The German author considers a head of Christ in the Accademia at 
 Venice a study tor the picture in question. This study, on green 
 paper (for which Leonardo had a predilection at the beginning of his 
 career), has certainly strong affinities with Verrocchio's type of 
 Christ. But the rest of the German critic's assumption is purely 
 ofratuitous. 
 
 ' Vasari only says that Leonardo began a picture of the Adoration of tlie Magi, of 
 great beauty, especially in the heads. "This picture," he says, "was in the house of 
 Amerigo Benci, opposite the Loggia of the Peruzzi ; like the master's other works, it 
 was left unfinished." M. Sirzygowski, unacquainted with the studies I had published 
 eight years before in Z' Art (April 15 and August 15, 1887), and in the Rroue des deux 
 Mondes (October i, 18S7), is of opinion that the Uffizi cartoon was begun after Leonardo's 
 sojourn at Milan; that the drawing in the Galichon collection dates from 14S0; the 
 right-hand portion of the cartoon from 1494-1495 ; and the Madonna and the rest from 
 the first years of the sixteenth century. {Jalirbucti der kg. Kunstsainm/ungen, 1895, 
 pp. 159-175.) 
 
 2 See p. 58. 
 
 •' Leonardo da Vinci, p. 157.
 
 64 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINf^I 
 
 Taking into account the methods dear to Leonardo, his intermittent 
 ardour, his endless hesitations, it would be over-bold to attempt a 
 solution of so delicate a problem of chronology, until a key has been 
 furnished by documents in the archives. Let us be content, at present, 
 to study the different phases through which the Adoration of the Magi 
 
 ' THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI, UY FILIPPINO LIPPl. 
 
 (Uffizi, Florence.) 
 
 passed before taking form in the Uffizi cartoon. We can trace these 
 step by step in a number of drawings.^ 
 
 The earliest of the sketches preserved in the house — or perhaps I 
 should rather say the museum — in the Rue Bassano, in which M. Léon 
 Bonnat has collected so many mementoes of the great masters, shows 
 
 ' The catalogue at the end of the volume describes those drawings not mentioned in 
 the te.xt.
 
 STUDIES FOR "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" 65 
 
 that Leonardo's first intention was to paint, not an Adoration of the 
 Magi, but an Adoration of the Shepherds, or Nativity, a subject we 
 
 STUDY FOR '"THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. 
 
 iThe Louvre. Formerly in the Galichon Collection.) 
 
 know him to have painted for the Emperor Maximihan. It represents 
 the Infant Jesus lying on the ground, with the Virgin adoring, and a 
 child bending over Him. Nude figures are grouped to the right and 
 
 K
 
 66 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 left, one of whom, with his bald head, his long beard, and the pro- 
 tuberant belly under his crossed arms, seems to have been inspired by 
 the Silenus of the ancients. This strange personage re-appears (but in 
 reverse) in a drawing formerly in the Armand collection, now in that 
 of M. V'alton. The drawing in the Bonnat collection also con- 
 tains the figure of a young man, shading his eyes with his left hand. 
 This motive recurs in a drawing in the Louvre, and in one in the 
 Galichon collection, to which I shall return presently. In the latter, 
 however, it is an old man, and not a youth, who thus concentrates his 
 gaze on the Divine Child. A third spectator, the young man standing 
 with one foot on the bench on vi^hich the oldest of the shepherds is 
 seated, was transferred bodily from M. Bonnat's drawing to that of the 
 Armand and Valton collections, save that in the latter he turns his 
 back to the spectator, while in the former he is in profile. 
 
 Appropriate as all these attitudes are to the shepherds, they 
 are entirely at variance with those traditionally given to the three 
 kings ; we have none of those signs of profound veneration, the genu- 
 flections, the kissing of the feet, etc., which serve to characterise the 
 monarchs from the far East. 
 
 Yet another figure in M. Bonnat's drawing, sketched on the same 
 sheet, but apart from the main group, gives a final indication that we 
 are studying a sketch for an Adoration of the Shepherds. It is a young 
 man with clasped hands, naked but for a strip of drapery passing from 
 his left shoulder to his right hip ; this is a shepherd, not an Eastern 
 king, nor an Oriental attendant. The touching gesture of the clasped 
 hands disappears in the sequel, and I cannot but regret it ; yet only 
 strong and exuberant spirits, like Leonardo, can thus sacrifice their 
 finest details, confident that they will be able to replace them by 
 others no less perfect. 
 
 In the drawing which passed from M. Alfred Armand's collection 
 to that of M. P. Valton, the composition has hardly as yet taken 
 definite form in the master's mind. He still seeks and hesitates. 
 Leonardo, indeed, had none of that precision of conception proper 
 to the literary temperament. Not only did he give himself up to the 
 most arduous toil in pursuit of his ideal, demolishing and reconstructing 
 again and again, but he loved to hover tentatively round a subject,
 
 STUniES FOR "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" 67 
 
 instead of attacking it boldly. The drawing of the Valton collection 
 betrays these fluctuations ; it contains only isolated figures, some of them 
 so vaguely indicated that it is impossible to divine the master's intention 
 through the maze of interwoven lines and corrections. 
 
 Among the recognisable figures I may mention the youth with his 
 foot on a step, and the bearded old man, both borrowed from the draw- 
 ing in the Bonnat collection. The old man's attitude is slightly 
 modified ; his right hand supports his chin. The figure is repeated 
 further off, leaning on a long staff. Then we have young men, their 
 hands on their hijDs, a usual gesture among the actors or spectators 
 in pictures of the adoration of the Magi ; it occurs, for instance, in 
 Raphael's version of the theme in the Vatican. Other figures are 
 remarkable for the striking originality of their attitudes ; they stand 
 with arms crossed on their breasts, or hands on their hips, like the 
 Hermes of Praxiteles, or the Narcissus in the Naples Museum. We 
 know from the figure of Silenus mentioned above, that Leonardo now 
 began to draw inspiration from classic models. 
 
 A drawing in the Louvre (in the revolving case at the entrance of 
 the Salles Thiers), consists, like that of the Valton collection, of single 
 figures only. But the composition has advanced a stage. Here, all 
 the attitudes express the deepest reverence. First, we have a prostrate 
 figure ; then two others bowing ; then a person advancing, his body 
 slightly inclined, his hands uplifted as if to express astonishment. 
 Finally, a spectator who shades his eyes with his hands to get a better 
 view, and another, who stretches out his arm as if exclaiming : " Behold 
 this miracle ! " 
 
 A drawing in the Cologne Museum, to which Messrs. de Geymiiller 
 and Richter drew my attention, and for a photograph of which I 
 am indebted to H err Aldenhoven, is certainly contemporary with 
 the Louvre drawing ; for both contain combinations of the same 
 figures, with certain differences of attitude. In the Louvre drawing, 
 the figures are partially draped ; whereas in the Cologne sketches, 
 only three of the persons have indications of garments behind 
 them. 
 
 But let us take the actors one by one. Beginning on the left, in the 
 upper part, we have a charming figure of a young lad, his arms stretched 
 
 K 2
 
 r,s 
 
 I.EONARnn DA VINCI 
 
 oui before him, his head lurned over liis shoulder. Hiiskins are 
 sHghtly indicated on his feet. In the Louvre drawing, this figure has 
 undergone a complete transformation : instead of nearly facing us, as 
 before, it is now seen almost from behind, clothed in a tunic fastened 
 round the waist by a girdle. 
 
 The second and central figure is even more thoroughly metamor- 
 phosed. In the Cologne drawing, he faces us, one hand on his hip, the 
 other over his forehead, shading his eyes. Both gestures are preserved 
 in the Louvre drawing, but the figure is in profile ; and Leonardo has 
 
 utilised another motive of 
 the ColoQfne drawing for 
 this last fiofure — that of the 
 person in the middle dis- 
 tance, in profile, his hand 
 above his eyes. 
 
 Another figure, a youth 
 standing, towards the 
 right, his shoulders drawn 
 back, his fore-arms ex- 
 tended in an attitude 
 expressive of surprise and 
 veneration, has disap- 
 peared in the Louvre 
 drawing, as has also one 
 of his companions, stand- 
 
 ing, to the left, his arm 
 resting on his hip. On 
 the other hand, the bent 
 figure advancing with arms extended, reappears in the Louvre drawing, 
 draped, and with his arms drawn rather closer to his body. His 
 neighbour, who bends forward with clasped hands, also figures in 
 the Louvre drawing, where, however, he raises his head, instead of 
 inclining it, and advances his right, instead of his left leg. He 
 re-appears in the important drawing of the Galichon collection 
 {see L'A r^, 1887, vol. ii, p. 71), which represents the last stage of 
 the composition. Another, who kneels on one knee, prostrates himself 
 
 THE MADONKA OF "THE ADORATION OF THE MACr." 
 
 (Fragment from the Cartoon.)
 
 STUDIES FOR "THE ADORATION OF THE MAOI " ''"i 
 
 on the "^roLind in the Louvre drawing ; but he has risen to his leel 
 in that of the Galichon collection. 
 
 The group of five persons who press eagerly round the Divine Child 
 is strikingly beautiful. But Leonardo suppressed it, as may be seen 
 by a comparison of the Cologne and Galichon drawings. This group 
 is marked by a fervour and enthusiasm, a passion and emotion, too rare 
 in Leonardo's works. The master seems to have made it a rule to 
 
 CARTOON OF "tHE ADORATION OF THE MA*,!. 
 
 (Uffizi, Florence.) 
 
 repress his feelings, and to present a spectacle of perfect serenity to the 
 world. 
 
 If the drawing in the Cologne Museum contained but this single 
 revelation, if it had nothing of interest beyond this outburst of generous 
 feeling, it would still be of the greatest interest to point it out to 
 Leonardo's admirers, and I should feel myself sufficiently rewarded for 
 my efforts by the pleasure of bringing it to light.
 
 10 LEONARDO |i.\ \-IN("T 
 
 A fifth drawing, taking thcin in chronological onlur, is to be found 
 in the Uflî/.i ; it is a study for a background, which seems to have 
 greatly interested the master. To the left are two parallel flights of 
 steps ; at the foot of one of these a camel is lying. There is nothing 
 strange in this motive ; the Adoration of the Magi was a theme which 
 always gave the painter a certain licence in the multiplication of 
 picturesque details, rare animals, exotic plants, etc. Take, for instance, 
 Luini's fresco at Saronno, with the giraffe in the procession of the Magi. 
 With what delight does the painter overstep the narrow boundary of 
 sacred art, and emerge for a moment into the open air ! But to return 
 to the Ufifizi drawing : on the steps of one of the staircases a man is 
 seated ; further on, a man ascends it, running. It struck me at first 
 that Leonardo had thought of placing the Virgin at the head of this 
 double staircase, and of showing the kings and their followers in tlie 
 act of climbing the steps, — an arrangement which would have added 
 wonderfully to the dramatic interest, and have given occasion for a 
 grandiose mise-en-scène. But I will not venture to insist on this 
 hypothesis. In the background of the sketch is a group of horses, 
 kicking and rearing. 
 
 A drawing (p. 65), which passed into the Louvre from the 
 Galichon collection, shows us the last stage upon which this laborious 
 composition entered before it was committed to the cartoon. It has 
 been wrongly described as Leonardo's first idea for the Adoration of 
 the Magi ; it would have been more correct to call it his last thought, 
 seeing by how many others it was preceded. The beauty of the 
 drawing, the eloquence and animation of the lightly sketched figures, 
 many of them as yet undraped, the rhythm of the lines, which produces 
 the effect of a musical vibration — Raphael was very evidently inspired 
 by this method of drawing at the close of his Florentine and the 
 beginning of his Roman period — and many other characteristic traits 
 defy analysis. All is life, afiflatus, love and light ! 
 
 It is easier to define the analogies and the material differences 
 between this drawing and its predecessors. Several of the figures of the 
 earlier Louvre drawing have been retained, with modifications. The 
 bowed naked figure with clasped hands is reversed, and has become 
 the king who advances, bending forward, his hands outstretched.
 
 "THE ADORATION OF THE M ACT' 71 
 
 The naked prostrate old man has served as model for the kneeling 
 king. It may be noted that his figure has been gradually raised in 
 passing from the Louvre drawing to the final cartoon. Other persons 
 have not been utilised, as, for instance, the young man who shades his 
 eyes with his hand ; unless, indeed, he served as a study for the old 
 man on the right in the Galichon drawing and the Uffizi cartoon. As 
 to the young man standing, with extended hands, in the Louvre 
 drawing, he, perhaps, was the original of the standing figure with 
 uplifted hands on the right. 
 
 Let us now take the cartoon. The figures seem to emerge from a 
 kind of mist ; the most striking feature of the composition is the pro- 
 found veneration e.xpressed for the Divine Pair, the almost abject 
 attitudes, the protesting hands. Leonardo did not propose to use grand 
 and simple lines in this picture, as in the Last Supper, but rather to be 
 lavish of picturesque groups ; he treated the theme from the pictorial 
 rather than from the decorative standpoint, introducing trees, which 
 would have produced a magnificent effect ; heads of horses full of 
 character and animation; in the background, other horses, with mighty 
 necks and chests, caracoling as in the Battle of Anghiari. The picture 
 would have been lively, varied, and picturesque beyond any finished 
 work by the master. A supreme distinction breathes from it, the 
 charm of reverie ; we note the master's pre-occupation with astonishing 
 problems of chiaroscuro, of greater subtlety than those of Correggio. 
 The sketch, in fact, is a grandiose creation, containing passages in a 
 heroic style peculiar to Leonardo ; the heroism here is more human, 
 more picturesque, less abstract than that of Michelangelo. 
 
 The principal scene takes place in the open air, in a wide landscape, 
 with lofty trees in the centre, and rocks in the background. The ox 
 and the ass have disappeared. In the foreground, about the middle of 
 the composition, the Virgin is seated ; smiling, yet deeply moved, she 
 presents her Son to the adoring kings. Her attitude has been slightly 
 modified in the interval between the execution of the Galichon drawing 
 and that of the Uffizi cartoon. In the former, she was seen almost in 
 profile, bending forward ; she is now erect, and has more dignity in 
 her bearing, greater liberty in her gaze. She is charming both in 
 expression and attitude, her left foot drawn back over her right, a
 
 72 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 
 STUDY FOR "the AUOKATIUN UK THK MAGI. 
 
 (Malcolm Collection, British Museum.) 
 
 motive which seems to have inspired Raphael in the Madonna di 
 
 Foligno, where the same pose of foot and head is adopted. The Chihl 
 
 has undergone modifica- 
 tions no less important. 
 In the drawing, he was 
 seated on his mother's 
 knee, and turning his back 
 to her, he bent forward to 
 the king kneeling before 
 him ; in the cartoon, he 
 rests comfortably upon 
 her lap, reclining rather 
 than sitting, his right hand 
 gracefully raised, while 
 with his left he touches 
 
 the vase the donor offers him. The latter, who was naked in the 
 
 Galichon drawing, is now draped in an ample cloak ; instead of holding 
 
 out the vase to the Child with both hands, he offers it with one, 
 
 resting the other upon the ground. In short, there is not a figure in 
 
 the group which does not testify to the enormous amount of work 
 
 bestowed on the composition. 
 
 The spectators on either side call for our special attention. Some 
 
 are full of majesty, others of eager animation. They are grouped with 
 
 inimitable ease and liberty. By 
 
 an artifice, the secrets of which 
 
 have been known only to the 
 
 greatest dramatists, Leonardo 
 
 opposes the calm of the persons 
 
 standing at the e.xtremities, and 
 
 enframing the composition, so 
 
 to speak, to the emotional and 
 
 passionate gestures of those 
 
 who press towards the Virgin, 
 
 or kneel before her. 
 
 Here, again, Raphael was 
 
 inspired by Leonardo ; he 
 
 STIFDV Fui: I HI-: ADORATIUN ot-' 
 (The Louvre )
 
 ^THE ADORATION OF THE MAC'xI" 
 
 73 
 
 borrowed several of the worshippers placed to the left in his Dispute of 
 the Sacrament, one of the most animated and eloquent of his groups. 
 
 TVi'liS Ol^ VlUUl.N AND CHIL:-'. 
 
 U. or LlfONAKDO. 
 
 (lionnat Collection, Paris.) 
 
 This imitation is very evident in a drawing in the late Due d'Aumale's 
 
 collection.! Three of the figures on the left, the old man leaning 
 
 1 See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 31-34-
 
 74 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 forward, the young man in profile beside him, and the man with his 
 back to the spectator in the foreground, are almost exactly reproduced ; 
 as is also the person standing on the extreme left, wrapped in a cloak, 
 his chin resting on his hand. The breadth and majesty of this last 
 figure, indeed, inspired yet another artist, more powerful and original 
 than Raphael, an artist who was always ready to cry out against 
 plagiarism, though he himself did not fail to lay the works of his 
 predecessors under contribution. I refer to Michelangelo. Compare 
 the figure of God the Father in his Creation of Eve in the Sistine 
 Chapel with this old man of Leonardo's. The analogy is striking. 
 
 In this Adoration of the Magi, which biographers have passed 
 over almost in silence, we have, in fact, the germs of two masterpieces 
 by Michelangelo and by Raphael. 
 
 It is only men of genius like Leonardo who can thus lavish, to 
 .some extent unconsciously, treasures which make the fortunes of 
 others, great and small. 
 
 The background of the cartoon consists of classic ruins, with 
 crumbling arches, beneath which are animated groups of men on foot 
 and on horseback ; the double staircase is retained, and several figiu-es 
 are seated on the steps on one side. 
 
 Of all the episodes of the sacred story, the Adoration of the Magi 
 is that which lends itself best to the introduction of the hippie element.^ 
 It must therefore have been specially attractive to Leonardo, at all 
 times such an ardent lover of horses. 
 
 Without transgressing the rules of sacred imagery, he was able to 
 indulge a taste on which, indeed, he had every reason to congratulate 
 himself He accordingly gives us some dozen horses in every variety 
 of attitude : lying down, standing, resting, walking, rearing, galloping. 
 In the background to the right we have a regular cavalry skirmish, a 
 forecast of that in the Battle of Anghiari; naked combatants struggling 
 among the feet of the horses on the ground, a woman, also naked, 
 flying in terror, etc.^ The central action suffers a little from their 
 
 1 We need only recall the superb cavalcade of Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration of ilie 
 Magi, in the Accademia at Florence ; the chargers, fiery or placid, which abound in 
 Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes in the Riccardi Palace, and in Fra Filippo's and Filippino 
 Lippi's pictures in the Uffizi. 
 
 - A horse's head in the Windsor collection seems to bear some relation to the horse
 
 "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" 75 
 
 vicinity ; but great men alone are privileged to digress in this fashion. 
 The vegetation, always so carefully observed by Leonardo, has not 
 been sacrificed. A magnificent palm rises in the middle distance, near 
 the centre. 
 
 One other peculiarity should be noted. Leonardo, a painter ex- 
 clusively, with a certain contempt for the decorative arts, has not given 
 the costumes of his heroes the richness by which these are generally 
 marked in the art of the Middle Ages and of the early Renaissance. 
 
 He has dressed his personages in tunics, togas, or mantles, recalling 
 those of the ancients — one of his rare gleanings from the art of Greece 
 and Rome — but draped with greater freedom. Again, the vessels 
 containing the offerings of the monarchs have none of the magnifi- 
 cence invariably bestowed on them by the primitive painters, and so 
 well adapted to relieve the lines of a composition. They are chalices 
 of simple shape and small size, with covers terminating in knobs. 
 
 One of the most learned of our modern art-historians has given an 
 e.Kcellent analysis of the technique of the cartoon :' " Leonardo," he says, 
 " first made a very careful drawing with pen or brush on the prepared 
 panel ; he put the whole into perspective, as the drawing in the Uffizi 
 shows ; he then shaded with brown colour ; but as he made use of a 
 kind of bitumen, it has lowered very much in tone, and, in his finished 
 works, this bituminous colour has absorbed all the others, and black- 
 ened the shadows extravagantly." Vasari, too, described Leonardo's 
 innovations in much the same tone : " He introduced a certain dark- 
 ness into oil-painting, which the moderns have adopted to give greater 
 
 vigour and relief to their figures Anxious to relieve the objects 
 
 he represented as much as possible, he strove to produce the most 
 intense blacks by means of dark shadows, and thus to make the 
 luminous parts of his pictures more brilliant ; the result being that he 
 gradually suppressed the high lights, and that his pictures have the 
 effect of night-pieces."^ 
 
 Unconsciously or deliberately, Leonardo shows predilections no less 
 
 standing to the left in the Adoration of the Magi, as does another horse's head, with 
 
 indications of measurements, in MS. A of the Bibliothèque de l'Institut. 
 
 > Passavant apiid RigoUot, Catalogue de F Œuvre de Leonard de Vinci, p. 314- 
 
 2 For the progress brought about by Leonardo in the art of modelling, see Briicke 
 
 and Helmholtz's Principes Scientifiques des Beaux Arts, p. no— iii. Paris, 1878 (tr. 
 
 from the German).
 
 76 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 pronounced with regard to coluur harmonies. For the more or 
 less crude harmonies of his predecessors, he substituted a subtle scale, 
 made up of subdued tints, such as bistre and bitumen ; in these 
 matters he was more ingenious than Rembrandt himself. Here the 
 theorist confirmed the tendencies of the practitioner. We must read 
 chap, l.xxiv. oi the Trattato dclla Pittnra to see with what irony he 
 
 rallies the mediocre painters who hide 
 their incompetence under ablaze of gold 
 and of ultramarine. 
 
 In another innovation, he meets 
 Masaccio on common ground, if, indeed, 
 his practice was not a reminiscence of 
 the earlier master. Suppressing all idle 
 accessories, he gives the place of honour 
 to the human figure, stripped of vain 
 ornament, and reduced to the simplicity 
 of antique costume. This was, indeed, 
 the principle of classic art itself, but 
 his was a classicism invariably warmed 
 and animated by the study of nature. 
 
 Let us now e.xamine his concep- 
 tion of a picture. Leonardo's prede- 
 cessors had all sacrificed more or less to 
 literary painting — I mean painting in which ideas, motives, and com- 
 position come before a preoccupation with the problems of technique. 
 They were born narrators ; narrators now emotional, now amusing, apt 
 in the illustration of some abstract idea by means of a figure or a 
 gesture, skilful commentators, adding expression to the episodes of 
 the Scriptures or the legends of the Saints by a thousand ingenious 
 touches. How far removed were such achievements from Leonardo's 
 ambitions ! No artist was ever less disposed to submit to the bondage 
 of literature. He wished his pictures to command admiration for 
 themselves, not for the subjects with which they dealt ; his triumphs 
 lay in the solution of some problem of perspective, of illumination, 
 of grouping, above all of modelling. For the rest, he trusted to his 
 own poetical and emotional instincts. 
 
 STUDY KOR "the ADORATION OF THE MAGI ' 
 
 (fkagmext). 
 (Tlic Valton Collection.)
 
 LEONARDO'S ARTIS'IIC METHOD 
 
 77 
 
 If we consider the invention shown in his figures, we shall find 
 that here, too, Leonardo proclaims the rights of the great historical 
 painter. After Fra Angelico, concurrently with Perugino, and before 
 Michelangelo, he banished portraits of friends or patrons from his 
 sacred pictures. Not that he did not often seek inspiration in real 
 persons, but he subjected them to an elaborate process of modifi- 
 cation and assimilation before giving them a place in the sanctuary 
 of art. See, for instance, his Last Siipper. 
 In short, he never introduced a portrait in 
 any of his compositions ; his characters 
 are either purely imaginary, or highly 
 idealised. 
 
 These various analyses will make it easy 
 for us to characterise the progress realised, 
 or I should perhaps rather say, the revolu- 
 tion accomplished, by Leonardo in painting. 
 Studying nature with passion, and all the 
 sciences that tend to its more perfect repro- 
 duction — anatomy, perspective, physiognomy 
 — and consulting classic models while pre- 
 serving all the independence proper to his cha- 
 racter, he could not fail to combine precision 
 with liberty, and truth with beauty. It is 
 in this final emancipation, this perfect mastery of modelling, of 
 illumination, and of expression, this breadth and freedom, that the 
 master's raison d'être and glory consist. Others may have struck 
 out new paths also ; but none travelled further or mounted higher 
 than he. 
 
 The best informed and the most enthusiastic of his biographers, 
 the excellent \asari, has well defined what was in some sort a 
 providential mission. After enumerating all the artistic leaders of the 
 fifteenth century, he adds : " The works of Leonardo da Vinci demon- 
 strated the errors of these artists most completely. He inaugurated the 
 third, or modern manner. Besides the boldness and brilliance of his 
 drawing, the perfection with which he reproduced the most subtle 
 minutiae of nature, he seemed to give actual breath and movement to 
 
 STUDY FOR THE*" ADORATION OF THE 
 MAGI " (fragment). 
 
 (Cologne Museum.)
 
 78 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 his figures, thanks to the excellency of his theory, the superiority of his 
 composition, the precision of his proportions, the beauty of his design, 
 and his exquisite grace ; the wealth of his resources was only equalled 
 by the depth of his art ("abbondantissimo di copie, profondissimo 
 di arte "). It would be difficult to say more happily that the supreme 
 evolution of painting is due to Leonardo. 
 
 We shall perhaps better appreciate the immeasurable superiority of 
 the Adoi-ation of the Magi if we compare it with certain Florentine 
 works of the same century. 
 
 We may take, for instance, Domenico Ghirlandajo's Adoration of 
 the Magi in the Uffizi, painted in 1487. Note the timidity of the 
 action, and the stiffness of the horses in the background. As compared 
 with Leonardo's manner, Ghirlandajo's is dry and crude, especially in 
 his frescoes of the History of Santa Fiiia. Leonardo, thanks to the 
 laws of chiaroscuro, which he strove to bring to perfection all his life 
 long, was able to give his modelling a relief unknown to his predecessors, 
 and to blend his colours with a suavity and 7norbidezza undreamt of 
 heretofore, especially by Ghirlandajo. 
 
 If we turn to Filippino Lippi, we find the living antithesis of 
 Leonardo. The one is brilliant indeed, but superficial ; more inclined 
 to literary painting than to the subtleties of design or colour ; the other 
 full of earnestness and conviction, gifted in the highest degree with the 
 sense of form and of beauty. 
 
 Chance brought Leonardo and Filippino into contact on three several 
 occasions. On the first, as we have seen, Filippino was charged (1483) 
 with the execution of the altar-piece which had been ordered from 
 Leonardo for the Chapel of S. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio of 
 Florence. He had to fulfil the same mission again in 1496, and supply 
 the Adoration of the Magi for the monastery of San Donato. On the 
 third occasion, it was Leonardo, on the other hand, who begged 
 Filippino to transfer to him a commission for an altar-piece for the 
 Servîtes. Filippino, courteous and obliging, readily acceded to his 
 request. But Leonardo, as usual, left the work unfinished, and in 1503 
 Filippino resumed his former contract, which death alone prevented 
 him from carrying out.
 
 STUDIES FOR A "S. JEROME" 79 
 
 The Adoration of the Magi as rendered respectively by Filippino 
 and by Leonardo, illustrates the difference between the two masters to 
 perfection. In Filippino's, in spite of passages of great beauty, such as 
 the figure of the crouching shepherd, which is not unworthy of the 
 brush of Raphael, we are conscious of the lack of expression in the 
 heads ; all, but especially those in the foreground, are empty, trivial, 
 and marked by a facile cleverness. Filippino did not fail to introduce 
 portraits of his contemporaries, notably the Medici, an expedient to 
 which Leonardo never lent himself. 
 
 On the other hand, Filippino could not wholly resist the fascination 
 of his rival. The figure in profile with uplifted hands, behind the 
 crouching shepherd, was evidently inspired by the personage in the 
 middle distance on the right in Leonardo's cartoon. 
 
 The drawing of S. Jerome at Windsor and the sketch of 
 i'. Jerovie on panel in the Vatican Gallery (formerly in the Fesch 
 collection) are generally classed among the productions of the 
 Florentine period.^ The saint is represented on his knees, holding 
 a crucifix in one hand, and about to strike himself on the breast 
 with the other. The drawing is as firm and vigorous in execution 
 as the sketch is blurred and hesitating. The vicissitudes through 
 which the latter passed in its humiliation explain its imperfections 
 all too well. The head was cut out from the panel, and was long 
 separated from the composition. The features have an expression 
 of deep suffering. The traditional lion at the Saint's side is superbly 
 modelled. There is a church in the background, in which we 
 recognise Santa Maria Novella at Florence, with the façade as 
 restored by L. B. Alberti."- 
 
 The first thing that strikes us in considering this period of 
 Leonardo's activity (from 14 72, when he was received a member of the 
 Guild of Painters at Florence, to 1482 or 1483, the date of his 
 departure for Milan) is the extreme rarity of his works. Some two or 
 three pictures and sketches are all we can point to as the fruits of these 
 
 ^ About 1478, according to Herr Miiller-Walde. (Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsamm- 
 lungen, 1891, p. 126.) 
 
 * De Geymùller apud Richter, vol. ii. p. 54.
 
 8o 
 
 T.EONARno n.\ \'iNri 
 
 twelve years. Ami yet, vast cycles were projected and begun at tliis 
 period in IHorence and in Rome. How was it that the patrons of 
 the day neglected the glorious débutant ? The reason is not far to 
 seek. By this time Leonardo's tendencies were familiar to all. It was 
 known, on the one hand, that he had little taste for large compositions 
 with numerous figures, such as frescoes ; and, on the other, that his 
 
 strivings after a perfec- 
 tion almost superhuman 
 often led to the aban- 
 donment of a work he had 
 undertaken. 
 
 Whatever the date, 
 whatever the authenticity 
 even, of the works we 
 have now enumerated, the 
 A iiini iiciat ions in the 
 Louvre and the Uffizi, 
 the Adoration of the 
 jMagi, the S. Jerome , etc., 
 one fact is undeniable. 
 Thenceforth a new leaven, 
 fecund but disturbing, was 
 at work ; and this Leo- 
 nardo alone had cast into 
 the ferment of Florentine 
 culture. Thenceforth the 
 reign of archaism was over ; its conventions and its rigidity 
 were swept away, together with harsh contrasts of colour, the 
 substitution of portraits for types, all, in fact, that implied effort and 
 tension. 
 
 Let us pause for a moment over this last defect, and leave the others 
 for later consideration. Can anything equal the easy grace of 
 Leonardo, the apparent carelessness which overlies his profound 
 calculation? His grounds, as we say now, were as conscientiously 
 laid as those of any of his predecessors or contemporaries ; but by 
 
 STUDY FOR " THK AIJOKATION OF THE MAfil. 
 
 (The Louvre.)
 
 Study for the *' Saint Jerome'* 
 
 (\VIM»SOK I.I8KAKV-)
 
 Printed by Draeger, Paris.
 
 SOCIAL ATMOSPHERE OF FLORENCE 
 
 8i 
 
 dint of superhuman labour he contrived to conceal all traces of 
 preparation ; by prodigies of genius he gave to the whole the appear- 
 ance of a work created by a single effort, and produced as it were 
 by magic. 
 
 To a nature so essentially aristocratic as that of Leonardo, the 
 horizon of Florence may well have seemed somewhat limited. The 
 artist was probably ill at 
 ease in a society which 
 was radically middle-class ; 
 for popular prejudice 
 against the nobility, and 
 all that recalled the by- 
 gone tyranny, had lost 
 nothing of its intensity ; 
 the Medici of the fif- 
 teenth century, Cosimo, 
 Piero, and Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, had con- 
 stantly to reckon with 
 it, in spite of their om- 
 nipotence. And, munifi- 
 cent as these wealthy 
 bankers and merchants 
 were, they could not dis- 
 pense honours, places, and 
 treasure like the sove- 
 reign princes. In a com- 
 munity in which an irritable spirit of equality still reigned, the artist 
 had perforce to live modestly and plainly. This was bondage for 
 a spirit so brilliant and exuberant as Leonardo ! The luxury of a 
 Court, magnificent /^/^5 to organise, grandiose experiments to institute, 
 a brilliant destiny to conquer — all these were attractions that were 
 inevitably to draw him, sooner or later, to those elegant, refined and 
 corrupt despots to whom most of the states of Italy were subject at 
 the time. 
 
 S. JEROME IN THE DESERT. 
 
 (Vatican Gallerj-.) 
 
 M
 
 82 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 But other causes were at work. Leonardo, we must remember, 
 had no family. His father's successive marriages, the birth of numerous 
 brothers and sisters, had finally driven him from the house he had 
 for a time looked upon as his own. Among his fellow-citizens, he 
 must have suffered from the blemish on his name. He may have 
 had to endure ironical smiles, to hear himself branded by sobriquets 
 more or less offensive. Among strangers, his illegitimacy could not 
 be made a perpetual reproach to him, for the best of reasons — it would 
 be unknown. 
 
 I am inclined to think that much which was bizarre in Leonardo's 
 conduct, his extravagance, his occasional horse-play, proceeded from 
 his desire to place himself beyond and above the conventions of his 
 surroundings — conventions which forced him constantly to expiate a 
 fault not his own. Far from submitting to this humiliation, and 
 suffering in silence, he defied public opinion, and, as he could not be 
 the most highly esteemed, he determined to prove himself the most 
 gifted and the most brilliant. 
 
 We now approach a problem which has greatly exercised the world 
 of art historians during the last few years. Did Leonardo go 
 straight from Florence to Milan, or, yielding to the inspiration of his 
 unstable humour, did he set out on travels more or less prolonged 
 before pitching his tent in the rich plain of Lombardy ? A few years 
 ago, Dr. Richter hazarded a conjecture at once bold and ingenious. 
 Struck by the numerous passages in which the master alludes to 
 Oriental things, he concluded that Leonardo had visited the East, that 
 he had served the Sultan of Egypt, and even that he had embraced 
 Islamism.^ 
 
 As far as the journey itself is concerned, there is a certain 
 probability in the hypothesis, at least at the first blush. I\Iany 
 
 1 Zeitschrift fur bild. Kunst, 1881. The Literary Works of Leonardo da 
 Vinci, vol. ii. p. 385-392. La Chronique des Arts, 188 1, p. 87-88. Cf. Charles 
 Ravaisson-Mollien, Les Écrits de Léonard de Vinci, Paris, 1881. Uzielli, Ricerche, 2nd 
 edit. vol. i. p. 72 et seq. Govi, Alcuni Frammenti. Douglas, Proceedings of the Royal 
 Geographical Society, June, 1884. De Geymiiller, Les derniers Travaux sur Léonard 
 de Vinci. Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1886. Enlart, Les Monuments gothiques de 
 Chypre, 1898.
 
 SUPPOSED TRAVELS IN THE EAST 83 
 
 Italian artists, architects, painters, sculptors, and founders sought their 
 fortunes at the Court of the Sultan, the Czar, or the ruler of Egypt : 
 Michelozzo went to Cyprus, Aristotele di Fioravante settled at 
 Moscow, Gentile Bellini spent a year at Constantinople, to say nothing 
 of the innumerable Tuscan and Lombard masters established at Pesth, 
 Cracow, Warsaw, and even in Asia ! 
 
 The arguments put forward by Dr. Richter rest on more than one 
 striking particular. In a manuscript by Leonardo in the British 
 Museum there is an allusion to the eruptions of Etna and Stromboli ; in 
 the library at Windsor, a description of the Island of Cyprus ; one of the 
 manuscripts belonging to the Institut de France contains a plan of a 
 bridge, inscribed, "Ponte da Pera a Gostantinopoli ; " finally, in a 
 sort of parable on the prohibition of Avine, Leonardo shows his 
 familiarity with a characteristic trait of Mussulman manners. There is 
 yet another presumption, which seems still more conclusive : the 
 famous Codex Atlanticns of Milan contains the copy of a letter 
 addressed to the " Diodario di Sorio," the Diodaris of Syria, giving an 
 account of works executed for the Sultan of Babylon, i.e. the Sultan of 
 Cairo, by the writer : " I am now in Armenia, to devote myself to the 
 works you charged me with when you sent me hither," wrote Leonardo. 
 "In order to begin in the districts which seem to me best suited to our 
 purpose, I have come to the town of Chalendra. It is a city close to 
 our frontier, situated on the coast, at the foot of Mount Taurus, etc." 
 Another letter begins thus : " I do not deserve the accusation of 
 idleness, O Diodario, which your reproaches seem to imply. But the 
 rather, as your benevolence, which caused you to create the post 
 you gave me, is boundless, I have felt myself bound to make 
 many researches, and thoroughly to inquire into the causes ol 
 effects so vast and stupendous ; and this business has taken me a 
 long time, etc." 
 
 From the report drawn up by Leonardo it would seem that the 
 artist had been sent from Egypt to Asia Minor as engineer of the 
 Sultan Kai't-Bai. According to some Arabian documents, extracts from 
 which have been furnished by M. Schefer, this sovereign travelled 
 through the Euphrates and Tigris valleys in 1477 to inspect the 
 fortresses which were destined to fall into the hands of the Turks 
 
 M 2
 
 84 I,E0NARI1O DA VINCI 
 
 about forty years later. In 1483 tliere was a terrible earthquake 
 in Syria, especially at Aleppo ; and to this Leonardo's words " grande 
 e stupendo effetto," seem to allude. In his report Leonardo speaks 
 at some length of the ruin of the town, and the despair of the 
 inhabitants. His descriptions are illustrated by drawings representing 
 rocks, the Arab names of which are given in Italian characters, and 
 by a little map of Armenia. 
 
 In confirmation of these letters, the erasures and certain pecu- 
 liarities of e.xpression in which seem to show them to be actual 
 compositions of Leonardo's, and not merely copies of docu- 
 ments by others, Dr. Richter points out that there are drawings 
 of Mount Taurus by Leonardo, and that we further find notes 
 and sketches relating to the PZast among his works. We may 
 add that, according to Dr. Richter, this journey to the East took 
 place either between 1473 and 1477 or between 1481 and 1485, 
 periods during which we have no information whatever as to the 
 master's life. 
 
 Plausible as Dr. Richter's hypothesis is, and strongly as it has 
 been supported by some learned authorities, I think we must accept it 
 with great reserve. Leonardo, whose imagination was always at work, 
 may have gleaned information about the Ea.st from a variety of sources. 
 An indefatigable compiler (some third of his manuscripts consists of 
 extracts from ancient or modern authors), he may have transcribed 
 documents composed by others, without taking the trouble to inform 
 the reader (who was indeed, himself only, for he does not seem to have 
 wished his writings to be printed), that he was not giving his own 
 testimony, but quoting that of others. He may have drawn his 
 particulars from a young man of the Gondi family, who was at 
 Constantinople in 1480, from a member, that is to say, of the Floren- 
 tine family who sub-let a house to Leonardo's father ; or, again, from 
 a friend in Milan, who had come in contact with the Sultan of Egypt's 
 ambassador when he passed through the Lombard capital in 1476. 
 We know the names of a whole series of Milanese who visited 
 the Holy Land : Giovanni Giacomo Trivulzio, for instance, went to 
 Syria in 1476^; Benedetto Dei, who was appointed director 
 
 ' Aniiivio storico Loiii/mrJû, 1886, \). 866 e/ seg.
 
 SUPPOSED TRAVELS IN THE EAST 85 
 
 of th(' Portinari's bank at Milan in 1480, had also been in the 
 East.i 
 
 M. Eugène Piot's opinion, as quoted by M. de Geymiiller, is to the 
 effect that the letters addressed to the Diodario might be explained in 
 another fashion. It was not unusual in Leonardo's time to discuss 
 contemporary matters in an allegorical form, as did the author of the 
 Letters 0/ P/iala ris 3.nd ûxa Letters of the Grand Turk. Gilberto Govi, 
 who was deeply versed in Leonardo's writings, did not hesitate to put 
 forward an analogous theory in a communication made to the Academy 
 of Science in 1881 : "The notes on Mount Taurus, Armenia, and 
 Asia Minor," wrote the lamented professor, " were borrowed from 
 some contemporary geographer or traveller. The imperfect index 
 attached to these fragments leads us to suppose that Leonardo intended 
 to use them for a book, which he never finished. In any case, these 
 fragments cannot be accepted as proofs of his having travelled in the 
 East, or of his supposed conversion to Islamism. Leonardo was 
 passionately fond of geography ; geographical allusions, itineraries, 
 descriptions of places, outline maps and topographical sketches are of 
 frequent occurrence in his writings. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
 he, a .skilled writer, should have projected a sort of romance in the form 
 of letters, the scene of which was to be Asia Minor, a region 
 concerning which contemporary works, and perhaps the descriptions 
 of some travelled friend, had supplied him with elements more or less 
 fantastic." 
 
 Abandoning this theory of a sojourn in the East, we have still to 
 enquire into the circumstances which led to Leonardo's establishment 
 at the Court of the Sforzi, so famous for its splendour and its 
 corruption. What was the date of this memorable migration, which 
 resulted not only in the creation of the Milanese school, but in setting 
 the seal of perfection on the master's own works .'' The author of 
 the anonymous life of Leonardo published by Milanesi says that the 
 artist was thirty years old when Lorenzo the Magnificent sent him, 
 with Atalante Migliarotti, to present a lute to the Duke of Milan. 
 According to Vasari, however, Leonardo took this journey on his own 
 
 1 Dc Geymuller, Les derniers Travaux sur Leonard tie Vina, \). 51.
 
 86 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 initiative. The two biographers are agreed as to the episode of the 
 hite : " Leonardo," says one, " was to play the hite to this prince, 
 a passionate lover of music. He arrived, carrying an instrument he 
 had fashioned him.self ; it was made almost entirely of silver, and 
 .shaped like a horse's skull. The shape was strange and original, but 
 it gave a more sonorous vibration to the sounds. Leonardo was the 
 victor in this competition, which was open to a large number of 
 musicians, and proved himself the most extraordinary iviprovisatorc 
 of his day. Lodovico, charmed by his f^icile and brilliant eloquence, 
 loaded him with praises and caresses." ^ 
 
 As regards the intervention of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the version 
 given by the anonymous biographer is in every respect probable. 
 Lorenzo perpetually played the part of intermediary between artist and 
 Mecaenas. We find him undertakincf missions of this nature for the 
 King of Naples, the Dukes of Milan, the King of Hungary, and even 
 for civic bodies. We know that it was not the only service of the 
 kind he rendered Lodovico Sforza. A few years later he sent the 
 Duke the famous Florentine architect Giuliano da San Gallo, who 
 began the building of a palace for him. 
 
 But when we turn to the date of the journey we are confronted 
 by all sorts of contradictions. Vasari gives 1493, Messrs. Morelli and 
 Richter 1485, the majority of modern critics 1483. Herr Mliller- 
 Walde puts forward the end of 1481, or the beginning of 1482.^ 
 
 Let us examine these various hypotheses. A writer of the sixteenth 
 century, Sabba da Castiglione, says that Leonardo devoted sixteen 
 years to the model for the equestrian statue of Lodovico Sforza, which 
 he finally abandoned in 1499. Deducting sixteen from the last named 
 date, we get the year 1483. On the other hand, documents in the 
 archives of Milan show that Leonardo was established there in 1487, 
 1490, and 1492. The date 1493 advanced by Vasari must therefore 
 
 1 A learned Milanese, Mazzenta, who owned some of Leonardo's manuscripts, relates 
 ■that the artist played very skilfully on a great silver lyre of twenty-four strings, and adds 
 that he was perhaps the maker of the " arcicembalo," which was formerly preserved with 
 his drawings in the Via San Prospero (Plot, Le Cabinet de l'Amateur, 1861-1862, p. 62 ; 
 Govi, // Buonarroti, 1873). Libri further declares that Leonardo's design for the lute 
 was among his papers, and also a design for a viol. 
 
 '^ Jahrbuch der Jig. Pr. Kunstsammlungen, 1897, pp. 107, 120-121, 126.
 
 LEONARDO'S DEPARTURE FOR MILAN 87 
 
 be put aside unconditionally. But the brilliant Italian connoisseur 
 Morelli, whose paradoxes made such a sensation in Germany some 
 years ago, relies on the testimony of this same Vasari to show that 
 Leonardo was still at Florence in 1484. 
 
 " After the departure of Verrocchio for Venice, that is to say in 
 1484," says the biographer. " Giovanni Francesco Rustici, who had 
 known Leonardo in Verrocchio's studio, took up his abode with the 
 young master, who had a great affection for him." But Rustici, who 
 was born in 1474, was only ten years old at the date of Verrocchio's 
 departure, and can hardly have studied under this master or under 
 Leonardo. It was more probably after his return to his native city in 
 1504 that Leonardo gave advice and lessons to his young friend. It 
 was then that he helped Rustici in the operation of casting his three 
 statues for the Baptistery. This view of the matter is confirmed by 
 Vasari's statement, that Rustici learnt more especially to model horses 
 in relief and in caniaicii from Leonardo. Now, Leonardo was much 
 more occupied with studies oi this kind in 1504, after his long 
 labours on the statue of Sforza, and when he was working at the 
 Battle of AiigJiiari, than in 1484. (It is interesting to note that in his 
 memorial to Lodovico il Moro, Leonardo already proclaims himself 
 capable of executing the equestrian statue of Francesco.) For these 
 various reasons we must accept 1483 as the date of Leonardo's 
 journey to Milan, until proof to the contrary is brought forward. This 
 date agrees with the statement of the anonymous writer according to 
 whom Leonardo (born in 1452) was thirty years old when he 
 settled in Milan. 
 
 In spite of the mystery that rests on the first period of Leonardo's 
 life, we are justified in saying that at an age when other artists are still 
 in search of their true vocation, he had already grappled with the most 
 diverse branches of human learning, and that in painting, he had de- 
 veloped a style so individual that posterity has agreed to call it by the 
 name of its inventor. Instruction has but slight influence on natures so 
 profoundly original as his ; and on the whole Leonardo, like Michel- 
 angelo, can have received little from his master beyond some general 
 indications, and the revelation of certain technical processes. If his 
 early career nevertheless lacked the éclat that marked Michelangelo's
 
 88 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 becjinninfïs, it was the result of the fundamental difference of their 
 genius. Leonardo, the dreamer, the enquirer, the experimentalist, 
 pursued an infinity of problems, and was as deeply interested in 
 processes as in results. Michelangelo, on the other hand, struck 
 but a single blow at a time, but it was decisive ; his thought was so 
 clearly defined in his own brain from the first, that it was readily 
 communicated to others. Violent and concrete works such as his 
 make the deepest impression on the mass of mankind. Thus 
 Buonarroti had all Florence for his worshippers from the first ; whereas 
 Leonardo, appreciated only by a few of the subtler spirits, had to seek 
 his fortune elsewhere. It is not a matter for regret, as far as his own 
 fame is concerned ; but it has robbed Florence of one of her titles 
 to glory. 
 
 
 HEAD OF CHRIST. 
 
 (Accadernia, Venice.)
 
 ^£i^^' 
 
 r*7NV' 
 
 >^ 
 
 UBRO PRIMO DELLA HISTORIA DELLE COSE FACTE D ALLO 
 IN VICTISSIMO DVCA FRANCESCO SFORZA SCRIPTA IN LA 
 TINODA GIOVANNI SIMONETTA ETTRADOCTA IN LIN 
 G VA FIQRENTINA DAajRjgOPHQRQ LANDINQ FIQRFN 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LODOVICO IL MORO AND BEATRICE D ESTE — THE COURT OF THE SFORZI — 
 
 PRINCES, HUMANISTS, AND SCHOLARS THE MILANESE SCHOOL— LEONARDO'S 
 
 PRECURSORS AND RIVALS. 
 
 Qui, come Tape al mel, vienne ogni dotto, 
 Di virtuosi ha la sua corta piena ; 
 Da Fiorenza un' Appelle ha qui condotto. 
 — Bellincioni, Visione. 
 
 L 
 
 EONARDO'S sojourn in Milan 
 
 coincides with Ital)''s last clays 
 
 of brightness, and with the 
 
 dawn of a martyrdom which was to 
 
 last three centuries and a half. The 
 
 year 1490 is the fateful date which 
 
 marks both the culminating points or 
 
 a long series of successes, and what we 
 
 should now call the beginning of the end. 
 
 One alarming symptom, and one often 
 
 observed at the outset of certain grave 
 
 maladies, was the sense of security, of 
 
 well - being, of almost sensuous pleasure, 
 
 experienced by Italy at this psychological moment. " The year 
 
 1490, wherein our fair city (Florence), glorious in her riches, her 
 
 Braun, Clément & Co. 
 
 STUDY OF A HORSE. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 90 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 victories, her arts, and her monuments, enjoyed prosperity, health, and 
 peace. . . ." So runs the inscription on Domenico Ghirlandajo's 
 frescoes in Santa Maria Novella. Guicciardini, too, at the beginning 
 of his htoria cT Italia, fixes the apogee of his country's prosperity in 
 the year 1490: "A sovereign peace and tranquillity reigned on every 
 side," he says. "Cultivated in the most mountainous and sterile 
 districts as well as in the fertile regions and the plains, Italy 
 acknowledged no power but her own, and rich, not only in her 
 population, her merchandise, and her treasure, but illustrious in the 
 highest degree through the magnificence of many of her princes, the 
 splendour of many famous cities, the majesty of the seat of religion, 
 could point with pride to a liost of men eminent in every science 
 at the head of public adminstration, and to the noblest talents in 
 every branch of art or industry ; with all this she cherished her 
 military glory, according to the custom of the times ; and, endowed 
 with so many qualities and so many gifts, she enjoyed the highest 
 repute and renown among all other nations." 
 
 The Milanese chronicler, Corio, celebrates the blessings of peace in 
 almost identical terms, and enumerates the titles of his masters, the 
 Sforzi, to glory : 
 
 " The war between the Duke and the Venetians being at an end, 
 it appeared to every one that peace was finally assured, and no one had 
 a thought but for the accumulation of riches, an end which was held to 
 justify every means. Free play was given to pomps and plea.sures, and 
 with the peace, Jupiter triumphed in such sort that all things appeared 
 as stable and as solid as at the most favoured time in the past. The 
 court of our princes was dazzling, splendid with new fashions, new 
 costumes, and all delights. Nevertheless, at this period talent (the Italian 
 author uses the untranslatable word " virtu,") shone with such 
 brilliance, and so keen an emulation had arisen between Minerva and 
 Venus, that each sought how best to ornament her school. That of 
 Cupid was recruited from among our fairest youths ; thither fathers sent 
 their daughters, husbands their wives, brothers their sisters, and that 
 without any scruple, so that many took part in the amorous dance, which 
 passed for something truly marvellous. Minerva, on her side, did all 
 in her power to grace her elegant academy. Indeed, Lodovico Sforza,
 
 MILAN m THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 91 
 
 a glorious and illustrious prince, had taken into his service men of the 
 highest eminence, summoning them from the remotest parts of Europe. 
 Greek was known thoroughly at his court, verse and prose were 
 equally brilliant, the Muses excelled in rhyme ; there were to be found 
 the masters of sculpture ; thither came the finest painters from the most 
 distant regions; songs and music of all sorts were so full of suavity and 
 sweet accord, that it seemed as though they must have come down from 
 heaven to this famous court. ..." 
 
 But a nation cannot thus define and analyse its own greatness 
 with impunity ; from the day when, ceasing to question its own 
 strength, it believes blindly in its star, it is bound to decline. 
 Hapless Italy, and with her, Lodovico il Moro, Leonardo da Vinci, 
 and even the worthy chronicler, Corio himself, were soon to learn 
 this by sad experience. 
 
 Before studying the masterpieces created by Leonardo's genius in 
 Milan, and his influence on the Milanese School, to which he gave a 
 new inspiration and direction, just as Raphael did to the Roman 
 School, we must glance at the Court of the Sforzi, his new patrons, and 
 inquire what elements this mUiai, at once youthful and suggestive, could 
 add to the rich and varied treasure the new-comer brought with him 
 from Florence.^ 
 
 The duchy of Milan then, as now, the wealthiest of the provinces of 
 Italy, was ruled by a dynasty of parvenus ; mercenaries, condottieri, in 
 the full force of the term. The founder of his house's fortune, 
 Francesco Sforza, the son of a peasant turned general, had married the 
 natural dauçrhter of the last Visconti, and established his dominion over 
 
 o 
 
 the whole of Milan, partly by force of arms, partly by diplomacy. 
 Francesco was succeeded by his son, Galeazzo Maria, a monster of 
 debauchery and cruelty, after whose assassination the ducal coronet fell 
 to his infant son, the feeble and aUcEmic Gian Galeazzo. Profiting by 
 the weakness of his nephew, Lodovico il Moro, Galeazzo Maria's 
 brother, seized the reins of government, rather by subtlety than strength, 
 and reigned in his nephew's name, till he finally rid himself of Gian 
 Galeazzo by jioison. 
 
 1 The details 1 give here may be completed by those in my Renaissance en Italie 
 et en France au temps de Charles II//. (Taris, 1S85, \\ 209-273.) 
 
 N 2
 
 92 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Let us pause a moment before this figure, so justly celebrated, both 
 for its crimes and its enlightened taste — before this tyrant, perfidious 
 as he was cowardly, before this fastidious and impassioned amateur 
 who, among the contemporary host of illustrious patrons of Art and 
 Letters, had but one rival, Lorenzo de Medici, the personification 
 of liberality and discrimination. Yet even Lorenzo the Magnificent 
 could not boast of a Bramante or a Leonardo da \"inci amono: his 
 servants. 
 
 Born at Vigevano on April 3, 1451, the fourth son of Francesco 
 Sforza, Lodovico was early noted for his physical and mental qualities. 
 The most careful of educations added lustre to his natural gifts ; he 
 rapidly familiarised himself with the humanities, learned to read and 
 write fluently in Latin, and earned the admiration of his tutors by the 
 tenacity of his memory, no less than by his facility of elocution.^ In 
 person he was a man of lofty stature, with very strongly marked features 
 of an Oriental cast, a more than aquiline nose, a somewhat short chin, 
 the whole countenance remarkable for its extraordinary mobility. The 
 darkness of his complexion was particularly noticeable, and gained him 
 his sobriquet of II Moro, the Moor. Far from feeling ashamed of this 
 peculiarity, Lodovico was proud of it, and in allusion thereto, he adopted 
 as badge a mulberry-tree (in Italian, Mord)? 
 
 1 'Tu oltra li altri fratelli dedito alii stiidii ; el per il bono ingegno suo facilmente 
 capiva il senso deli autori, di inodo che, fra tutti li altri dominarno mai Milano, fu il pili 
 litterato" (Prato, Archivio storico italiaiio, vol. iii. p. 256-257). " Vir ore probo, 
 moribus humanis, ingeniorum amantissimus, œqui servantissimus, nam et srepe jus 
 dicebat, lites longas et inextricabiles brevites cognoscendo. Postremo fortunam 
 adversam habuit " {Rai)hael Mafifei da Voltcrra, Geographia, Book iv.). See also 
 Roscoe, Vila e Pontificato di Leone X., ed. Bossi, vol. i. pp. 49, 141, 145, 146 (Milan, 
 1816). — Like all dogmatic spirits, Rio, the learned, impetuous, and eloquent author of 
 L'Art Chictien, is full of inconsistencies. If it had been in his power, he would have 
 sent the whole line of the Medici and many others, to the stake of the Incpiisition, but 
 for Lodovico he is full of tenderness. 
 
 - " Fu questo signor Ludovico Sforza, da la negrezza del colore, cognominato Moro ; 
 cosi appellate primieramente dal patre Francesco e Bianca matre— ne li jjrimi anni — ' 
 (Prato, Archivio storico italiano, first series, vol. iii. p. 256). "Ludovico, il quale fu di 
 color bruno, et pero hebbe il sopranome di moro, et portava la zazzara lunga ; si che quasi 
 gli copriva le ciglia, si come dimostra il suo ritratto di mano del Vinci, nel reffettorio 
 delle Gratia di Milano, dove si vede anco il ritratto di Beatrice sua moglia, tutte due 
 in ginocchioni con gli figli avanti, et un Christo in Croce dalF altra mano" (Lomazzo. 
 Trattato della Pittura, ed. of 1584, p. 633). Portraits of Lodovico, sculptured, painted, 
 drawn, engraved, are innumerable : besides the beautiful coin engraved by Caradosso, we
 
 LODOVICO SFORZA 
 
 93 
 
 Lodovico had the blood of the Visconti in his veins. His mother, as 
 we have said, was the daughter of the last representative of that 
 famous house. From his grandfather, Filippo Maria, he inherited both 
 cowardice and craft ; a short-sighted craft, however, that finally turned 
 to his own disadvantage. Vacillatino- and uncertain, a man ot 
 schemes rather than of action, he was for ever laboriously spinning 
 webs, through which the most blundering of bluebottles could pass 
 with ease. His life was one long series of contradictions : he chose as 
 father-in-law for his nephew, whom 
 he intended to dethrone, so powerful 
 a sovereign as the King of Naples ; 
 he brought the French into Italy, and 
 then moved heaven and earth to drive 
 them out again ; he haughtily refused 
 Louis Xn.'s offer to leave the 
 government of Milan to him during 
 his lifetime on payment of a tribute 
 to France, and immediately after, 
 ignominiously abandoned his states. 
 In short, he appears to have suffered 
 from a kind of neurosis, which, at 
 critical moments, resulted in utter 
 feebleness and prostration ; he showed 
 an inexhaustible activity in weaving 
 plots, to which he was himself the 
 first to fall a victim. Througrhout 
 
 his endless treacheries, however, one very modern trait is conspicuous, 
 for which he deserves credit : he had an intense horror of bloodshed, 
 a quality all the more praiseworthy in that the example of his brother, 
 Galeazzo Maria, might well have accustomed him to strike by terror, 
 instead of ruling by stratagem. Discovering a plot against his life, 
 he was content, after executing the chief criminal, to condemn the 
 other to life-long imprisonment, with the proviso that he should 
 
 Sntiqaarii .prpcticlx 
 Ikomaiu fôpotU per 
 fiolpcaiao dVUncfe 
 
 FRONTISFIECE OF THE " ANTK^UARIE 
 PROSPETTICHE." 
 
 may mention the portrait in the Brera, attributed to Zenale, the statue on the tomb in 
 the Certosa at Pavia, and a portrait in black chalk preserved in the collection at Christ 
 Church, Oxford. (Rio, L'Ari ChritUn, vol. iii. p. 67.)
 
 94 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 receive two lashes yearly, on the feast of S. Ambrose. This was 
 mildness indeed as compared with the horrible traditions of the 
 Visconti ! 
 
 Of restless temperament and insatiable ambition, II Moro seized 
 the first opportunity of wooing fortune : scarcely had his brother 
 Galeazzo Maria fallen a prey to conspirators in 1476, when he 
 began hatching plot after plot against his sister-in-law, the regent, 
 Bona of Savoy. After several years of exile, he returned in triumph 
 in 1479, seized the guardianship of his nephew, and, until the death 
 of the latter in 1494, exercised despotic authority under the titles of 
 Duke of Bari and regent of the Duchy of Milan. ^ But the regency 
 was far from satisfying Lodovico's ambition ; even the title of Duke of 
 Milan could not assuage his greed : he dreamed of a kingdom of 
 Insubria and Liiruria, of which he was to be the sovereign.^ The 
 expedition of Charles VIII. in 1494 — 1495 interrupted the course of 
 his prosperity for a while. But the storm passed over the Duchy of 
 Milan and left no trace : the thunder-cloud was soon dispersed by the 
 rays of that rising sun towards which all the rulers of Italy turned : 
 Lodovico, the astute promoter of the campaign that ended in the 
 battle of Fornovo ; and now, more powerful, more glorious than ever, 
 he found himself the arbiter of Italy. 
 
 Both by nature and by education, the prince had a passion for 
 intellectual pleasures. But had this been otherwise, reasons of state 
 would have made him simulate such a passion. The examples of the 
 Medici had taught him that if he desired the suffrages of his citizens, 
 he must appeal to their taste and their vanity. To epicureans such as 
 the Italians — and they were epicureans in the higher sense — a liberality 
 unaccompanied by the encouragement of letters, of science and art, 
 would have failed altogether in its object. No political propaganda 
 was so effectual as the erection of a sumptuous building, the ordering 
 of a statue or a fresco signed by a famous name. The Meccenas of 
 the period, Francesco Sforza for example, may not have believed 
 blindly in the civilising mission of masterpieces ; but the wily diploma- 
 
 ' For Lodovico's history before his accession lo power the reader is referred to 
 a memoir pubhshed in the Anhivio storico loinhardo, 1S86, p. 737. 
 
 " H- FranijOis Delaborde, H Expedition de Cliarks VIII. en Italie, p. 217.
 
 Study /o)- the I'iroiu with the /n/tiiif /csns (ascribed to 
 
 Leonardo). 
 
 <iiKI riSH Mt 'iKl'M.)
 
 Piinied bj Draeger. F^r
 
 LODOVICO SFORZA 95 
 
 tists had faith — and a faith that was fully justified — in the effect 
 l^roduced upon the crowd by any act of enlightened magnificence. 
 Lodovico, though his statesmanship was narrow, and although in a 
 sense he took no thought for the morrow, never neglected this rule. 
 He never relaxed his efforts to attract from far and near, any one who 
 could add to his glory ; writers who would sing his praises, artists 
 who would multiply his portraits. Herein, and herein alone, his instincts 
 served him well. 
 
 If he wanted a model by which to guide himself, Lodovico had but 
 to turn to the most faithful ally of the house of Sforza, to that ardent 
 and enlightened amateur, whose artistic insight was only equalled by 
 his prodigious activity. After deriving inspiration from him in life, 
 receiving from him counsel after counsel, artist after artist, Lodovico 
 conceived the daring project of acquiring Lorenzo the Magnificent's 
 marvellous collections after his death, more especially the intaglios 
 and gems. A long correspondence with his favourite goldsmith, 
 Caradosso, reveals the secret of his negotiations, which assumed all the 
 importance of a diplomatic treaty. They failed, however, owing to the 
 pretensions of the Florentine government, which impounded the Medici 
 collections by virtue of a decree of confiscation. 
 
 Though Lodovico passed for a prince after the humanist's own 
 heart, lettered, intellectual, liberal — one contemporary likens him to 
 the magnet which attracts the iron from far and near, to the ocean 
 absorbing the rivers ; another affirms that it was his ambition to make 
 of Milan another Athens — in everything connected with literature 
 and science he lacked that unerring taste which the Florentines owed 
 to a long and patient initiation, to centuries of culture. The 
 Mecaenas is evolved, not improvised. Lodovico might encourage 
 poetry and rhetoric among his subjects, might summon the most 
 famous writers of the day to his Court — there was no result. The 
 Milanese continued to write the most uncouth, unpolished Italian, 
 and even strangers such as Bernardo Bellincioni of Florence soon 
 lost the native distinction of their language in their provincial 
 surroundings. 
 
 The Milanese lacked intellectual depth. Neither the \'isconti who, 
 under Petrarch's auspices, had formed the admirable library of Pavia,
 
 g6 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 now one of ihc glories of the I'^rcnch Bibliothèque Nationale;, nor the 
 Sforzi, had shown that holy zeal in matters pertaining to letters which 
 possessed the Medici. Lodovico il Moro, who understood the art ot 
 self-advertisement to perfection, disdained the obscure rôle of the 
 bibliophile. M. Leopold Delisle found only one manuscript executed 
 for Lodovico, a Sallust, among those in the; Bibliothèque Nationale.^ 
 
 rOKTKAIT OF IPPOLITA VISCONTI, BY BERNARDINO LUINI. 
 
 (Monastero Maggiore, Milan.) 
 
 On the other hand, was it a question of advertising himself in distant 
 lands, Lodovico would put a whole army of ambassadors in motion, as 
 in 1488, when he begged Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary, to lend 
 him a manuscript of Festus. 
 
 The pleiad of humanists — poets, orators, historians, philologists " e 
 tutti quanti " — gathered around Lodovico was, in number at any rate, 
 
 ' 1 Le Cabinet des Manuscrits. See also the work of the Marchese d'Adda, Indagim 
 .... sulla Lilireria del Castello di Pavia, vol. i. p. 60 et seq., 142 et sec., 167; vol. ii. 
 p. 85 et seq., loi, 124. Also Mazzatinti, Manoscritii italiani delle Biblioteche di 
 Frauda, vol. i. c. xcvii-viii.
 
 TOMB OF CARDINAL ASCANIO SFORZA, BY ANDKEA SANSOVINO, 
 
 (Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. 
 
 o
 
 98 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 not inferior to that which filled the palaces and the villas of the Medici. 
 But most of them were strangers to Lonibardy. Francesco Philelfo, 
 the famous professor of Greek, was born at Tolentino, Ermolao 
 Barbaro at Venice, the Simonetti in Calabria, Jacopo Antiquario at 
 Perugia, Bernardo Bellincione at Florence, Luca Pacioli at Borgo San 
 Sepolcro ; Constantino Lascaris and Demetrio Chalcondylas came 
 from the heart of Greece. The poet Gasparo Visconti, the historians 
 Calco and Corio, and the philologist, Giorgio Merula, alone were natives 
 of Milan. The enumeration of these names in itself suffices to mark 
 their relative obscurity. With the exception of Philelfo, who died at 
 the beginning of Lodovico's regency, and of Ermolao Barbaro, who 
 was only at his court as Venetian Ambassador (he composed a poem 
 lauding II Moro as champion on the occasion of the tournament of 
 1492), they are all laborious rather than brilliant spirits, chiefly 
 philologists and chroniclers. What a crushing parallel for them was 
 the Medicean coterie, with its Politian, its Cristoforo Landini, its 
 Marsilio Ficino, its Pulci, its Pico della Mirandola, its Giovanni 
 Lascaris, and a host of other shining lights! All the efforts of II 
 Moro, and even the encouragement he gave to the new-born 
 industry of printing, were unavailing ;^ the Milanese were deficient in 
 the necessary training and their duke in refinement of taste, as also in 
 that loving zeal which contributed quite as much as their munificence 
 to make the work of the Medici fruitful. 
 
 It may not be out of place here to acquaint ourselves with the 
 chief of these literary and scientific men who, coming into perpetual 
 contact with Leonardo da Vinci, formed an integral part of the circle 
 in which he moved. 
 
 One of his friends, the poet, Gasparo Visconti, attached to the 
 ducal court at an early age (1481)- was the author of a romance in 
 
 1 The art of printing was carried on with great activity in Milan, and this naturally 
 gave an impulse to letters. The first Greek book was printed at Milan in 1476. It was 
 Constantino Lascaris' Greek Grammar. 
 
 2 Document in the State archives of Milan, Pot. Sovrane A. — Z. Vitto. Visconti's 
 poems have been printed in part by Argelati i^Bibliotheca Scriptorum mediulanetisium, 
 vol. i. p. xlv. ; vol. ii. p. 1386), who qualifies one of them as "rude." It is said that 
 Visconti died in 1499 at the age of thirty-eight, but a text published by M. de Maulde 
 {Chronique de Jean d'Auton, vol. ii. p. 331) speaks of him as having taken refuge in 
 Mantua in 1503, and as included by Louis XI 1. in the list of the rebels.
 
 MEN OF LETTERS AT MILAN 99 
 
 verse entitled : De Pmtlo e Daria Anianti (1495). He begins it 
 
 with an eulogy on Bramante, whom he knew to be in high favour 
 
 at the court ; he then breaks into a dithyramb in honour of II 
 
 Moro, no less exaggerated in form than vulgar in idea. He 
 
 calls him 
 
 Principe sagro, egregio tra li egregi 
 Duca di duci e Re degli altri Regi. 
 
 Going on to speak of the building of the monastery of Sant' 
 Ambrogio, he relates how Bramante discovered the tomb with the 
 epitaph of Daria and Paulo and, beside the bodies, some books 
 covered in lead and written in Lombard characters. Then follows, 
 in the same insipid style, a list of the institutions of Bishop Azzo 
 Visconti. 
 
 The verses of Bramante — for the future architect in chief of St. 
 Peter's at Rome, the future " frate del Piombo," also tried his hand at 
 poetry — ^ are, in general, no less rough and halting than those of his 
 Milanese fellow-poets.- Among these Lombard poetasters, the 
 prize for barbarism falls incontestably to the author — an anonymous 
 writer, happily for his memory — of the Antiqiiaria Prospettiche romane 
 composte per Prospettico Melanese dipintore, published between 1499 
 and 1500, and reprinted in Rome in 1876 at the instance of Gilberto 
 Govi. This poem, which consists of an enumeration of the antiquities 
 of the city of Rome, is dedicated to Leonardo, whose praises are sung 
 in the two sonnets at the beginning. 
 
 Numberless other poems, more or less occasional, testify to the 
 
 1 Some of Bramante's sonnets were published a century later in the Raccolta mi/anesc, 
 and then by Trucchi {Poésie italiane ifiedite di diigenio Au fori ; Prate, 1847, vol. iii.). I 
 have drawn attention to others in a MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale {Gazette des Beaux- 
 Arts, 1879, vol. ii. p. 514 etseq). Signer Beltrami has given us these sonnets, twenty- 
 three in number, in a collected edition : Bramante poeta, Milan, 1884. 
 
 2 I will quote here from among his sonnets the one in which, long before Ronsard, he 
 implored his fair " dolce nimica d'ogni ripeso " not to let old age come upon her before 
 responding to his flame : — 
 
 " Dunque, mentre que dura il tempo verde, 
 Nen far come quel fior che'n su la pianta 
 Senza frutto nessun sue frondi perde. 
 
 Che quando il corpo in pill vecchiezza viene, 
 Pill di sua gioventli si gloria e vanta, 
 Vedendesi aver speso i giorni bene." 
 
 O 2
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 cordiality of Leonardo's relations with the Milanese versifiers. We 
 
 shall return to the subject further on. 
 
 Leonardo may perhaps have also met the youthful Baldassare 
 
 Castiglione (born in 1478), who was sent to Milan by his parents to 
 
 finish his education.^ 
 
 At that time, too, a Visconti, Ippolita, the wife of Alessandro 
 
 Bentivoglio, afterwards known to fame as having commissioned 
 
 Bernardino Luini to paint his masterpiece, the frescoes of the 
 
 " Monastero maggiore," and also as the lady to whom Bandello 
 
 dedicated his N'ovelle, assembled 
 
 the most brilliant of these choice 
 
 spirits in her palace. She was 
 
 already an important figure in 
 
 1499, when Louis XIL confirmed 
 
 her in several privileges.- 
 
 Nor did Leonardo disdain, as 
 
 we shall see later on, to take part 
 
 in the poetic contests organised 
 
 in Milan. Indeed, did he not 
 
 excel as an improvisatore ! 
 
 Besides her men of letters and 
 
 her scholars, Milan contained a 
 
 number of eccentric spirits, more 
 
 or less given up to superstition. One can easily understand that 
 
 the new-comer may have interested himself in more than one of 
 
 these scientific charlatans, even though he gauged their powers, and 
 
 despised them. 
 
 There was first of all his quasi-compatriot, Fra Luca di Pacioli, 
 
 professor of mathematics, and a fervent follower of the doctrines of 
 
 Pythagoras. We shall return later to this poor Franciscan monk, a 
 
 writer no less laborious than unintelligible. 
 
 More mysterious, however, is his connection with a personage 
 
 whom this same Pacioli lauds as profoundly versed in the science 
 
 of Vitruvius, but who came to the most miserable end, a certain 
 
 1 See my Raphael, published by Hachette, 2nd éd., p. 298. 
 
 - YéX\%^\i:x, Bulletin historique et philologique, 1892, p. 139-140. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF THE POET DELLIN'CIONI, FROM AN 
 ENGRAVING OF I493.
 
 JACOPO ANDREA DA FERRARA 
 
 Jacopo Andrea da Ferrara.^ What was Jacopo Andrea's speciality, 
 what his philosophy ? We know not. One of Leonardo's biographers 
 suggests that he may be 
 identified with the " Jaco- 
 bus de Ferraria, ingig- 
 nerius " who superin- 
 tended the fortification of 
 St. Ansrelo at Rome from 
 1485 to 1496.- But this 
 is a mere conjecture. All 
 we know for certain is 
 that Jacopo, implicated in 
 a conspiracy against Louis 
 XI L, was condemned to 
 death with his accomplice, 
 Niccolo della Busula, and 
 that he was sent to the 
 scaffold in 1500, though 
 Archbishop Pallavicino 
 had obtained his pardon. 
 His body was quartered 
 and the portions exposed 
 upon the gates of Milan.^ 
 
 The sonnets, rhymed 
 romances, and improvisa- 
 tions brought into vogue 
 
 THE CHRONICLER CORIO, FROM A CONTEMPORARY ENGRAVING. 
 
 by Lodovico, were suc- 
 ceeded by theatrical representations. The prince seems to have 
 
 ' "Jacomo Andrea da Ferrare, de l'opère de Victruvio acuratissimo sectatore, caro 
 quaiito fratello," to Leonardo da Vinci {Pacioa, ed. Winterberg, p. 33). Leonardo 
 mentions Jacopo Andrea three times in the MSS. in the Institut : once in connection 
 with a supper at which one of his pupils committed a theft ; once as having lent a 
 Vitruvius to one Messirc V. Aliprando ; and the third time merely by name. 
 
 - Uzielli, Rkerclie, 2nd éd., vol. i. p. 382. 
 
 3 A report upon the rebels, drawn up in 1503, states that " Jacques-Andrie de Fcrraire 
 was beheaded at Milan, and his goods given to Maistre Teodore Guayner, physician to 
 the King." {Chronique de Jea/t d'Anton, edited by de Maulde, vol. ii. p. 335-)
 
 I02 LEONARDO DA VIXri 
 
 acquired a taste for this kind of amusement at his wife's native Ferrara. 
 In 1493, he opened a theatre, of which there is no other record 
 than an epigram of Corti's.^ 
 
 In dealing with philosophers, poets, historians, and men of learning 
 in general, Lodovico — we cannot repeat this too often — hesitates and. 
 gropes. In dealing with artists, on the contrary, his judgment is 
 absolutely unerring. Numberless documents prove with what 
 solicitude and vigilance he directed the activity of the army of 
 architects, sculptors, painters, goldsmiths, artists, and artificers of every 
 description enrolled by him. He drew up the programme of their 
 creations, superintended its execution, corrected, hastened, scolded 
 them with a vivacity which bears witness both to an ardent love of 
 glory, and to a most enlightened taste. This prince, so uncertain in his 
 political opinions, gives proof in his many great artistic undertakings 
 of admirable precision and judgment. Needless to remark, he was a 
 declared champion of the classical style, and proved it on every 
 occasion, now in the pursuit of antique statues, now in orders for 
 goldsmith's work " al modo antico," now in erecting a triumphal arch 
 " al rito romano," - for the reception of the Emperor Maximilian. It 
 was, too, as a representative of the best traditions of the antique that 
 Lodovico insisted everywhere upon air, light, and open spaces at Milan, 
 as well as at Pavia and Vigevano. His choice of the architects, whom 
 he summoned from far and near, testifies to his sympathy for the 
 innovators, who were breaking down the superannuated traditions of 
 the Gothic style. From Florence, he brought Giuliano da San Gallo, 
 founder of a dynasty of eminent architects ; from Siena, Francesco di 
 Giorgio Martini, celebrated both as architect and military engineer ; 
 from Mantua, Luca Fancelli, court architect and sculptor to the 
 Gonzaghi. The single exception to this rule — the invitation addressed 
 in 1483 to the master-builder of the cathedral of Strasburg, Johann 
 Niesemberg, or Nexemperger, explains itself: the Gothic cathedral 
 of Milan was to be furnished with a Gothic dome.^ 
 
 The embellishment of his capital was II Moro's first care, and here 
 
 1 Tiraboschi, Storia della Litlcratura iialiana, ed. Milan, vol. vi. p. 13 14. — Uzielli, 
 Ricerche, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 62. 
 
 2 Corio, Historia di Milano, p. 962. * Revue alsacienne, July, 1888.
 
 LODOVICO'S BUILDINGS AT MILAN 103 
 
 he had much to contend with, for, then as now, Milan was no ideal city. 
 In spite of the number and wealth of its inhabitants (in 1492 the number 
 of houses was reckoned at 18,300, and the population — with an average 
 of seven inhabitants to a house — at 128,100 souls ^), some dozen other 
 towns — Venice, Florence, Genoa, Siena, Rome, Naples — offered a far 
 more picturesque aspect, more unity of decoration, a much more 
 striking ensemble. The absence of a river, the unbroken flatness of the 
 plain, the deterioration brought about by revolutions, and more than all 
 perhaps, the foreign yoke that had weighed so long and so cruelly on the 
 Lombard capital, were among the chief reasons of this inferiority. Subject 
 in turn to the Spaniards, the Austrians, and the French, Milan could 
 not develop normally as did Florence and Venice, for instance, where 
 modern constructions blend so perfectly with memorials of the past. 
 
 The buildings erected by Lodovico are rather interesting than 
 imposing or grandiose. It would seem as if the dawning Renaissance, 
 fearful of being short-lived, had not ventured upon any but easy 
 tasks, such as might be accomplished in a few years. We may instance 
 the church of San Celso, the Baptistery of San Satiro, the Monastery of 
 Sant' Ambrogio, built at the expense of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the 
 Hospital and, above all, the central part of Santa Maria delle Grazie 
 with its matchless cupola. 
 
 " This glorious and magnanimous prince," says the contemporary 
 chronicler, Cagnola of Lodovico, " adorned the castle on the ' Piazza 
 Jovia ' with marvellous and beautiful buildings, enlarged the .square in 
 front of the castle, had every obstacle removed from the streets of the 
 city, and gave orders that the façades of the houses should be painted and 
 ornamented. He did the same at Pavia. Vigevano he also enlarged, and 
 enriched with many noble and handsome buildings ; he caused a fine 
 square to be constructed, and paved and embellished the whole district." 
 
 Born at Vigevano, in the fruitful plain intersected by innumerable 
 water-courses, Lodovico showed a predilection for it as a residence all 
 his life.- He summoned Leonardo to Vigevano, notably in February 
 
 1 Cantu, Histoire des Italiens, vol. i. p. 157-15S. [French translation.] 
 
 2 On Vigevano, see Bellincioni, vol. i. pp. 35, 36, 150, 173, 194. — Decembrio, apud 
 Muratori, Scriptures, vol. xx. col. 998; Cagnola, Archivio storico italiano, vol. iii. p. 188. 
 Argelati, vol. i. p. ccclx.xxi. — Burckhardt, Geschichte der Renaissance, 2nd éd., p. 7. 
 De Geymiiller, Projets primitifs pour Saint Pierre de Rome, p. 51 ^/ seq.
 
 I04 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 1492. In 1495, Bramante repaired to the 
 castle of Pavia, to seek the designs of the 
 Clock Room "destined to serve as models 
 for one of the rooms of the castle at Vige- 
 vano"; he also consulted a manuscript con- 
 taining representations of the Planets, with 
 which Lodovico proposed to decorate the 
 ceiling of a room in the castle.' In the same 
 year, Lodovico ordered a marble; scutcheon 
 from Gian Cristoforo Romano, for the 
 church of the Misericordia at Vigevano 
 (now destroyed,)'-^ The reader may judge 
 
 by a contemporary document, given in the 
 
 accompanying note, of the multiplicity of 
 
 undertakings which the duke carried out 
 
 with a sort of feverish ardour." 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ''' "^^flfli 
 
 " i' 
 
 
 ^^^1 
 
 ^^^&F *> 
 
 ■■■, 
 
 r..JyH 
 
 f^-^" - 
 
 y* 
 
 
 
 > ■ 
 
 niANCA MARIA SFORZA. 
 
 (From a drawing by O. M. Cavalli.) 
 (Accadtitnia, Venice.) 
 
 i> 
 
 ' Riclitcr, vol. ii. 
 ,56. 
 
 ]5. 236. D'Adda, Indagiiii, 
 
 THE EMPEKUR MAXIMILIAN. 
 
 (From .1 drawing by G. M. Cav.-illi.) 
 (Accademia, Venice ) 
 
 - Archivio storico deir Arte, 1SS8, j). 57. 
 
 ' June, i.t97- Orders i.ssucd to Marchesino Slanga ; 
 First, to have a ducal scutcheon in marble placed above 
 the Porta Lodovico, and ten bronze medals with the 
 effigy of the Duke put behind the door (in the founda- 
 tions?). Item, inquire if "U (iobbo" (Cristoforo Solari) 
 can execute this year, besides the sepulchre, a part of the 
 altar, and whether all the marbles are ready; if not, 
 send for them to Venice or Carrara. Item, urjjc Leonardo 
 
 the Florentine to finish the work he has begun in the refectory delle Cra/Je, so that he 
 may attend to the opposite wall of the refectory; make a contract with him, signed by his 
 own hand, which shall engage him to finish whatever he undertakes to do in a given 
 time. Item, urge on the completion of the portico of S. Ambrogio, for which 200 
 ducats have been allotted. Item, finish the half of the other portico, for which the 
 Duke has alloted 300 ducats. Item, collect the most skilfid architects to examine and 
 make a model for the fae^ade of S. Maria delle Grazie, having regard to the heigiit to 
 which the church must be reduced, in order to bring it into harmony with the great 
 chapel. Item, the Duke has said he wishes to see the street from the courtyard. Item, 
 have the head of the late Duchess done so that it may be placed upon a medal with that 
 of the Duke. Item, have the door, which is called the Porta Beatrice, opposite to the 
 church of San Marco, opened, and have a ducal scutcheon placed upon it like that upon 
 the porta Lodovico, with an inscription relative to the Duchess. . . . Item, have the new 
 " Broletto " finished for the calends of the month of August following. Item, tell them to 
 gild (?) the letters graven on black marble ("le lettere adorate in marmo negro'') for the 
 portraits in the chapel. . . . {Ca.n\h, Archivio storico lomhardo, 1874, p. 183-184.)
 
 THE COURT OF LODOVICO SFORZA 
 
 i°5 
 
 The pleasures attendant on luxury, the organisation of festivals 
 of every description, tournaments, dances, plays, diversions more or 
 less ingenious and intellectual, absorbed the Milanese Maecenas 
 almost, if not quite, as much 
 as the cult of poetry or art. 
 To hand down some great 
 masterpiece to posterity was 
 assuredly a most enviable 
 mission, but, meanwhile, con- 
 temporaries must be beguiled, 
 and it was not by transcend- 
 ent works that one might hope 
 to delis^ht the masses in the 
 fifteenth century, any more 
 than in our own. To this end, 
 the resources of the capital of 
 the Duchy lent themselves 
 admirably. Except Venice and 
 Florence — republics, with no 
 courts, properly sjDeaking, de- 
 mocracies where strict regu- 
 lations opposed a barrier to 
 luxury — Milan was wealthier 
 than any other city of Italy. 
 Ostentation was almost a 
 means of government. The 
 pomp displayed by Galeazzo 
 Maria Sforza on the occasion 
 of his journey to Florence in 
 1471, still lived in every 
 memory. Had it not dazzled 
 even the Florentines, the most 
 sceptical of people, a race 
 not easily moved to enthusiasm ? Lodovico, like his brother, 
 Galeazzo Maria, was of opinion that magnificence was the inevitable 
 corollary of power. Nothing was too beautiful or too rich for his 
 personal adornment. The famous diamond of Charles the Bold, 
 
 V 
 
 llEATIilCi-: U'l-ISTE ; l-KOM THE MONl'MEM" l-Y CKlirOFOKO SÛLAKI. 
 
 (Certosa, PavK-i.)
 
 io6 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 the Sancy, blazed in his cap or on his doublet.^ And if we turn to 
 the " artes minores" what zeal, what liberality, what unfaltering discri- 
 mination he displayed. Miniature painting as represented by the 
 famous Antonio da Monza owes to Lodovico many exquisite pages 
 of the richest combinations, the rarest delicacy of colour, and the 
 most ineffable charm : to mention but a few at random, there is his 
 marvellous marriage contract, now in the British Museum, the frontis- 
 pieces of the history of Francesco Sforza, the Libro del Jesus of the 
 young Maximilian Sforza in the Trivulzi Library. Music was held 
 no less in honour by him ; I have told how Leonardo gained his good 
 graces by his skilful playing on the lute.^ 
 
 A series of ceremonies, partly private, partly public, gave II Moro 
 an opportunity of admitting even the humblest of his subjects to 
 the enjoyment of all these marvels ; the marriage festivals organised 
 by him surpassed in brilliancy and refinement, as we shall see directly, 
 anything that the Italy of the Renaissance had ever witnessed. Not 
 one of these ceremonies, down to the smallest reception of an am- 
 bassador, but was a state affair, in the full force of the term, setting 
 in motion all the resources of Lodovico's imagination, for he had 
 no idea of leaving anything to the hazard of the moment. To give 
 one example among many — in 1491, when about to receive the 
 ambassadors of the King of France, he issued the following instructions, 
 the precision of which could not well be improved upon by any master 
 of the ceremonies or director of protocols. The chief ambassador is to 
 be lodged in the " Sala delle Asse," occupied at present by the most 
 illustrious Duchess of Bari ; this apartment is to be left as it is, save 
 for the addition of a bed-canopy ornamented with fleurs-de-lys. The 
 adjoining apartments, hung with rich tapestry, are to serve respectively 
 as robing and dining rooms. To the second ambassador, Lodovico 
 gave up his own apartments, to the third, those occupied by Madonna 
 
 ' Belgrano, Delia Vita privata del Gciiovesi, 2nd edit. 'p. 100. Lodovico went so far 
 in his pursuit of the rare and curious as to obtain a dwarf from Chios. {Archivio storico 
 lombardo, 1S74, p. 485.) 
 
 In 14S1 the number of courtiers, functionaries and servitors of all ranks, who had the 
 right of eating in the ducal palace, amounted to 170. (State archives of Milan. Pot. 
 Sovr. A. — Z. Vitto.) Curious details touching these personages are to be found in the 
 Chroniques of Jean d'Auton, published by M. de Maulde (vol. ii. p. 328 ct seq.). 
 
 ^ On music at Milan, see Tiraboschi, Storia della Litteraliira italiaiia, ed. Milan, 
 vol. vi. p. 633 et seq. On the festivals, see the Archivio storico lombardo, 1887, p. 820.
 
 LEONARDO AS IMPRESARIO 107 
 
 Beatrice, Jacopo Antiquario, and other personages. The Duke also 
 enters into the most circumstantial details as to the arrangement of 
 these rooms, mentioning the tapestry, the velvet hangings, and the 
 furniture to be placed in them. The gentlemen of the suite he 
 ordered to be lodged in the various hostelries of the city, the Well, the 
 Star, the Bell.^ 
 
 Lodovico sometimes chose Bramante,'^ sometimes Leonardo, as 
 impresario for the more important of these festivals. In 1489, on the 
 occasion ot the marriage of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the latter collaborated 
 with the poet Bellincioni, in the construction of a theatrical machine, 
 which they christened " 11 Paradiso." It was a colossal orrery, in 
 which the planets, represented by actors of flesh and blood, revolved 
 round the princess by means of an ingenious mechanism, and sang her 
 praises.^ 
 
 In 1491, Leonardo arranged the jousts held in honour of Messire 
 Galeazzo di San Severino, Lodovico's son-in-law. We know from 
 his own account that on this occasion he introduced masquers repre- 
 senting savages. 
 
 It seems to me very probable that certain sketches of squires and 
 pages, now in the Windsor Collection, are studies for the costumes 
 Leonardo designed for these festivities. They are remarkable for their 
 sovereign elegance and distinction. To Leonardo and his contem- 
 poraries, they were but improvisations for the uses of a day ; but 
 genius has given them a vitality that has preserved them for centuries, 
 in all their freshness and poetry.* 
 
 In Leonardo's manuscripts there are a few rare passages relating to 
 these masques and festivities. There is the sketch of a bird which is 
 
 ' From a document in the State archives of Milan, communicated to me by the 
 Vicomte Fr. Delaborde. 
 
 ^ De Geymiiller, Les Projets primitifs pout- la Basilique de Saint Pierre de Rome, p. 48. 
 
 ^ " Festa ossia rappresentazione chiamata Paradiso, che fece fare il Signore Ludovico 
 in laude délia duches.sa di Milano, e cosi chiamasi, perche vi era fabbricato con il 
 grande ingegno ed arte di maestro Leonardo Vinci fiorentino il Paradiso, con tutti li 
 sette pianeti che girovano, e li pianeti erano rappresentati da uomini nella forma ed 
 abiti che si descrivono dai poeti, e tutti parlano in Iode délia prefata duchessa Isabella." 
 (Bellincioni, Le Rime, vol. ii. p. 20 et seç. — Dulcinio, Nuptice ill. duds Mediolani quinti 
 Joh. Galeaz Vicecomitis Sfortiœ. Milan, 1489 (Argelati, vol. i. p. dlxxxv.) 
 
 ^ According to Herr Miiller-Walde, on the other hand, these sketches relate to a 
 tournament presided over by Giuliano de' Medici. But I have already shown the value 
 of this conjecture (p. 56). 
 
 P 2
 
 io8 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 DKSinN' 1-ttE CANDELABRA. 
 
 {Codi'x Allaniicus.) 
 
 to figure in a comedy, a " design fur a carnival costume," etc. He 
 also proposes to have snow brought from the tops of mountains in 
 summer and scattered in pul)lic places during festivities.' 
 
 The most gorgeous of these pageants was that held on the occasion 
 of the marriage of Bianca IMaria Sforza'with the Emperor Maximilian 
 
 (November 30, 1493). From one end of 
 tht' city to the other, the streets were 
 hung with tapestries, garlands, festoons, 
 and scutcheons, on which the serpent of 
 the Visconti and the cross of Savoy 
 alternated witli the imperial eagle. The 
 model of the equestrian statue of Fran- 
 cesco Sforza, Leonardo's unfinished 
 masterpiece, stood before the castle of 
 the " Porta Giovia," under a triumphal 
 arch. The chapel was ablaze with 
 hangings "more beautiful than those 
 of Barbary, of Flanders or of Turkey," 
 with candelabra,^ vases " al modo 
 antico " executed after Lodovico's orders (note this term — "in the 
 antique style ") with jewels and ornaments of the rarest kind, treasures 
 
 ' Richtcr, vol. i. p 361. Directions for a handsome carnival costume may be found 
 in Manuscript i. (fol. 49, v°) in the Institut. 
 
 ^ These candelabra recall those which Leonardo drew on one of the pages of the 
 Codex Atlantiais (ed. Govi, pi. xvi). Two contemporaries, Pietro Lazzarone of the 
 Valtellina and Baldassare Taccone of Alessandria, sing the splendours — the one in Latin, 
 the other in Italian — of this alliance, the most illustrious ever contracted by a princess of 
 Milan. II Moro thought no sacrifice too great to secure the protection of the emperor : 
 he gave his niece a marriage portion of 400,000 gold florins (equal to about ;^8oo,ooo), 
 besides a trousseau valued at 100,000 florins, making up a total which represented 
 nearly a year's revenue of the Duchy. (This revenue, according to Corio, amounted 
 to 600,000 florins.) But, despite the jjower and wealth of the Sforzi, this union 
 was far from being agreeable to the Germans with their strong prejudices as to birth. 
 "The marriage," writes Commines, "has greatly displeased the princes of the Empire 
 and many friends of the King of the Romans, not being contracted with so noble a 
 house as befitted his ALajesly ; for, on the side of the Visconti, as they who reign in 
 Milan call themselves, there is but little nobility" — (These were indeed purists, for 
 whom the Visconti were not noble enough ! — the Visconti, who for a century had 
 counted among their kinsmen and allies the Kings of France, and most of the ruling 
 amilies of Europe !) — "and still less on the side of the Sforzi, of whom the Duke Fran- 
 cisque de Millan was born." (Petri Lazarone, Epithahvniumn in nuptiis Blancœ Maria 
 Sfortiœ cum Maximiliano Romanorum Jies^e, Milan, 1494. Argelati, vol. i. p. dxcvi. See 
 also F. Calvi, Bianai Maria Sforza Visconti, Milan, 1888.)
 
 LODOVICO AT VIGEVANO 
 
 109 
 
 that defy descriptinn In- the pen of the poet or the brush of the 
 painter. 
 
 A natural flexibihty enabled Lodovico, the fastidious a;sthete for 
 whom nothing was too sumptuous, and who might have given points 
 to any Byzantine Emperor, to transform himself into a sim})le country 
 gentleman : every now and then he opposed the charms of nature 
 pure and simple to the refinements of city life, and the subtleties of 
 a finished and voluptuous civilisation ; as a pendant to the splendid 
 castle of Milan, he had the gardens, the pastures and farms of his castle 
 at Vigevano. Does this not show that the existence of the Italian 
 princes of the early Renaissance was wonderfully comprehensive, and 
 that in Lodovico il Moro the man was as 
 admirably balanced as the ruler was in- 
 complete ? But let us inquire more 
 closely into those diversions, which alter- 
 nated with his enjoyment of the delicate 
 and subde productions of Leonardo's 
 brush. At Pavia, the pleasures of the 
 chase prevailed ; " The chasteau, " says 
 our worthy chronicler Robert Gaguin, " is 
 a very beautiful place, and marvellously 
 well plenished with all necessary things. 
 
 And joining the castle is a great park, enclosed about like the forest 
 of Vincennes. It is well furnished with wild beasts such as stags, 
 hinds, and roe-deer, wild cattle, horses, and mares, goats and other 
 animals. At the end of the park is a monastery of the order of the 
 Carthusians [des Chatreux (sic)'], in which is a beautiful church, made 
 for the most part of marble, and the porch all of alabaster. 
 
 At Vig-evano and in its neighbourhood, Lodovico the huntsman 
 became Lodovico the agriculturist. His estate, or model farm there 
 — it is still Gaguin who speaks — was " a place much esteemed for 
 the marvellous number of beasts that are there, and that all may see 
 with the eye, as horses, mares, oxen, cows, bulls, rams, ewes, goats, and 
 other beasts of the like nature with their young, as fawns, foals, calves, 
 lambs, and kids. The domain is nobly situated in the midst of a 
 great meadow about four leagues in circuit. And the meadow has more 
 than thirty-three streams of fair living water running through this spot 
 
 MARSHAL TRIVULZIO. FROM A PLAQUE 
 ASCRIBED TO CARADOSSO.
 
 no LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 SO well suited for industry, seeintr that they serve for the bathing and 
 cleansing of the beasts, as well as for the watering of all the meadows. 
 The plan of the said demesne is a square, like a great cloister, and 
 around it, in the [jark, are stands loaded with hay, besides the other 
 woods that are there. In the court of the said demesne are 
 governors and captains, who direct all the interior. The out-buildings 
 behind are in the shape of a great cross. In this place are many 
 servitors, their wives and families. That is to say, some for grooming, 
 tending, and cleaning the beasts ; others for milking them ; and also 
 there are others to receive the milk and deliver it over to the master 
 cheese-maker, who makes it into the great cheeses they call here Milan 
 cheeses. Everything is taken and given by weight. That is to say, 
 the hay, the milk, the butter, the cheese, and there is a great wealth 
 and abundance of all things." 
 
 I must ask the reader's pardon for dwelling on details apparently 
 so trivial. But they have their significance. In this careful measuring 
 and weighing of milk, &c., we trace that love of precision that character- 
 ised the Renaissance, the tendency to examine and classify — in a word, 
 the modern scientific spirit ! 
 
 Lodovico married comparatively late in life. He was forty when 
 he was united to Beatrice d'Este in 1491. This explains the important 
 part played in his life by his various irregular connections. He showed 
 a certain distinction of taste, moreover, in his choice of favourites.^ It 
 is not known who was the first of Lodovico's mistresses. It may have 
 been that Lucia Visconti whom he made Contessa Melzi, and who 
 bore him a son in 1476. I know not if she, too, was the mother of his 
 daughter Bianca (married in 1489 to Galeazzo di San Severino, died 
 1497), and of Leone, the future Notary-Apostolic. 
 
 The second of Lodovico's favourites seems to have been Cecilia 
 Gallerani. Of a noble Milanese family, she had received a brilliant 
 education, and spoke and wrote Latin and Italian with equal 
 facility. Her verses were much admired, as were also the solemn 
 orations she recited at various times before theologians and 
 
 1 I complete, by means of the Famiglie cekbri d'ltalia by Litta, and of the Archivio 
 storico lombardo (1874, p. 486-487), the data furnished by Uzielh in his Leonardo da 
 Vhici e ire Gentildonne milanesi del secolo XV, (Pignerol, 1890). See also Les Amies de 
 Ludovic le More, by M. Pélissier, from the Revue historique of 1 890.
 
 LODOVICO'S MISTRESSES m 
 
 philosophers. Her name and her praises are constantly to be met 
 with in Bandello's Novelle. Many poets extolled her beauty and her 
 talents. 
 
 According to M. Uzielli, Lodovico's liaison with Cecilia began in 
 1 48 1 at latest, for at that time the favourite received from her lover an 
 estate near Saronno. In 1491 Lodovico presented her with a vast 
 and sumptuous palace, formerly belonging to the Count of Carmagnola, 
 the restoration of which was directed by Giovanni de' Busti, the ducal 
 engineer. The building is now the " Broletto," or Finance Office. 
 In May of the same year, Cecilia bore a son, who received the name of 
 Cesare, and who, on the occasion of the solemn entry into Milan of his 
 natural brother Maximilian, in 15 12, bore the ducal sword before him. 
 
 If Lodovico's marriage with Beatrice d'Este did not entirely break 
 the bonds that united him to Cecilia, at least it imposed some re- 
 strictions on their intercourse. Beatrice, who at first showed a 
 supreme indifference towards her husband, soon became jealous of the 
 favourite. In February 1492, she declared that she would not wear a 
 certain gown of gold tissue if her rival were permitted to wear the 
 same.^ Lodovico was at last forced to promise either to find a husband 
 for his mistress, or put her into a convent. It was probably about this 
 time that he married her to Count Lodovico Carminati Bergamino.- 
 
 One word more about this distinguished woman, to whom we shall 
 refer again in connection with the portrait of her painted by Leonardo : 
 Cecilia Gallerani died in 1536 at a very advanced age. 
 
 Details are lacking as to the character of Lucrezia Crivelli, who 
 appears to have succeeded Cecilia Gallerani, and who also had the 
 honour of being painted by Leonardo. In 1497, during the lifetime 
 of Beatrice d'Este therefore, she received an important donation from 
 her lover ; her son, Giovanni Paolo, was made Marquis of Caravaggio 
 by his father, and thus became the founder of the family of that name. 
 
 ' It was perhaps on the occasion of one of these disputes that Lodovico, after barely 
 a year of marriage, forgot himself so far as to strike his wife. (Bertolotti, II Filoiecnico, 
 May-June, 1S87.) 
 
 "" This accommodating husband followed the fortunes of II Moro, in spite of himself : 
 put by Louis XII. upon the list of rebels, he fled to Mantua (1503), and his pension of 
 300 ducats was assigned to one of the Trivulzi. {Chroniques de Jean d'Anton, éd. 
 de Maulde, vol. ii, p. 335.)
 
 112 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Adopting the profession of arms, he signalised himself by his valour, 
 and died in 1535. 
 
 There is nothing to prove that these two favourites were ambitious 
 of any higher glory than to sit to Leonardo. Nothing in them 
 recalls the intriguing Isotta da Rimini, or suggests Diane de Poitiers, 
 or Madame de Pompadour. 
 
 The support and collaboration which Lodovico neither asked nor 
 expected from the nobles of his court, he found indeed, in the highest 
 degree, in his consort, the ambitious and energetic Beatrice d'Este, 
 daughter to Duke Ercole of Ferrara. This princess had been 
 affianced to him as early as 1480, when she was only five years old, 
 for she was born in 1475. The marriage was finally consummated 
 
 on January 18, 1491, and during the six 
 years that were to elapse before her death 
 on January 2, 1497 — she was barely twenty- 
 two — few clouds seem to have dimmed 
 their happiness. Notwithstanding her ex- 
 treme youth, Beatrice at once gave a bolder 
 turn to Lodovico's policy. To her counsels 
 is attributed the ever-increasing rigour of 
 BKAM.NTB («TE„ A MEOA. .v ^^^ hapkss Glau Gakazzo Sforza's imprison- 
 
 CARADOSSO). ^ *■ 
 
 ment. Her feminine vanity did the rest. 
 Neglecting no opportunity for the humiliation of her niece, Isabella of 
 Aragon, the lawful Duchess of Milan, she ended by provoking a storm 
 which very nearly cost her the throne. We know how Isabella's trials 
 at last drove her father, the King of Naples, to threaten Lodovico, and 
 how the latter, to save himself, induced Charles VIII. to make his 
 descent upon Italy. This time, all turned out well for Beatrice and 
 her husband ; poison, it is affirmed, rid them of Gian Galeazzo, and 
 their alliance with the other Italian States relieved them of the irksome 
 ally they had called in, the feeble and pretentious Charles VIII. But 
 let us leave political history and return to our own subject, the history 
 of art and letters. There is no doubt that Beatrice, brought up in 
 the traditions of the house of Ferrara, the dynasty of all others in Italy 
 which best understood how to husband its resources, taught her 
 lord to give more method to his enterprises, and to follow them up 
 with greater spirit.
 
 ■ii;i: :aA;.i \ i.L'vM l'I ;:. .■■ll.v-.i ui;., ^ 
 (The Hrera, Milan.)
 
 114 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 From time to time, in 1490, in 15 10, &c., the visits of Beatrice's 
 sister, Isabella of Mantua, incontestably the most fascinating woman 
 of her clay, infused more life and warmth into these cold calcula- 
 tions.' With her passion for the beautiful and her fine intellect, 
 Isabella was not long in singling out Leonardo da Vinci, and 
 it was not her fault that this king of artists did not come to Mantua, 
 and there take the place of Andrea Mantegna, then at the 
 end of his long and glorious career. The Marchesa at least 
 succeeded, by dint of many entreaties, in obtaining a few of his 
 works, among others, the portrait of herself, that superb cartoon, 
 for the discovery of which in the Louvre we are indebted to M. 
 Charles Yriarte. 
 
 A third representative of the house of Este, Cardinal Ippolito (born 
 1470, died 1520), the brother of Beatrice and Isabella, established 
 himself in Milan in 1497, the year of Beatrice's death. He was one of 
 those " grands seigneurs " on whom Fortune had lavished her favours 
 from his birth. In 1487, when scarcely seventeen years of age, the 
 patronage of his aunt, Beatrice of Aragon, the wife of Mathias 
 Corvinus of Hungary, secured to him the rich archbishopric of 
 Gran, or Strigonium, in Hungary. In 1497 he left this to ascend 
 the archiépiscopal throne of S. Ambrogio at Milan. His taste for letters 
 (it was for him that Ariosto wrote the Orlando Furioso) was hardly 
 inferior to his military talents. (In 1500 he gained a brilliant victory 
 over the Venetian fleet.) His love of art was no less pronounced. 
 Like his sisters, he was ambitious of obtaining some work from 
 Leonardo's hand. Unhappily, an outrageous violence of temper 
 dimmed the lustre of his qualities. Having discovered that one of 
 his natural brothers had supplanted him in the good graces of 
 a lady of Lucrezia Borgia's suite, he had his rival's eyes put 
 out. In one of the stanzas of the Orlando Ftirioso (canto .\lvi., 
 V. 94), Ariosto shows us the Cardinal sharing both good and 
 evil fortune with his brother-in-law, Lodovico : now assisting him 
 with advice, now unfurling at his side the serpent standard of 
 the Visconti ; following him in flight, and consoling him in 
 
 1 See a study of the highest interest by Messrs. A. Luzio and R. Renier on the relations 
 of Isabella d'Este with the Court of Milan : Delk relazioni di Isabella d' Este Gonzaga co?i 
 Ludovico e Beatrice Sforza. Milan 1S90.
 
 CARDINAL ASCANIO SFORZA 115 
 
 affliction.^ The fall of the house of Sforza did not interrupt 
 the relations between Leonardo and the Cardinal. In 1507 we 
 find the painter seeking the prelate's support in his lawsuit with 
 his brothers. 
 
 Lodovico's brother, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza (born 1445, died 
 1505), may also be mentioned as a would-be Maecenas. This 
 personage, whose crafty face has come down to us on one of 
 Caradosso's medals, was the most arrant intriguer of his time. 
 A worthy brother of II IVIoro, he long contested his policy, 
 but ended by giving it the most devoted, if not the most loyal, 
 support. At the moment of his flight, in 1499, Lodovico refused 
 to confide the citadel of Milan to his keeping. For the rest, he 
 was a man of intelligence and taste, and was capable, on 
 occasion, of liberality. Poets, historians, painters, sculptors, musicians, 
 sought his favour, when they could not obtain that of his 
 all-powerful brother. To him the musician Florentins dedicated 
 his Liber Musices, the chronicler Corio his interesting Historia 
 di Milano, published at Venice in 1503. The sculptor Antonio 
 Pollajuolo worked for him, as did also the medallist Caradosso ; 
 and at his request Bramante planned the cathedral of Pavia. 
 After sharing the misfortunes of his brother, Ascanio died in 
 Rome, where Andrea Sansovino's magnificent tomb in S. Maria 
 del Popolo assured his immortality. ^ 
 
 Lodovico's niece, Bianca Maria Sforza (born in 1472; married 
 1493, '^o the Emperor Maximilian; died 1510), was, according to 
 Lomazzo, soft as wax, tall and slender, with a beautiful face 
 and graceful carriage. Unfortunately, it would appear that 
 her intellectual and moral qualities did not correspond to her 
 
 ^ In questa parte il giovene si vede 
 
 Col Duca sfortunato degl' Insubri, 
 Ch' ora in pace a consiglio con lui siede 
 Or armato con lui spiega i colubri ; 
 E sempre par d'una medesma fede, 
 Or ne' felici tempi o nei lugubri : 
 Nella fuga lo segue, lo conforta 
 Neir afflizion, gli é nel periglio scorta. 
 - On the miniatures in the manuscript of Florentius dedicated to Cardinal Ascanio, 
 see Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. iv, p. 28. The general's bâton belonging to Cardinal 
 Ascanio Sforza is now in the collection of Prince Charles of Prussia ; his armour is in the 
 "Armeria" of Turin (Angelucci, Catalogo delta Armeria reale. Turin 1890, p. 47-48). 
 
 Q 2
 
 ii6 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 promising exterior. Bianca Maria was, in fact, thoroughly empty- 
 headed, and more occupied with the distractions of court Hfe than 
 with intellectual matters ; her husband soon tired of her. Before 
 her departure for Germany she does not seem to have distinguished 
 herself by any evidences of artistic taste.^ 
 
 The activity of Lodovico was too restless and too devouring 
 to permit of any other Maecenas at his side. Assuredly, neither 
 his unfortunate nephew, Gian Galeazzo, feeble in mind as in body, 
 nor Gian Galeazzo's wife, Isabella of Aragon (born 1470, married 1489) 
 could dream of entering the lists against him from their gilded prison 
 in Pavia.2 
 
 An exquisite medal by Caradosso, and medallions in marble in 
 the Certosa at Pavia and the Lyons Museum have preserved the 
 lineaments of the fragile Gian Galeazzo, and a medallion by Gian 
 Cristoforo Romano, the moody countenance of Isabella of Aragon. 
 This most unhappy princess left Milan in January, 1500, to return to 
 her native country, where fresh trials awaited her. She died in 
 1524.-^ 
 
 The ranks of the Milanese aristocracy included many brilliant 
 members — the Borromei, the Belgiojosi, the Pallavicini — but their 
 artistic activities were confined to the occasional building of a palace 
 or a mausoleum, or to the ordering of some votive picture. 
 
 The San Severini were more intimately connected with the life of 
 our hero. One of them, Galeazzo, had married a daughter of II 
 Moro in 1489. Four years previously his father had been declared 
 a rebel by that very prince, and Galeazzo, in his turn, betrayed Lodo- 
 
 1 The portrait of this princess has been bequeathed to us by Ambrogio de Prédis 
 (Visconti-Arconati Collection, Paris), and possibly also by Leonardo da Vinci (see Dr. 
 Bode's article in \\\t Jahrbuch der kg. Pr. Kiinstsamiiilungeii, 1889.) 
 
 - An unpublished document in the Archives of Milan proves, however, that Isabella was 
 surrounded even in 1493 by a complete court. This document gives a list of the 
 costumes made in 1493 for the ladies (" le zitelle ") of the Duchess' suite. Here we learn 
 that for Ippolita Stindarda a gown (" una camorra ") of blue satin (" raxo ") was ordered, 
 for Cornelia Columba a straw-coloured satin, for Lucrezia Barilla one of white satin, for 
 Laura Macedonia a satin gown " lionata chiaro," for Fiora di Spina one of " birettino " 
 satin. Then come the gowns for four other ladies (making a total of thirteen gowns, with 
 silk sleeves), and six gowns of cloth (" panno "), making a total of fifteen ladies in waiting. 
 We must not lose sight of the fact that the government was carried on and justice admi- 
 nistered in the name of Gian Galeazzo {Pot. sovrane ; Carteggio ducale ; Mobili ). 
 
 ^ See Luzio and Renier, Delle Relazioni, p. 151.
 
 ^ o
 
 ii8 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 vico to Louis XII. He maintained his relations with Leonardo, 
 however, and in 1496 built himself a fine palace, " Roma Nuova," 
 near Vigevano.^ 
 
 The son of Cardinal d'Estouteville, Guglielmo Tuttavilla, Count of 
 Sarno (died 1498), was distinguished for his taste and culture.^ His 
 name frequently recurs in the poems of Bramante and his circle. 
 
 Marshal Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1447 — 15 18) had both a passion 
 for enterprises on a grand scale, and the means for putting his projects 
 into execution ; '' but, being exiled from Milan during Lodovico's 
 government, he was unable to give free course to his tastes till after iiis 
 enemy had fallen. He commissioned Leonardo to make desisfus for 
 his tomb, but we have no evidence to show that the project went any 
 further than a few preparatory studies and sketches. (On the statuette of 
 a horseman in the Thiers collection, see next chapter.) Leonardo, 
 however, did paint his portrait, according to the already quoted 
 testimony of Lomazzo. 
 
 One word, too, as to the Melzi. They were rather Leonardo's 
 friends than his patrons. One of them, the youthful Francesco, placed 
 himself under the tutelage of his distinguished companion, and 
 followed him to Amboise, remaining with him till his death. 
 
 The atmosphere of Lodovico's brilliant and sceptical court must 
 have been singularly congenial to a temperament like that of Leonardo. 
 
 In what light did the Maecenas and the artist regard each other ? 
 How did these two emancipated spirits react on one another, and what 
 effect did their reciprocal penetration exercise upon the art, tlie science, 
 the philosophy, the many lofty and pregnant qualities embodied in 
 Leonardo ? Their minds were not without striking analogies. At 
 once subtle and vacillating, Lodovico did his utmost to impose his own 
 
 1 Paravicini, L Architecture de la Renaissance en Lombardie, p. 4. — According to 
 Miiller-Walde {Jahrbuch der kg. Pr. Kunstsammliingen, 1897, pp. 109-110), the portrait 
 in the Ambrosiana represents Galeazzo. 
 
 2 See the Raccolta Milanese of 1756 (last page). — Burchard, Diarium, ed. Thuasne, 
 vol. ii. p. 499. 
 
 * See Richter, vol. ii. pp. 6, 15, 17. Lomazzo has left us a very exact portrait of 
 Trivulzio : — " Giacomo magno Triulzi Milanese fu piccolo di corpo, ma ben fatto ; era di 
 fronte spatiosa, di naso rilevato, con alquanto di zazzara, andava raso, come si vede in 
 una medaglia di mano di Caradosso Foppa et in suo ritratto dipinto da Leonardo, et fu 
 neir armi di singolar valore." {Trattato della Pittura, p. 635.) See also Brantôme, 
 Œuvres, ed. Lalanne, vol. ii. p. 221-226.
 
 LODOVICO AS A PATRON OF ART 119 
 
 idiosyncrasy on his interpreters. Let us hear what Paolo Giovio, the 
 priestly chronicler, says of him : " Lodovico had caused Italy to be 
 represented in a hall of his palace as a queen, accompanied by a 
 Moorish squire (in allusion to his complexion or his device), bearing 
 a musket. He sought to show by this allegory that he was arbiter 
 of the national destinies, and that it was his mission to defend his 
 country against all attack." An illuminated copy of the Istoria di 
 Francesco Sforza, by J. Simoneita (printed at Milan in 1490), bears 
 upon its frontispiece a series of allegories or emblems scarcely less 
 bizarre. In order to understand them we must remember that Lodo- 
 vico always made art subservient to his political aims. In the fore- 
 ground, on the shore of a lake, are Gian Galeazzo and Lodovico, 
 both kneeling, each with his right hand lifted towards heaven, as if 
 mutually exhorting one another ; on the waters a woman stands on a 
 dolphin, holding a sail, beside a barque with a negro (in allusion to 
 Lodovico) at the helm, and a youth against the mast ; in the air, 
 S. Louis (Lodovico) appears to the two. In the vertical border is a 
 mulberry tree, another allusion to the surname " II Moro," with a 
 trunk of human form, round which twines a branch, terminating in a 
 human body and face. The inscription : " Dum vivis, tutus et la^tus 
 vivo, gaude fill, protector tuus ero semper," proclaims II Moro's 
 beneficent guardianship of his hapless nephew.^ 
 
 Another enigmatic allegory on the bust of Beatrice d'Este, now in 
 the Louvre — two hands hold a napkin, through which a fertilising dust 
 falls on the calyx of a flower — has led one of the most learned 
 warders of our national museum to ascribe the work to Leonardo, 
 who alone at that time, it would seem, was acquainted with the 
 mystery of flower fertilisation. Although we know now that this 
 strikino;^ bust was the work of Gian Cristoforo Romano, one of the 
 court sculptors of Milan, and that the emblem of fertilisation had 
 already been adopted by Borso d'Este, the uncle of Beatrice, it is a 
 fact that Lodovico affected such extravagant logogriphs, as if to 
 challenge our powers of penetration. 
 
 Everything leads us to suppose that the Milanese prince exhibited 
 this taste for subtlety in his attitude towards science also. If our 
 
 1 This miniature is reproduced in M. F. Delaborde's Expédition de Charles VIII. en 
 Italie.
 
 I20 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 premises are well-founded he should have encouraged astrology, ^ 
 alchemy, chiromancy, in short, every science tinged with mystery, 
 or laying claim to some special secret or discovery of its own. 
 
 When, in 1483, Leonardo came to seek his fortune at Lodovico's 
 court, that prince had been governing Milan for four years. His 
 subjects had therefore had time to gain some idea of his character and 
 tastes. Leonardo, who is sure to have gathered such information as 
 he could concerning his new master, seems to have been quite aware 
 
 " THE CRL'CIFJXION, BY MONTORFANU. 
 
 (Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.) 
 
 of the duke's weakness for tlie occult sciences. This, at any rate, 
 
 was the string he played upon in Lodovico by the aid of a programme 
 
 bewildering in its variety. 
 
 He proceeded to celebrate the virtues of his new patron in a series 
 
 of allegories, more than usually abstruse, in which he represented him 
 
 now wearing spectacles and standing between Envy and Justice, the 
 
 1 He never formed an)' important resolution without consulting his favourite 
 astrologer, Amhrogio da Rosate. He had also in his service the Jewish astrologer, 
 Leone Giudeo, and the astrologer, Calcerando. (Uzielli, Leonardo da Vinci e ire 
 Qenfildon?ie mi/anesi, pp. 6, 41. See also the Archivio storico lontbardo, 1874, p. 4S6.)
 
 LEONARDO'S RELATIONS WITH IL MORO 
 
 121 
 
 latter painted black (an allusion to II Moro's dark complexion again) ; 
 now as Fortune, or as victor over Poverty, covering with a corner of 
 his ducal mantle a youth pursued by the hideous hag, and protecting 
 him with a wand.^ 
 
 Despite the many affinities between the artist and his patron, there 
 is nothing to prove that 
 Leonardo was among 11 
 Moro's intimates. To 
 begin with, where did he 
 lodofe ? In the castle? 
 1 doubt it, as he took 
 pupils to live with him. 
 We must picture him as 
 living an independent 
 life, except at such times 
 as he mingled with the 
 crowd of courtiers who 
 accompanied Sforza on 
 his incessant peregrina- 
 tions to Pavia, to Vige- 
 vano, to the Sforzesca. 
 It would even appear, 
 judging from the rough 
 draft of a letter published 
 by Amoretti, that Leo- 
 nardo was sometimes 
 whole months without 
 seeing his patron. " I 
 take the liberty " — such 
 
 is the gist of the letter, which is unfortunately incomplete — " to 
 remind your Grace of my humble affairs. You have forgotten me, 
 
 1 " II Moro cogl' occhiali e la Invidia colla falsa Infamia dipinta, e la Giustitia nera 
 pel Moro. II Moro in figura di Ventura colli cappelli e panni e mani inanzi, e Messer 
 Gualtieri con riverente atto lo piglia per li panni da basso, venendoli dalla parte dinanzi. 
 Ancora la Povertà in figura spaventevole corra dietro a un giovinetto, e'l Moro lo copra 
 col lembo della veste, e colla verga dorata minacia cotale mostro." (Amoretti, pp. 50-51. 
 RiclUcr, vol. i. p. 350.) 
 
 (Windsor Library.) 
 
 R
 
 122 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 affirming that my silence is the cause of your displeasure But my 
 life is at your service ; I am continually ready to obey," etc. 
 
 Assuredly these Italian courts of the fifteenth century had more 
 regard for talent than for birth ; it would, indeed, have been absurd in 
 upstarts like the Sforzi to have laid great stress on length of lineage. 
 Still, it was essential, if talent was to shine, and command the 
 attention of the ruler, that it should be supplemented by polished 
 manners, fluent speech, and a ready wit ; herein it was that the caustic 
 Bramante excelled, and we learn from the Cortigiano of Baldassare 
 Castiglione that another artist at Lodovico's court, Gian Cristoforo 
 Romano, was not less brilliant in conversation. 
 
 Leonardo did not possess the gift of putting his ideas into con- 
 crete form to the same extent ; he had more fancy than imagina- 
 tion ; his creations, with a few rare exceptions, were remarkable 
 rather for subtlety than vigour. Rabelais, who may quite possibly 
 have come across him in some of his wanderings, would have 
 dubbed him " a distiller of quintessences." For this handsome youth 
 and accomplished cavalier — he was a first-rate horseman — was before 
 all things a dreamer, more given to delving deep into an idea, and 
 resolving it into its elements, than to catching the attention of the 
 crowd by some lively and vigorous evidence of his Florentine blood. 
 In short, his love of analysis destroyed his synthetic faculty: I do 
 not think there is a single bon 7not of his to be recorded. We 
 cannot expect epigrams from such a character, Leonardo had 
 too much respect for the demands of science to amuse himself with 
 brilliant generalisations ; he never quite lost sight of earth in his 
 flights, and this very reserve gave to his thoughts — and who deserves 
 the title of thinker more than he ? — an indescribable savour of reality, 
 a tincture of profoundly human quality. With him we never fall into 
 the purely abstract. 
 
 It is not without a certain approval that we recognise an indifferent 
 courtier in the great artist and thinker. Though he had to reproach 
 himself with many weaknesses, Leonardo never owed success to an 
 astutely woven intrigue. 
 
 It would be hopeless to attempt to disentangle any exact con- 
 clusions as to Leonardo's financial situation while in Lodovico's
 
 LEONARDO'S RELATIONS WITH IL MORO 123 
 
 service from the complicated public accounts of the period. Besides 
 a fixed salary, he probably received sums in proportion to the im- 
 portance of his work (according to Bandello, he had 2,000 ducats 
 per annum — about ^4,000 — during the execution of the Last Supper). 
 He himself valued his time at 5 lire a day for "invention." 
 Profanity ! — to estimate in pence the value of time like his, the price 
 of a day of intellectual labour which was to bring forth a master- 
 piece destined to dazzle mankind throughout the ages. He should 
 have said — nothing for the conception, but so much for the paint- 
 ing. But if we would avoid misjudgments, we must adapt our- 
 selves to the point of view of a time which confounded the artist 
 with the artisan (the word artista still has this double meaning 
 in Italian), a fusion or confusion, whichever one likes to call it, on 
 which, deplorable as it is when we have to do with a Leonardo 
 da Vinci, the greatness of the industrial arts in Italy, nay, perhaps, 
 the vitality of art itself at that epoch, was in fact based. For no part 
 of it was looked upon as an abstract conception or an isolated activity. 
 Leonardo's own ideas as to the respective value of the different arts 
 were summed up, according to Lomazzo, in this maxim : the more an 
 art involves of physical fatigue, the baser it is. 
 
 The liberality of Lodovico Sforza has sometimes been called 
 in question, Leonardo himself furnishing grounds for accusations 
 against his patron. In a letter addressed to the duke, he complains 
 bitterly of not having received his salary for two years, and of having 
 consequently been compelled to advance nearly 1 5,000 lire on works 
 connected with the equestrian statue of Duke Francesco Sforza, &c.^ 
 Two other protégés of Lodovico's, the poet Bellincioni - and the 
 architect Bramante, were also loud in lamentations over their poverty. 
 But who is unfamiliar with these jeremiads, so characteristic of the 
 humanists and artists of the Renaissance ! From Leonardo, in 
 particular, refltctions on the parsimony of his patron came very badly. 
 Do we not know that he lived in lordly style, and kept half-a-dozen 
 horses in his stables ! His complaint refers in all probability to arrears 
 imputable to the controllers of the Milanese finances, after the dowry 
 
 1 Amoretti, p. 75. 
 
 - Rime, Bolognese éd., vol. li, pp. 14, 19, 20, 39, 53-54, 79, So, 81. 
 
 R 2
 
 124 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 for Bianca Maria Sforza had drained the coffers of the state. Lodo- 
 vico was, however, admittedly somewhat capricious in his display of 
 generosity ; one day, after exhibiting to the envoys of Charles VIII. 
 of France, the priceless treasures of the Visconti and the Sforzi, 
 he bestowed a very meagre present upon them, thereby running 
 the risk of alienating personages of great importance at a critical 
 moment of his career. Still, there is nothing to justify us in think- 
 ing that he was niggardly towards Leonardo. In April, 1499, only 
 a few months before the catastrophe which cost him his throne, 
 he made the artist a present of a vineyard of sixteen perches, 
 in a suburb of Milan near the Vercelli gate, with powers to build 
 upon it. Also, when Leonardo left Milan he was in a position to 
 deposit 600 ducats (about ^1,200) at the Monte di Pieta of Florence, 
 and we know that he had lived at Milan in very lordly fashion.^ 
 
 Whatever ideas intercourse with so cultured an amateur as 
 Lodovico may have suggested to Leonardo, it was not in the power of 
 any patron to influence the style of an artist of his calibre ; it was 
 the sight of a new country, its ambient air, the indirect and latent 
 teachings to be gathered from it, which brought about his evolution. 
 It is time to attack this problem. Having described the social 
 aspect of the city in which da Vinci was called upon to show his 
 powers, let us now see what the special art conditions of Milan 
 were ; let us see if, among his new fellow-citizens, there were any 
 who, in the presence of such a master, had the right to call themselves 
 initiators. 
 
 The history of the Milanese School during the second half 
 of the fifteenth century has yet to be written.- Failing more 
 definitive and deeper researches, we may, at least, call attention 
 to some of its most essential features. In striking contrast to 
 
 1 Leonardo, Va.sari tells us, was liberality itself; he received and entertained all his 
 friends, whether rich or poor, provided they had talent or merit. His presence alone 
 sufficed to adorn and improve the most miserable and barest of houses. . . . Though pos- 
 sessing, in a certain sense, nothing of his own, and working but little, he had constantly 
 about him servants and horses, of which he was passionately fond, as he was of all 
 animals. 
 
 2 An interesting essay in this direction has been made by Herr v. Seidlitz : Springer 
 Studien. See also Dr. Bode's article in the Jahrhuch do- kg. Prtuss. KiunUammluiigeii, 
 1886, p. 238 et seq., and my Histoire de l' Art pendaiil la Nenaissance., vol. ii, y. 787 et. se(j.
 
 TUSCAN ARTISTS AT MILAN 
 
 125 
 
 Tuscany, which for more than two centuries had served as an art 
 nursery to the rest of the peninsula, Lombardy had been con- 
 stantly obliged to call in foreign masters : in the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth centuries, Giotto, Giovanni of Pisa, and Balduccio of Pisa, 
 the somewhat mediocre sculptor of the famous reredos of Saint Peter 
 Martyr in the church of S. Eustorgio ; in the fifteenth century, 
 Brunellesco, Masolino, Fra Filippo Lippi, Paolo Uccello ; the 
 architect Michelozzo, the most distinguished among the pupils of 
 
 DESIGNS FOR WAR CHARIOTS. 
 
 (Windsor Library.) 
 
 Brunellesco, and his fellow-students and compatriots, Benedetto of 
 Florence, and Filarete. More even than these masters, Donatello had 
 extended Florentine influence by establishing an advance post of 
 Tuscany, at Padua. Roughly speaking, in the early Renaissance, just 
 as in the time of Giotto, every reform introduced, every progress 
 accomplished in Milan, received its impulse from Florence. Con- 
 currently with Leonardo, architects of repute like Giuliano da San 
 Gallo, Luca Fancelli, and Francesco di Giorgio Martini, arrived at 
 the Lombard capital to confirm the prestige of the Tuscan school.
 
 126 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Bramante alone was of different origin, but would he have 
 triumphed so rapidly in Milan if the Florentines had not paved the 
 way ? Brought up at Urbino, a pupil of the famous Dalmatian 
 architect, Luciano da Laurana, who himself had figured for a brief 
 period — in 1465 — in the service of the Sforzi,^ Bramante tempered 
 the austerity of the Florentine style by a characteristic suavity and 
 morbidezsa. 
 
 It is with this prince of modern architects, the favourite of 
 Lodovico and of Julius II., the kinsman and patron of Raphael, and, 
 moreover, the only artist then in Italy who could measure himself 
 with Leonardo, that I shall begin my review of the master's 
 contemporaries at Milan. - 
 
 Bramante had preceded Leonardo to Milan, where he was es- 
 tablished in 1474, perhaps even in 1472, and like Leonardo, he did not 
 quit the enchanting land in which he had worked till towards the 
 end of the century, on the very eve of the catastrophe that scattered 
 for ever the brilliant court gathered round II Moro. We know nothing 
 of the relations between the two great artists. Leonardo only twice 
 mentions Bramante in his writings, and that without any comment.^ 
 But their occupations must have brought them into frequent contact, 
 and if they did not actually influence one another, they must have felt 
 the mutual appreciation due to their transcendent powers. 
 
 At Milan Bramante was pre-eminently the architect of brick and 
 terra cotta, in other words, of the rich, the varied, the picturesque. 
 Dealing later with marble or travertino, he has no thought but for 
 purity of line. He does not hesitate to sacrifice ornament. We have 
 proof of this in his Roman buildings, the Cancelleria, the Palazzo 
 Giraud, the loggie of the Vatican, the basilica of St. Peter's. These 
 are models of finished classicism. But I greatly prefer the gay and 
 vivacious buildings of Lombardy, where sculpture and architecture 
 are gracefully blended, animating and restraining each other in turns. 
 
 A characteristic instance is the church of San Satiro at Milan, so 
 dainty, but so harmonious, with its barrel-vaulted nave, its coffered 
 
 1 Bertollotti, ArchiUtti, Iiigcgneri e Matematici in rclazioiie coi Goiizaga, ]i. 18, 
 Genoa, 1889. 
 
 2 See my Histoire de F Art pendant la Renaissance, vol. ii., pp. 360, 394. 
 
 3 Richter, Nos. 141 4, 1448.
 
 BRAMANTE AT MILAN 127 
 
 apse, enlarged by a cunning device of perspective, and its gorgeous 
 octagonal baptistery. Another of Bramante's designs, the marvellous 
 cupola of Santa Maria delle Grazie, has been criticised on the grounds 
 that it is not sufficiently pure ; it is, however, of sovereign elegance, 
 with its rows of picturesque windows surmounted by an open arcade. 
 In its airiness, its fanciful grace, we recognise the handiwork of an 
 artist to whom structural difficulties were child's play. 
 
 It is, perhaps, out of place to speak of originality in an age given 
 over to imitation, an epoch the mission of which was not creation, but 
 resurrection. All Bramante's work was not equally original. Just 
 as at Rome he came under the influence of Roman models, so in 
 Lombardy he based his art on the old Lombard style, with its red 
 brick churches, so dignified and yet so picturesque, and into it he 
 infused a charm, distinction, and sense of rhythmical proportion 
 such as have not since been granted to any master of the art of 
 building. We may boldly declare that under him Milanese archi- 
 tecture eclipsed that of Florence. Recalcitrant as Leonardo may 
 have been to contemporary influences, it seems difficult to imagine 
 that he could have resisted the influence of such a wizard as 
 Bramante. 
 
 As a painter. Bramante was essentially a follower of Mantegna, 
 from whom he got his taste for perspective, for crumpled 
 draperies, and for a certain hardness of transition.^ To Vincenzo 
 Foppa, according to Seidlitz, he went for the secrets of proportion. 
 
 A whole phalanx of sculptors, lively and piquant, suave and 
 emotional, worked and shone at Bramante's side. There were first 
 the Mantegazzi (Cristoforo, died 1482, and Antonio, died 1495), 
 archaic but masterly, and easily recognisable by their twisted 
 draperies, and their innumerable broken folds. Their contemporary, 
 Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, or Omodeo (1447-1522), has more flexi- 
 bility, as we see in the inspired bas-reliefs with which he has adorned 
 the Certosa at Pavia, that vast elegy in marble. Benedetto Briosco (from 
 1483 onward) also distinguished himself at the Certosa. With Cristo- 
 foro Solari, surnamed "il Gobbo " (the hunchback), the Milanese 
 
 1 Morelli, Notizia d'Opere di Disegtio, ed. Frizzoni. — Semper, in Kunst uiul KiinstUr, 
 by Dohme, p. 23-24.
 
 128 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 school attains plenitude and freedom of form, as one may judge by 
 the effieics for the tombs of Lodovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este. 
 A Roman sculptor and medallist, Gian Cristoforo Romano (estab- 
 lished in Milan 1491, died 15 12), is famous for his tomb of 
 Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the Certosa at Pavia, his broadly- 
 handled and characteristic bust of Beatrice d'Este in the Louvre, 
 
 and his portrait medals 
 of Isabella d'Este and 
 Isabella of Aragon.^ 
 Finally, Ambrogio Foppa, 
 surnamed "11 Caradosso" 
 (born about 1452, died 
 in 1526 or 1527), unites 
 a charmingf ingenuous- 
 ness to supreme distinc- 
 tion in his delicious bas- 
 reliefs for the sacristy of 
 San Satiro, and his me- 
 dallion of Bramante. 
 These masters formed a 
 style less austere, less 
 classic than that of the 
 Florentines, but simpler, 
 more varied, richer in 
 life and poetry. 
 
 If we turn to the 
 primitive school of Milan, 
 we find ourselves in 
 darkness and doubt. Scarcely a dozen pictures are of incontestable 
 authenticity.- The history of the school has been still further confused, 
 wantonly so, I might say, by Morelli, who, having taken a violent 
 fancy to two obscure artists, Ambrogio de Prédis and Bernardino 
 
 1 See my Histoire de l'A ri pendant la Renaissance, vol. ii. p. 5 16-51 S. — ^'enturi, 
 Archivio storico dell'Arte, 1888, p. 55. — Bertolotti, Figuli, pp. 71, 89-90. 
 
 • See Passavant, Kunsthlatt, 1838. — Seidlitz, Gesamnielte Studien znr Kunsfgesehic/ite. 
 Eine Festgabe fiir Anton Springer, Leipzig, 1885. — Histoire de l'Art pendant la 
 Renaissance, vol. ii. p. 786 et seq. 
 
 STUDIES OF HORSES. 
 
 (Windsor Libmrj'. From a photograph given by M. Rouveyre.)
 
 EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS 129 
 
 dei Conti, endowed them with a series of works obviously not their 
 
 own.' 
 
 To .MorelH, however, belongs the credit of havin;:,'^ determined the 
 
 o-eoo-raphical limits of the Milanese School, and I cannot do better 
 
 than reproduce his dictum : " The Adda separates the Bergamasque 
 
 hills from the Milanese 
 
 plain. At Canonica, 
 
 on the frontier of the 
 
 province of Bergamo, 
 
 one still hears the gut- 
 tural language of the 
 
 Bergamasques ; at Vaprio, 
 
 at the opposite end of 
 
 the bridge across the 
 
 Adda, the Milanese dia- 
 lect predominates, and 
 
 the school which rose 
 
 in Milan, the Lombardo- 
 Milanese school, extended 
 
 as far as Vaprio." ^ 
 
 That a Milanese 
 
 school existed before 
 Leonardo's arrival, no 
 honest investigator will 
 attempt to deny. It suf- 
 fices to mention the 
 names of Michelino, of 
 Besozzo, from whom Leo- 
 nardo borrowed the idea 
 
 of an extravagant composition — a male and female peasant con- 
 vulsed w^ith laughter — of Vincenzo Foppa (settled in Milan as early 
 as 1455), of Bernardo Zenale, of Buttinone, and of Ambrogio 
 
 1 Kunstkritische Studiai iiber italienische Malerei. Die Galérien Borgliese imd Doria 
 Pamfili in Rom. Die Galérien zu Miinclien und Dresden. Die Galerie zu Berlin. 
 Leipzig, 3 vols. 1890-1893. 
 
 ^ Die Galerie zu Berlin, p . 121. 
 
 S 
 
 STUDIES OF HORSES. 
 
 (Library of the Institut de France ; from II. Ravaisson-Mollien's 
 Leonardo da I'inct.)
 
 130 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Borgognone, all at the height ot their activity when the young 
 Florentine came to settle among them.^ 
 
 This school, influenced in turn by Mantegna and the Venetians, 
 borrowed from the former its taste for foreshortening, and for effects 
 of perspective. (This is evident in the works of Foppa, for instance, 
 of Bramante, who, we must not forget, was painter as well as archi- 
 tect, and of Montorfano.) It also adopted Mantegnesque types of 
 physiognomy — the broad face and prominent jaw. The Venetians, 
 for their part, had revealed the delights and subtleties of colour to 
 a few Milanese painters, such as Andrea Solario, in tones alternately 
 rich and brilliant, luminous and profound. But these Milanese 
 precursors sought harmony rather than splendour in their schemes of 
 colour : they delighted in amber tones, inclining sometimes to gray. 
 Their works are consequently more or less subdued, but they never 
 lack a sovereign distinction. Nothing could be more opposed to the 
 comparatively dry and precise manner of the Florentines. 
 
 We are ignorant of the dates both of birth and death (1523, 
 1524?), of Ambrogio da Fossano, surnamed "II Bergognone," or 
 " Borofogfnone." We must be content to note that towards the end of 
 the century this eminent master decorated the Certosa at Pavia with 
 pictures and frescoes, in which are apparent now a striving after the 
 precision so characteristic of primitive schools, now an incomparable 
 suavity, as in his young saints standing beside S. Ambrose and S. 
 Syrus (1492). Later on, towards 15 17,- he e.xecuted his great fresco, 
 The Coronation of the Virgin, in the church of S. Simpliciano at 
 Milan. This wonderfully animated work abounds in lyric passages 
 and prepossessing faces. I will note especially, amongst others, the 
 Christ, and several youthful saints with short blonde beards. Inspired 
 by Gothic models, these figures, in their turn, served as prototypes 
 
 1 The Mantegnesque influence alternates with the Leonardesque in the miniatures of 
 the fascinating Book of Hours of Bona Sforza, widow of Galeazzo Maria. (Warner : 
 Miniatures and Borders from the Book of Hours of Bona Sforza, Duchess of Milan, in the 
 British Museum. London, 1894. — Venturi, L'Arte, 1898.) 
 
 - Perate', La Grande Encyclopédie. — Beltrami, Archivio storico dell' Arte, 1893 
 fasc. I. — Gustave Gruyer, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1893, i. — Dr. Bode attributes to 
 Leonardo's influence the progress achieved by Borgognone in chiaroscuro, perhaps, too, 
 the increased assurance of his design and his modelling {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1889, 
 vol. i. p. 426).
 
 EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS 131 
 
 to Bernardino Luini, who, in truth, owes as much to Borgognone as to 
 Leonardo. The whole is full of sweetness, but a little tame and 
 woolly ; it seems a faint echo from Umbria. 
 
 Less fortunate than Borgognone, Bernardo Zenale of Treviglio 
 (born 1436, died 1526), architect and painter, has been deprived, for 
 the moment, of any work with the slightest pretensions to authenticity. 
 We do not even know which part is his and which that of his collabor- 
 ator, Bernardino Buttinone, in the altarpiece of the church of Treviglio 
 (1485). It would be futile, therefore, to discuss the pictures which 
 figure under the name of Zenale in various galleries. Suffice it to 
 remember that, on Vasari's testimony, this artist enjoyed the esteem 
 of da Vinci, although his manner was harsh and somewhat dry.^ 
 
 This primitive Milanese school developed side by side with 
 Da Vinci, and some of its representatives wholly escaped the spell 
 of that great magician. Among these was the designer (Barto- 
 lommeo Suardi, it is supposed) of the tapestries, representing The 
 Months, executed at Vigevano between 1503 and 1507 for Marshal 
 Trivulzio.- There is not the faintest reminiscence of Leonardo in 
 these crowded compositions, the types in which are rough and 
 repellent. 
 
 Another Milanese, Giovanni Ambrogio Preda, or de Prédis, has 
 more affinity with Leonardo. This artist makes his first appearance in 
 1482 (he then bore the title of court painter to Lodovico Sforza). In 
 1494 Maximilian commissioned him, with two collaborators, to engrave 
 (at Milan ?) the dies for the new imperial coinage. In 149S, Preda and 
 his brother Bernardino undertook to furnish the German sovereign 
 with a wall-hanging (not a tapestry as has been supposed) consisting 
 of six pieces in black embroidered velvet, the cartoons to be designed 
 by Ambrogio.'^ 
 
 We are now familiar with a respectable number of portraits from 
 Ambrogio Preda's brush : those of the young Archinto in the Fuller- 
 
 1 The author of the Catalogue of Pictures by Masters of the Milanese and allied 
 Schools of Lombard)' (Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1898), endeavours to compile a list 
 of Zenale's pictures, ascribing to him, among other things, the Circumcision, in the Lou\Te, 
 dated 1491, and attributed to Bramantino. 
 
 - See my Histoire de la Tapisserie en Italie, p. 45. 
 
 * Motta: Archivio storico lombardo, 1S93, p. 972-996. 
 
 S 2
 
 '32 
 
 LEONARDO DA \1XCI 
 
 Maitland collection in London^ (1494), of the Emperor Maximilian 
 (1502) in the Vienna Gallery, of the Empress Bianca Maria Sforza 
 in the Arconati-Visconti collection in Paris,'- &c. These portraits are 
 noticeable for a smooth, occasionally dry execution akin to that of 
 the miniaturist, according to Dr. Bode. Towards the close of his life 
 Morelli attempted to rob Leonardo of the charming portrait of a 
 
 J UKTR.MT OF GAIN GALEAZ/-() SFOkZA, UY V. F01-('A. 
 
 (Wallace Museum, London.) 
 
 young woman in the Ambrosiana in favour of this conscientious, but 
 uninspired master ! 
 
 Sensibly inferior to Ambrogio is his contemporary, Bernardino 
 dei Conti, who worked, approximately, from 1499 to 1522. He 
 has been credited, among other things, with The Fa?inly of 
 
 ' Lately acquired fur the National Gallery. — En. 
 
 - A ])en and ink sketch after the.se two portraits, by the goldsmith and medallist, 
 Gian Marco Cavalli, is in the Accadeniia at Venice, where it long figured under the name 
 of Leonardo da Vinci. See Herr v. Schneider's article in the Jaluiuich dcr kais. 
 Kunstsammlungcii, 1893, p. 187 c/ saj. See also Dr. Lode's article in \.\\(i Jahrbtich der 
 kg. Pr. Kunstsaiinnluiigen, 18S9, ii., and that by Miss Ffoulkes in the ArcJiivio storico 
 dell' Arle, 1894, p. 250.
 
 EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS 
 
 133 
 
 Lodovico it Moro in the Brera, formerly attributed to Zenale, and 
 the Madonna Litta in the Hermitage, hitherto dignified by the 
 glorious name of Leonardo da Vinci. To be frank, this painter was, 
 to use Dr. Bode's happy definition, one of the greatest nonentities 
 among the Lombards of his time, and as such he reveals himself in his 
 few authentic works : the portrait of a cardinal, in the Berlin Gallery 
 (1499), the portrait of a _____^ 
 man in profile in the 
 Vittadini collection at 
 Milan (1500), that of the 
 young Catellano Trivul- 
 zio, in the Pallavicini- 
 Trivulzio collection at 
 Turin (1505), &c. All 
 these figures are distin- 
 guished by a dry pre- 
 cision, proper rather to 
 the burin than the brush. 
 Consequently, if the sym- 
 pathetic portrait of a 
 Milanese lady, in profile, 
 in the Morrison collec- 
 tion really belongs to 
 Conti, he must at one 
 time have adopted a freer 
 manner and a richer im- 
 pasto. 
 
 It has often been 
 maintained that the 
 change m Leonardo's style in his new place of abode was due to 
 the influence of the school he found there. " A Florentine when 
 he arrived in Milan," writes the learned and brilliant Marchese 
 d'Adda, " Leonardo left it a Milanese." And further on he adds : 
 An art, ]:)ecu]iar to and savouring of its native soil, sprang up 
 m Lombardy from the union of Tuscan and Paduan traditions. 
 Mantegna had Milanese disciples who took back with them the 
 
 STUDY OK A HORSEMAN. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 134 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 traditions of Squarcione. The works of the elder Foppa, Leonardo 
 da Besozzo, Buttinone, Civerchio, Troso da Monza, and Zenale da 
 Treviglio, are proof enough that a veritable and even highly-developed 
 art existed in Milan long before the arrival of Leonardo." ^ 
 
 But was the change in Leonardo as distinctly marked as they would 
 have us believe, and moreover, did the example of the Lombard artists 
 count for so much in it as is asserted ? I do not hesitate, for my part, 
 to answer, no, and for these reasons : the works executed at the begin- 
 ning of his sojourn in Milan, the Virgin of the Rocks, for instance, 
 prove that the youthful Leonardo was already gifted with elegance, 
 sweetness, and grace in a greater degree than any master who had 
 preceded him. On the other hand, no genius was ever more recalci- 
 trant to the teaching and suggestions of others than his ; the imitative 
 faculty was wholly wanting in him. And, after all, what were these 
 Lombard masters whom we are to look upon as the teachers of the 
 Florentine Proteus ? Some were content to paint sober and impassive 
 figures in various tones of gray ; others followed more or less faithfully 
 the traditions of the school of Padua, which means that they were 
 devoted to principles in every way opposed to those of Leonardo 
 (even in Bramante's pictures, as we have said above, the influence of 
 Mantegna is apparent in the hardness of the outline, and the excessive 
 preoccupation with perspective).- Leonardo's manner, on the contrary, 
 rests on the suppression of all that is angular and precise ; his 
 painting is above all things fused, melting, enveloppé; the outlines of 
 his figures lose themselves in intensity of light, in harmony of colour. 
 Again, the Milanese primitives assiduously cultivated fresco, whereas 
 Leonardo, unfortunately for himself, and for us, persistently avoided 
 that process during his sojurn in Milan, and also after his return to 
 
 ' Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1868, vol. ii, p. 128. Impartiality further forces me to quote 
 M. de Tauzia's opinion. The former keeper of the jiictures in the Louvre asserts that 
 " Leonardo borrowed his types from the Milanese masters who preceded him. One is 
 easily convinced of this, he adds, by the Book of Hours of Bianca Maria Visconti, produced 
 in 1460, long before Leonardo came to Milan ; it looks like the work of one of his jjupils." 
 {Catalogue, p. 225). 
 
 - If it were certain that the engravings of the Two Beggars and the Heads of Old 
 Men, attributed to Mantegna, were really by that master, then Leonardo might be said 
 to have sought inspiration from him sometimes. But everything tends to prove that here 
 we are working in a vicious circle, and that the engravings are to be referred rather to 
 Leonardo himself than to Manteçrna.
 
 EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS i35 
 
 Florence. He painted the Last Supper in oil, and prepared to paint 
 the Battle of Anghiari in encaustic. 
 
 A last and still more convincing argument is furnished by the fresco 
 in the Refectory of S. Maria delle Grazie, opposite to Leonardo's Last 
 Slipper, the Criuifixion, by Giovanni Donato Montorfano (1495). 
 Here we find no affinity with Leonardo ; on the other hand, remin- 
 iscences of Mantegna abound in the hard dry modelling, the angular 
 contours, the crumpled draperies. Both conception and execution are, 
 moreover, of the poorest. The founder of the new school of Milan 
 loved to simplify ; his compeer, the representative of the old school, 
 subdivided and complicated his work as much as he could ; the 
 principal action disappears in episodes ; more than fifty persons, 
 of whom several, such as S. Dominic and S. Clara, are quite alien 
 to the subject, dispute our attention. And how feeble are the heads, 
 how flaccid the gestures and the attitudes of the swooning Virgin, the 
 saint wrincrine his hands ! how stiff are the horses, what a lack of 
 intention and harmony we note in the colour, which is more like that 
 of a missal than of a monumental fresco ! Sacred iconography, singularly 
 neglected by Leonardo, holds an important place in Montorfano's 
 work. Over the penitent thief, the parting soul, in obedience to the 
 tradition of the middle ages, is represented in the form of a child. 
 A movable nimbus, a sort of flattened disc, encircles the head of the 
 Viro-in, and those of her companions, the confessors and the doctors 
 of the Church. By an anachronism frequent enough in religious 
 art (we need only mention Fra Angelico's Crucifixion in the 
 Monastery of San Marco), these latter assist at the drama of 
 Golgotha. Certain of the types, the attitudes, the effects of per- 
 spective, the careful exactitude in the archaeological details, recall 
 Mantegna, as I have said. It is, however, impossible to confound 
 Montorfano's work with that of any member of the School of Padua : 
 the types have a strongly accentuated Milanese character, with their 
 somewhat square-jawed faces, and long waving hair (S. John the 
 Evangelist). A horseman on the right suggests Luini by his bold 
 and gallant bearing. 
 
 Montorfano's work would not have aroused enthusiasm anywhere, 
 but it was, indeed, a disaster for it to be placed opposite to that of
 
 136 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Leonardo ; and yet, like certafn vulgar natures, it enjoys rude health 
 where the man of genius languishes and dies. The Last Supper is 
 a ruin ; the Cnic/pxiou has preserved all its original brilliance of colour.' 
 I am far from denying that on the whole, his sojourn in Lombardy 
 exercised a profound effect ufjon Leonardo's style ; but, in the change, 
 nature counted for much, art for little, if for anything at all. Compared 
 with the Tuscan landscape, that of Upper Italy, and particularly that 
 
 'ml 
 
 ■-Î H miT^^m^jr -•'"• \ " f"^. r ' 
 
 ■x;,.--:" 
 
 P-^V) 
 
 
 AN ALLK30RV OF ENVV. 
 
 (Library* of Christ Church College, Oxford.) 
 
 of the province of Milan, is as exuberant as the other is proud and 
 graceful ; the country is clothed with an abundant vegetation, and 
 intersected by innumerable water-courses ; mulberries with shining 
 leaves replace the dull grayness of the olive ; the air is soft ; the 
 scenery of the lakes delicious ; in short, our impressions are those of a 
 
 ' De Geymiiller is inclined to believe that Bramante furnished Montorfano with 
 the sketch for the view of Jerusalem in the background of the Crucifixion i^Les projets 
 primitifs p02tr la hasiliipie de Sai7it-I'icrre de Rome, p. 48).
 
 THE MILANESE TYPE 
 
 137 
 
 more temperate zone, and of a kinder sky. As the climate is, so are 
 the inhabitants: to the Florentine t)pe, thin, meagre, and poor, the 
 duchy of Milan opposes amplitude, grace, suavity, purer lines, and a 
 more delicate complexion, creamy rather than sallow ; refined or 
 voluptuous lips, large and melting eyes, full round chins, and slender, 
 undulating figures. This type, which has been christened Leonard- 
 esque, because Leonardo 
 recorded its perfection, 
 is still to be met in all 
 its beauty about the 
 Lago Maggiore and the 
 Lake of Como. 
 
 The intellectual dif- 
 ferences between the 
 Milanese and the Flor- 
 entines did not weig-h 
 less heavily in the 
 balance. At ]\Iilan, 
 Leonardo found a public 
 unaccustomed to criticise 
 and prone to enthu- 
 siasm : qualities most 
 precious to a man of 
 imagination, to an artist 
 with whom freshness of 
 impression and indepen- 
 dence of form meant so 
 much. 
 
 Subjected to the demands of the Florentine studios, Art, on the 
 banks of the Arno, had fallen into affectation or extravagance (on this 
 subject see p. 20). The one idea of the Tuscans was to astonish by 
 subtlety of contrivance or boldness of design : beauty pure and simple 
 seemed to them commonplace. Mannerism triumphed all along the 
 line: with Botticelli, with Filippino Lippi, with Pollajuolo. Each 
 outvied the other in torturing his style, in showing himself more com- 
 plex and more inventive than his neighbour. The artistic coteries 
 
 T 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 138 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 of Florence devoted themselves to artificial research, and v^^ere 
 governed by conventional formulae ; dexterity took the place of convic- 
 tion, and everything was reduced to calculation, or to merely technical 
 skill ; in short, no one could be simple or natural, and so eloquence, in 
 the best sense, was a lost quality. 
 
 At Milan, on the other hand, imaginations were still fertile and 
 fresh ; if there was less science, there was more sincerity. What 
 life and youth breathe from the sculptures of the Pavian Certosa, in 
 itself a world ! A superior genius was bound, not only to animate and 
 fertilise such germs, but to refresh his own spirit, in this new and 
 invigorating atmosphere. In fact, the unresting mental activity 
 peculiar to the Florentine, his conscious and deliberate effort, generated 
 naturally a race of draughtsmen, while the soft languor, the native 
 grace, the exquisite suavity inherent in the Milanese, as inevitably 
 created colourists. There is a moment in the lives of certain pre- 
 destined spirits when expatriation becomes a necessity. Raphael, had 
 he remained in Umbria, would never have been more than a greater 
 Perugino ; Michelangelo, too, obtained his suprem.e impetus from 
 Rome. As to Leonardo, it was by the resources of a considerable 
 state, the brilliant festivals, the intercourse with intellectual and dis- 
 tinguished men, and, above all, by an atmosphere less bourgeois and 
 democratic than that of Florence, that the sudden and unprecedented 
 evolution of his crenius was brout^ht about. At Florence he would 
 have become the first of painters ; at Milan, he became that and 
 something more ; a great poet and a great thinker. From this point 
 of view we have every right to say that he owed much to his new 
 country. 
 
 In the literary circle of Milan, admittedly mediocre as it was, a 
 playful freedom obtained quite unknown among the Florentine purists. 
 As a typical product of the prevailing spirit, we may take the tourna- 
 ment, or encounter of wits, that took place between Bellincioni, 
 Maccagni of Turin, and Gasparo Visconti, on the one hand, and 
 Bramante on the other. One of the epigrams aimed at the architect- 
 poet compares him to Cerberus, because of his biting humour. 
 
 Quis canis ? Erigones ? Minime ! Cerberus ille 
 
 Tenareus, faniœ nominibusque inocens. ^
 
 LITERARY CIRCLE OF MILAN 139 
 
 Elsewhere his opponents, in reality his closest friends, attack him for 
 his immoderate love of pears, or for his avarice : " Bramante," writes 
 Visconti, " you are a man devoid of courtesy, you never cease 
 importuning me for a pair of shoes, and all the time you are laying up 
 a hoard of money for yourself. It seems to you a slight thing to force 
 me to keep you. Why do you not get the Court to pay for you ? 
 You have a salary of five ducats a month [from the Duke]." To which 
 Bramante replies by a sonnet in which he piteously describes the 
 dilapidations of his wardrobe. He begs Visconti to bestow a crown 
 on him in charity, if he would not see him condemned to struggle 
 naked with Boreas. 
 
 Vesconte, non te casche 
 Questo da core, ma fa ch'io n'habia un scudo 
 Tal ch'io non giostro pill con Eorrea ignudo. 
 
 E se pel per te sudo 
 El mio sudor verra delà tue pelle 
 Ma non scoter pero pero {sic) la sete a quelle.^ 
 
 There was no pedantry, at any rate, in Lodovico's circle. Though his 
 finances were often embarrassed, and his aesthetics selfish and subtle, 
 he loved art, and placed the worship of the beautiful above all 
 things. 
 
 Leonardo, as I shall presently show, did not disdain to take 
 occasional part in the poetic jousts of this joyous company. The men 
 of letters of Upper Italy soon adopted him as one of themselves; he 
 was as proud of their glory as if he had been born in their midst. In 
 his lifetime they vied with one another in lauding his masterpieces. 
 After his death the historians, romance-writers and philosophers of his 
 adopted country were his most ardent apologists. I may mention 
 Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Como, Matteo Bandello, the author of the 
 Novelle, and Lomazzo, the painter and writer, author of the Trattato 
 del/a Pittura and of the Idea del Tcnipio delta Pittura. 
 
 To sum up : if, with the exception of Bramante, Milan possessed 
 no artist capable of measuring himself with Leonardo, and, still less, 
 any capable of influencing him, on the other hand, no surroundings 
 could have been more propitious to his genius than those she offered. 
 A splendour-loving and enlightened prince, an active, wealthy, and 
 
 1 Çazeik des Biaitx Ai /s, 1S79, vol. ii. p. 514 et $e(j. Cf. Beltrami, Bramante poeta^
 
 14° 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 educated population, a phalanx of capable artists who asked for 
 nothino: better than to follow the lead of a master-mind (\-om 
 that Florence whence light has been shed for so lon^j o\'cr 
 Italy ; finally, the vigorous and inspiring suggestions of a land- 
 scape at once exuberant and grandiose ; can we imagine elements 
 better fitted than these to stimulate the genius of Leonardo, and 
 to kindle in his breast a love for the country he was now to make 
 his own ? 

 
 FRIEZE nV CARADOSSO. 
 
 Church of San Satiro, Milan.) 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Leonardo's début at the court of milan — his programme — the eques- 
 trian STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA —LEONARDO AS A SCULPTOR HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 ON THE SCULPTURE OF NORTHERN ITALY 
 
 W' 
 
 EN Leonardo resolved to trv 
 
 his fortunes at the court of 
 
 the Sforzi, he was ah-eady 
 
 known there by the famous shield 
 
 acquired by Dul<e Galeazzo Maria ( + 
 
 1476). 
 
 We possess a remarkable document 
 in the master's own hand ^ which bears 
 upon his opening relations with the 
 Milanese capital, namely, the letter in 
 which he offers his services to Lodovico 
 il Moro, at that time reg-ent of the 
 duchy for his nephew Gian Galeazzo. 
 This epistle can hardly be called a 
 monument of diffidence, as the reader will presently have an oppor- 
 
 ' This manuscript, preserved in the Ambrosian.», is written irom left to right, and not, 
 Hke the rest of I^eonardo's manuscripts, from right to left. M. Charles Ravaisson-IVIolHen 
 lias pronounced against its authenticity {Les Ecrits de Leonard de Vinci, p. 34). — 
 Richtcr (77/t' literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. ii. pp. 34, 395 — 398) and Uzielli 
 {Ricerclie, 2nd cd. vol. i. p. 85 — 89), on the other hand, consider it to be a genuine 
 production of Leonardo's. This is also my opinion. 
 
 STULjy FOR *' THE ADORATION OF 
 THE MAGI." 
 
 (V.-iIton Collection, Paris.)
 
 142 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 tunity of judging ; in it the painter, the sculptor, the architect, the 
 military and hydraulic engineer, come forward and make their boast 
 in turn. 
 
 " Having, most illustrious lord, seen and duly considered the 
 experiments of all those who repute themselves masters in the art of 
 inventing instruments of war, and having found that their instruments 
 differ in no way from such as are in common use, I will endeavour, 
 without wishing to injure any one else, to make known to your 
 Excellency certain secrets of my own ; as briefly enumerated here 
 below : — 
 
 "I. I have a way of constructing very light bridges, most easy to 
 carry, by which the enemy may be pursued and put to flight. Others 
 also of a stronger kind, that resist fire or assault, and are easy to place 
 and remove. I know ways also for burning and destroying those of 
 the enemy. 
 
 " 2. In case of investing a place I know how to remove the water 
 from ditches and to make various scaling ladders and other such 
 instruments. 
 
 " 3. Item : If, on account of the height or strength of position, the 
 place cannot be bombarded, I have a way for ruining every fortress 
 which is not on stone foundations. 
 
 " 4. I can also make a kind of cannon, easy and convenient to 
 transport, that will discharge inflammable matters, causing great injury 
 to the enemy and also great terror from the smoke. 
 
 " 5. Item : By means of winding and narrow underground passages, 
 made without noise, I can contrive a way for passing under ditches or 
 any stream. 
 
 " 9. {s2c) And, if the fight should be at sea, I have numerous 
 engines of the utmost activity both for attack and defence ; vessels that 
 will resist the heaviest fire — also powders or vapours. 
 
 " 6. Item : I can construct covered carts, secure and indestructible, 
 bearing artillery, which, entering among the enemy, will break the 
 strongest body of men, and which the infantry can follow without 
 impediment. 
 
 " 7. I can construct cannon, mortars and fire-engines of beautiful 
 and useful shape, and different from those in common use.
 
 LEONARDO'S LETTER TO LODOVICO 143 
 
 " 8. Where the use of cannon is impracticable, I can replace them 
 by catapults, mangonels and engines for discharging missiles of ad- 
 mirable efficacy and hitherto unknown — in short, according as the case 
 may be, I can contrive endless means of offence. 
 
 "10. In time of peace, I believe I can equal any one in architecture 
 and in constructing buildings, public or private, and in conducting 
 water from one place to another.^ 
 
 " Then I can execute sculpture, whether in marble, bronze, or 
 terra-cotta ; also in painting I can do as much as any other, be he who 
 he may. 
 
 " Further, I could engage to execute the bronze horse in lasting 
 memory of your father and of the illustrious house of Sforza, and, if 
 any of the above-mentioned things should appear impossible and im- 
 practicable to you, I offer to make trial of them in your park, or in any 
 other place that may please your Excellency, to whom I commend 
 myself in utmost humility." 
 
 The artist, we know, performed even more than he promised, 
 but did the military engineer carry out this amazing programme ? 
 That is a question which I shall endeavour to answer in due 
 course. 
 
 In all probability, Leonardo set to work immediately after 
 his arrival in Milan upon the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, 
 an undertaking which occupied him, at intervals, for seventeen years. 
 
 Rumours of the discussions which had been going on for ten years 
 as to the choice of a suitable design must, of course, have reached 
 Leonardo, and in the memorial addressed to Lodovico, he declares 
 himself ready — as we have seen — to undertake the execution of the 
 "cavallo," otherwise the equestrian statue.^ 
 
 1 It is interesting to note here, that by a decree of May 16, 14S3, Lodovico ordered 
 the construction of a canal between the Adda and Milan. 
 
 - The history of this equestrian statue hns been traced, though with too evident a bias, 
 by M. Louis Courajod in h\i, LéûiiarJ de Vinci et /a Statue de Francois Sforza (1879), by 
 M. Bonnaffe in his Sabba da Castiglione (1884, p. 12 — 14) and more recently by Herr 
 Miiller-Walde in the Jahrhucli der kg. Kiinstsamiiihtngeii (1897, p. 92 — 169). The 
 German author claims to have discovered a clue, enabling him to distinguish between 
 the drawings which refer to the Sforza statue, and those for the statue of Trivulzio. 
 Unfortunately, the results of Herr Millier- Walde's labours had not yet been given to the 
 public when the present volume went to press-
 
 144 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Had Leonardo remained in Florence, he might very easily have 
 painted a Last Supper equal to that of Santa Maria delle Grazie for 
 some monastery of his native city, but he most certainly would never 
 have been commissioned to execute a piece of sculpture such as the 
 equestrian statue of Duke Francesco, as conspicuous in dimen- 
 sions as for the idea of supremacy and sway it was calculated to 
 impress on the beholder. The doctrine of equality, so jealously 
 
 insisted upon by the 
 Morentine populace, had 
 long relegated sculpture 
 to the sphere of religion ; 
 the utmost that the Re- 
 public had done in any 
 other spirit being to 
 accord the honour of 
 monumental tombs to 
 her chancellors, Leo- 
 nardo Bruni and Carlo 
 Marsuppini. But to have 
 set up in a public place 
 the statue of a condot- 
 tiere, and, worse still, of 
 one whose family still 
 claimed sovereignty, 
 would have raised a 
 storm of indignation 
 among the keenly sus- 
 ceptible citizens. As well 
 propose that they should 
 return to the worship of graven images ! Hence any Florentine 
 sculptor who wished to execute monumental statues was forced 
 to seek such commissions elsewhere than at home : Donatello at 
 Padua (the equestrian statue of Gattamelata) ; Iiaroncelli at 
 Ferrara (the equestrian statue of Niccolo d'Este), V^errocchio, at 
 Venice (the equestrian statue of Colleone), and lastly, Leonardo 
 at Milan. 
 
 EQUESTRIAN 1ÎAS-RKL1RF OF ANN"ll(Al-E IJKNTIVOOLIO (1458), 
 nv NICCOLÔ DELI.' ARCA.. 
 
 (Church of San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna.)
 
 6 
 S/ikùcs of Horns. 
 
 (WIMISOH UlflKAKV.)
 
 THE STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA 
 
 145 
 
 Duke Francesco Sforza died in 1466, but it was not till 1472 that 
 his successor, Galeazzo Maria, conceived the project of giving the 
 founder of the Mouse of Sforza a monument worthy of him, a tomb 
 which, like that of the Scaligeri at Verona, should be surmounted by 
 an equestrian statue of the deceased hero. For ten long years artist 
 after artist was consulted, plan after plan submitted and rejected. On 
 the refusal or the re- 
 tirement from the contest 
 of the brothers Mante- 
 gazza, the gifted sculp- 
 tors of the Certosa at 
 Pavia, Galeazzo Maria 
 applied to the famous 
 Florentine sculptor and 
 painter, Antonio del Pol- 
 lajuolo. After his death 
 in 1498 " they found the 
 design and the model 
 which he had made for 
 the equestrian statue of 
 Francesco Sforza, 
 ordered by Lodovico il 
 Moro. This model is 
 represented in two differ- 
 ent styles in his drawings 
 now in my collection : 
 the one showing Duke 
 F'rancesco with Verona 
 under his feet, the other, 
 the same Duke in full 
 
 armour riding over an armed man. I could never discover why 
 this design was not carried out" (\'asari). It is this second con- 
 ception which Morelli recognised in a drawing in the Print Room 
 at Munich, whereas Louis Courajod declared it to be the sketch 
 for Leonardo's statue. Not, adds the learned Director of the 
 Louvre, that there is anything against the supposition that Pollajuolo 
 
 u 
 
 EQUESTRIAN BAS-RELIEF BY LEONARDO DA PEATO (151 ')• 
 
 (Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.)
 
 146 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 may have seen and drawn Leonardo's model. Richter, again, 
 suggests that this design — a horse rearing above a prostrate man 
 — was obligatory for all the competitors. For my part, I must say, 
 that if the drawing at Munich represents Leonardo's work, it is a 
 singularly clumsy and ineffective rendering. Nothing could be more 
 wooden and lifeless than the hind-quarters of the horse, and the 
 forelegs, which are very evidently ankylosed, are equally faulty in 
 treatment. The head and neck alone have a certain amount of 
 spirit. As to the rider, his seat is awkward and undignified in the 
 extreme, and the ensetnble is wholly wanting in those monumental, 
 rhythmic, one might almost say melodious lines, which were so 
 obviously Leonardo's main preoccupation in the drawings at Windsor.^ 
 
 The study of the horse was a passion with Leonardo ; numberless 
 drawings show him seeking to fix the noble beast's physiognomy, and 
 analyse its movements.- 
 
 In the Adoration of tJic Âlagi, he forgets the ostensible subject, 
 and fills up the whole of the middle distance with horses in every con- 
 ceivable variety of spirited attitude. In the subsequent Battle of 
 Anghiari he returned to his favourite theme, and created the most 
 
 1 Muller-Walde is of opinion that Pollajuolo's drawing was made in 1489 — immediately 
 after the letter to Lorenzo the Magnificent, complaining of Leonardo's incompetence 
 {Jahrbuch der kg. Kiinstsammlungen, 1897, p- 125). But one must beware of these 
 all too convenient inferences. Things rarely happen just as we imagine — realities prove 
 more shifting, less logical. M. de Fabriczy believes the drawing in question to refer 
 to an equestrian statue which Pollajuolo offered to erect to Gentile Virginio Orsini in 
 1494 {Repertorium fiir JCunstivissenschaft, 1892, p. 250). M. de Geymiiller goes still 
 further — he does not consider the Munich drawing to be worthy even of Pollajuolo 
 (Zm derniers Travaux sur Lco?iard de Vinci, p. 42). 
 
 A picture by Bacchiacca in the Uffizi (reproduced in ray Histoire de I' Art pendant la 
 Renaissance, vol. iii. p. 697) shows striking analogies with the Munich drawing, except 
 that the horse's head, instead of being in profile as in the drawing, is turned toward 
 the spectator, a detail which gives a singular look of animation to the comi)osition. 
 Bacchiacca's horse, too, rears firmly up on its hind legs, instead of seeming to sink 
 under its burden, and the rider is not bare-headed, but wears a cap. This rearing 
 horse — a reminiscence of the Colossi of Monte Cavallo — is a very favourite motive in 
 sixteenth century art : we meet with it in Raphael's St. George of the Louvre, in his 
 Meeting between S. Leo and Attila, and The Victory of Constantine : s.\s,o in Ducerceau's 
 chimney pieces at Ecouen, etc. 
 
 2 In his first attempt, Leonardo seems to have given his horses squat, disjointed 
 forms — witness the studies of horses and cats in the Library at Windsor. This, too, is 
 his type in a drawing of the Deluge (Richter, vol. i. pi. xxxiv). But what movement, 
 what fire, what passion he puts into his heroic steeds later on !
 
 THE STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA 147 
 
 stirring cavalry combat that art has handed down to us. The fire, 
 the vehemence of the master defy description whenever he throws 
 himself into the delineation of this grand creature, the noblest of man's 
 conquests in the animal world. In every line one recognises the 
 enthusiastic horseman delighting to urge his mount to its utmost speed, 
 or to make it bound and rear. The rebellion of the wonderful living 
 machine only excited and into.xicated him. To him we owe the proto- 
 type of the war-horse, of the epic charger, as it has come down to 
 us thrcnigh Raphael, Salvator Rosa, Rubens, and Le Brun. Even 
 Velasquez shows its influence. The advent of the English horse, 
 wiry and long-barreled, put an end to an ideal type essentially suited 
 to historical painting. 
 
 Obedient to his habits as a man of science, Leonardo, before 
 taking the trowel in hand, set himself to collect all available in- 
 formation on the horse in general, and equestrian statues in particular. 
 Although he was thoroughly at home in every branch of the noble art 
 of horsemanship, he seems to have attacked the subject " ab ovo," and 
 weeks, months, even years passed, in experiments on the anatomy and 
 locomotion of horses. Nor was he less interested in the study of 
 equestrian statues — the bibliography of the subject, so to speak — the 
 principal models which he consulted being the horses on the Monte 
 Cavallo and the mounted statue of Marcus Aurelius at Rome, the 
 four horses at Venice ^ and, finally, Donatello's equestrian statue of 
 Gattamelata at Padua. Verrocchio's work in connection with the 
 Colleone statue for Venice could have afforded him but little 
 assistance, for though it was begun in 1479, four years before the 
 statue of Francesco Sforza, it was still unfinished in 148S, the year 
 of Verrocchio's death.- 
 
 Nevertheless, all that we know concerning Leonardo's habit of 
 mind justifies us in affirming that his study of pre-existing models did 
 not go very deep. He who had declared that " to copy another artist 
 
 1 A horse in the style of those at Venice, which may also be compared with a drawing 
 attributed to Verrocchio in the Louvre, was engraved by Zoan Andrea (see Ottley, p. 566). 
 — Three horses' heads in Leonardo's style were also engraved by him (Bartsch, 24, pi. v. 
 p. 106). 
 
 2 Richter claims to discover a reminiscence of Verrocchio's work in a drawing at 
 Windsor (pi. Ixxiv.) — See also Courajod, p. 32. 
 
 U 2
 
 148 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 instead of copying nature " was to make one's self " not the son, but the 
 grandson of nature," in other words, the echo of an echo, would 
 not be likely to examine the works of his predecessors with a very 
 attentive eye ; in point of fact, no artist was ever less of an imitator 
 than Leonardo. It was from living models — those fiery steeds which 
 none knew better than he how to manage — and from them alone, that 
 he drew his inspiration (Richter, vol. ii. pi. Ixxiii.). We cannot but 
 
 feel that even when he 
 did study the statue of 
 Marcus Aurelius ^ or of 
 Gattamelata (Richter, pi. 
 ixxii., no. 3), he did so 
 only from a conscientious 
 feeling, without convic- 
 tion and without enthu- 
 siasm. His copies of 
 these works are vague 
 and uncertain to a de- 
 gree. And this being so, 
 we are not surprised to 
 find him ignoring more 
 
 
 ^■•/ 
 
 :^ 
 
 
 '^'- w 
 
 '"} 
 
 I^A 
 
 
 
 r-'^V 
 
 rt-v. 
 
 ■ i^à^ 
 
 STUDIES FOR THE EQUESTKIAN STATUE OF FIÎAN'CESCO SFOKZA. 
 (Windsor Library, reproduced from Dr. Richter's book.) 
 
 archaic creations, such 
 as Niccolo dell' Area's 
 equestrian bas-relief at 
 Bologna. 
 
 There is a point, 
 however, at which — 
 perhaps unconsciously to 
 himself — he comes under the influence of the antique. The heads 
 of his horses, with their dilated nostrils, recall the classic type, 
 rather than tiie calmer and more prosaic breed of Tuscany and 
 Lombardy. 
 
 Leonardo hesitated long even over the general outline of the monu- 
 ment. The drawings at Windsor ^ show how hard he found it to decide 
 
 ' He makes a note in his memoranda of Messire Galeazzo's great jennet and Messire 
 Galeazzo's Sicilian horse (Richter, vol. ii. p. 14). - Richter (vol. ii. p. Ixv., Lwi.)
 
 THE STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA 
 
 149 
 
 between a circular and a square base. The first design shows some 
 affinity with the mausoleum of Hadrian (the fortress of S. Angelo at 
 Rome) and is surmounted^not very appropriately, it must be 
 
 a 
 
 i.ATTAMELATA, BY DONATELLO, AT I'Al' 
 
 acknowledged — by an equestrian statue. But immediately afterwards, 
 on the same sheet of paper (which shows that these various sketches 
 must belong to the earliest of his experiments),^ comes a sketch 
 
 1 One of the drawings at Windsor (no. 84) in which the horse rears above a fallen 
 warrior who tries to defend himself, was certainly among the first attempts. This is 
 evident in the want of breadth of the horse's body and in the insignificant treatment 
 of the base. 
 
 The course of these fluctuating conceptions has been vividly brought before us by
 
 ISO LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 in which he places on the entablature of the base, now ornamented 
 with pillars and pediments — seated figures, captives, in bold and 
 vigorous relief (an arrangement adopted later by Michelangelo, and 
 thenceforth a very favourite one during the Renaissance). Above 
 this rises the equestrian statue. 
 
 I think I may say without disparagement to the memory of the 
 great artist that more than any of his contemporaries, Leonardo kicked 
 against the restraints of architecture, the necessity, for instance, of 
 blending figures with their surroundings in order to produce a 
 decorative effect. In all sketches for the monument his embarrassment 
 is patent as soon as he attempts to bring the statue into harmony 
 with the base. But let him draw the horse by itself, or merely with 
 its rider, and whether he depicts the animal as rearing above a fallen 
 warrior (Richter, pi. Ixviii., Ixix.), or stepping majestically, its head 
 arched over its breast (pi. Ixx.), or proudly raised (pi. Ixxi.), he shows 
 an incomparable freedom and assurance. 
 
 The studies for the Sforza monument arc, for the most part, vague 
 in the extreme ; it would be impossible to reconstruct the final design 
 through them. And the reason for this is not far to seek : the 
 fundamental idea once fixed in the artist's mind, he no longer works 
 with pencil or pen, but with the trowel ; it is not on paper that he 
 records his experiments, but in clay.^ Why waste time in drawing on 
 
 Louis Courajod. Let me, for the moment, borrow liis eloquent pen. " Wliile by an 
 ardent study of the anatomy of the horse — a study which apparently goes far beyond 
 the exigencies of sculpture — Leonardo takes every means of ensuring the charm of 
 marvellous execution in his work, the entire composition is shaping itself in his mind. 
 The picture of a colossal monument rises up before him — a gigantic pedestal grouped 
 about with figures, and surmounted by the hero. The statue seems at first to have been 
 associated with the idea of a fountain; the horse, stepping composedly forward, overturns 
 with its fore-foot a vase, from which water flows. This ingenious allegory would recall 
 the fact that Lombardy had been given a marvellous system of irrigation by its rulers. 
 Another symbol is added to complete it — under the uplifted hind-foot of the steed is a 
 tortoise, the placid and appropriate denizen of the moist plains about Milan : it still 
 swarms in the enclosure of the Certosa of Pavia. Thus conceived, the statue would be 
 emblematic of a pacific ruler, a protector of agriculture. Meanwhile, Leonardo hollows in 
 the pedestal a niche destined to receive the recumbent statue of the Duke. We know 
 that the colossal monument was intended, primarily, for a tomb." 
 
 1 My hypothesis as to the date of these drawings is corroborated by the fact that studies 
 of the horse walking and galloping, of a circular and of a rectangular pedestal, are found 
 on the same page. Dr. Richter states that among the sketches referring to the casting 
 of the statue, six show the horse walking, but only one represents it galloping.
 
 THE STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA 151 
 
 a flat surface a figure which will eventually be executed in the round ? 
 At the most, it serves only to give an idea of the general outline. 
 
 Leonardo was not one to make rapid decisions, and Lodovico il 
 Moro had not the fortitude to make a plan and keep strictly to it ; 
 doubtless, too, his much-admired artist unsettled his mind anew each 
 time they met, by laying some fresh design before him. As we have 
 already seen, he made suggestion after suggestion — now the huge 
 pedestal was circular, now rectangular, now in the shape of a 
 rotunda, now of a triumphal arch ; then again, it was to surmount 
 a deep cavity containing the recumbent figure of the deceased Duke, 
 and so forth. Finally, Sforza, worn out by these incessant 
 discussions, begged Pietro Alemanni, the Florentine ambassador at 
 Milan, to ask Lorenzo the Magnificent to send him one or two 
 sculptors capable of executing the statue in question. The Duke, adds 
 Alemanni, being afraid that Leonardo, who had been commissioned to 
 make the model, was hardly equal to the task ! ^ 
 
 This threat to supplant him evidently had the desired effect of 
 rousing Leonardo from his apathy, for we have indubitable proof that 
 by the following year the work was once more in full swing. Under 
 the date of April 23 we find this pregnant entry among his memor- 
 anda : " To-day I began this book and re-commenced the ' horse,' (the 
 equestrian statue)." 
 
 At last, on November 30, 1493, on the occasion of the marriage 
 of Bianca Maria Sforza to the Emperor Maximilian, the model of the 
 horse was exhibited to the public under a triumphal arch.- 
 
 Was this colossal horse modelled in clay, or, like certain earlier 
 models, that, for instance, of Jacopo della Ouercia's equestrian statue of 
 
 1 '^liiWex-W'sXà^, /ahrluiL/t der Kg. Kuns/sammlungeii, 1897,13. 155. 
 
 This important docuiiit-nt runs as follows ; July 22, 148g. " Duke Lodovico 
 intends to erect a noble memorial to his father ; he has already charged Leonardo 
 da Vinci to execute a model for it, that is to say, a great bronze horse upon which (will 
 be placed) a figure of Duke Francesco in armour. And seeing that his Excellency was 
 desirous of having something superlatively good, he charged me to write to you on his 
 behalf, begging that you would send him an artist capable of carrying out such a work; 
 for though he has entrusted it to Leonardo da Vinci, the Duke appears to me far from 
 satisfied that he is equal to the task." 
 
 - The poets Taccone, Giovanni da Tolentino, Lane. Curzio and a host of others sang 
 the praises of Leonardo's masterpiece. For some of their effusions see // Castello di 
 j\Ji/ain), by Beltrami (p. 180 — 1S2).
 
 152 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Giantedesco da Pietramala at Siena, of a mixture of wood, hay, hemp, 
 clay and mortar ? An early writer enables us to satisfy our curiosity on 
 this question by informing us that the " typus " (model) was " cretaceus," 
 that is, of chalk or plaster. ^ 
 
 This was the end of the first act of the drama ; the second opened 
 
 with the necessary pre- 
 
 parations for the casting 
 of the statue.- Strictly 
 speaking, the sculptor 
 might now have consi- 
 dered his part of the 
 business completed ; 
 what remained to be 
 done was chiefly me- 
 chanical. But the divi- 
 sion of labour was not 
 very clearly defined in 
 the fifteenth century, and 
 Leonardo was obliged 
 to devote much time 
 and patience to e.xperi- 
 mcnts in the founder's 
 art. The construction 
 of the furnaces and the 
 moulds, the composition 
 of the bronze, the manner 
 
 of heating, the finishing of the cast, the polishing, the chasing — all 
 
 this had to be carefully considered. 
 
 The financial embarrassments of the court of Milan contributed 
 
 quite as much as Leonardo's procrastinating tendencies to the delay in 
 
 the completion of the "Cavallo." In a letter to Lodovico il Moro — 
 
 1 De Cardinalatii, i. p. 50. — Cf. Mùller-Walde, Jahrbuch der kg. Kuiistsaminlungen, 
 1897, p. 105—107. 
 
 ^ In his work De Divina Proportmie (dedicated to Lodovico il Moro, February 9, 
 1498), Leonardo's friend Pacioli, tells us that the colossus was to measure twelve braccie 
 (about twenty-six feet in height), and to weigh, when cast in bronze, about 200,000 lbs., 
 while that designed by the brothers Mantegazza would not have weighed more than 6,000. 
 
 STUDIES OF HORSES. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA 
 
 153 
 
 unfortunately without a date — the artist writes, " I say nothing of the 
 horse (the equestrian statue) because I know the state of affairs^ — " 
 (literally, the times : the difficulties of the present situation). 
 
 Leonardo himself was the first to feel a doubt as to the completion of 
 the monument. In a letter to the wardens of a church at Piacenza, 
 who, it seems, had asked his advice as to the choice of a bronze founder, 
 he declares that he alone would be competent to carry out the work 
 they propose, but that 
 he is overburdened with 
 orders. The artist's 
 w^ords are too character- 
 istic not to be given 
 textually : " Believe me, 
 there is no man capable 
 of it but Leonardo of 
 Florence, who is engaged 
 upon the bronze horse 
 of the Duke Francesco ; 
 and he is out of the 
 question, for he has 
 enough work for all the 
 rest of his days, and I 
 doubt, seeing how great 
 that work is, if he will 
 ever finish it."^ 
 
 An anonymous bio- 
 grapher confirms Vasari's 
 
 statement that Leonardo intended casting the statue in one piece,- but 
 this statement is confuted by one of Leonardo's own manuscripts, in 
 which he discusses the possibilities of casting 100,000 lbs. of metal, 
 and determines that five furnaces would have to be used, reckoning 
 2,000 (20,000) or at the most 3,000 (30,000) lbs. to each furnace.^ 
 This, of course, settles the question. 
 
 1 Richter, vol. ii. p. 15,400. — Uzielli, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 179. — MnWerAXMe, /a/ir//uc/i 
 der kg. Pr. Kunstsammltingen 1897, p. 94 et seq. 
 
 - Milanesi — Documenti inédite, p. 11. Vasari says that on this point Leonardo 
 consulted his skilled compatriot, Giuliano da San Gallo, when the latter visited Milan. 
 
 * '2,€i\.xM\\\, II Codue di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca del Principe Tnvulzio,io\. ^T- 
 
 X 
 
 sTtDIIià OF HuUiKS. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 154 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Leonardo's masterpiece came to a_ miserable end. Sabba di 
 Castiglione's story of the statue being knocked to pieces by the Gascon 
 crossbowmen of Louis XI L has perhaps been taken too Hterally. ' 
 
 That this ruthless destruction did not occur during Louis's first 
 occupation of Milan in 1499, is evident from the fact that in 1501 
 the Duke of Ferrara was anxious to obtain possession of the model 
 executed by Leonardo.^ Still, we have no reason to doubt that foreign 
 soldiers had a hand in this deplorable piece of vandalism, though there 
 is probably much justice in M. Bonnaffé's presumption that "a statue of 
 perishable material, of such dimensions and in such an attitude, exposed 
 to all the vicissitudes of the weather, soon perishes when it once begins 
 to deteriorate." Already much damaged in 1501, Leonardo's monu- 
 ment was inevitably doomed. Some drunken soldiers, perhaps, made 
 a target of the half ruined colossus, and so completed its destruction ; 
 whether they were French, German, Spanish, Swiss or native Italians, 
 is wholly immaterial. 
 
 The " Cavallo " has perished utterly ; not even a drawing remains 
 to give us an idea of what this work of genius must have been. It is 
 my opinion, however, that we must seek elsewhere for traces of it. Is it 
 likely that the bronze-casters, who were so busily employed during the 
 early Renaissance in reproducing works of art, antique or contem- 
 porary, would have overlooked this marvel ? They reproduced the 
 equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius again and again ! Padua and 
 Verona, the head-centres of the bronze-workers, even Venice, were not 
 so far from Milan but that followers of Donatello, such as Vellano and 
 Riccio, or of Verrocchio, such as Leopardi and the Lombardi, might 
 have known the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza "de visu," or 
 from terra-cotta copies. We know, indeed, that a small model of 
 
 1 " So much is certain," says this writer in his Memoirs (published 1546), "that 
 through the ignorance and carelessness of certain persons who neither recognise nor 
 appreciate talent in any way, this work has been given over ignominiously to ruin. And 
 I would remind you," he adds, " — not without sorrow and indignation — that this noble 
 and ingenious masterpiece served the Gascon archers for a target." Vasari confirms 
 this account by stating that the model remained intact till King Louis entered Milan with 
 the French, who totally destroyed it. 
 
 - See the Correspondence published by the Marquis Campori : Gazette des Beaux- 
 Arts, 1866, vol. i. p. 43. According to M. Boito, the archers destroyed the figure of 
 the rider, but not the horse. (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Andrea PaUadio, p. 99, Milan, 
 1883.)
 
 STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA 155 
 
 Leonardo's " Cavallo " was brought into France by Rustici, and subse- 
 quently formed part of the collection of Leone Leonl.^ Unfortu- 
 nately every trace of it has vanished. Vasari speaks of a small wax 
 model said to have been quite perfect, but, even in his day, this was 
 no longer in existence. 
 
 In the Berlin Museum there is a bronze statuette of a horse (no. 
 224) which Messrs. Bode and v. Tschudi believe to be derived from 
 Leonardo's masterpiece, basing their opinion chiefly on the vivacious 
 treatment of the head, and the vigorous structure of the hind-quarters, 
 on which all the weight is thrown. In Mme. Edouard Andre's 
 collection too, there is a gilt-bronze statuette of a horse, bold, pliant, 
 vivacious, and inspired as only the " Cavallo " of Leonardo can have 
 been. The supreme quality of this little work of art, which Mme. 
 André discovered in Venice, was evident to her critical eye, and she 
 has not hesitated to give it Leonardo's glorious name. The infinite 
 suppleness and freedom which Leonardo alone was capable of con- 
 ferring on his creations, his skill in so arranging his sculptures that 
 they looked equally beautiful from any point of view, his profound 
 knowledge of proportion, are all present to a supreme degree in 
 this bronze, which may be unhesitatingly ranked among the master's 
 works. 
 
 Was Leonardo's horse represented as walking or galloping ? This 
 is a problem over which torrents of ink have flowed. Louis 
 Courajod calls in the testimony of Paolo Giovio to prove that it was 
 prancing ("vehementer incitatus et anhelans"), but may he not attach 
 too strict a meaning to this ? To my mind, the most forcible and, at 
 the same time harmonious, composition is that with the rearing horse, 
 in one sketch with uplifted head, in another with the head bent over 
 the breast, It is by the aid of these two sketches that I prefer to 
 evoke the image of Leonardo's masterpiece. 
 
 Some years after the destruction of the famous equestrian statue, 
 
 1 " Un cavallo di relievo di plastica, fatto di sua mano, che ha il cavallier Leone 
 Aretino statouario " {Trattato della Pittura, ed. of 1584, p. 177). See Courajod. 
 Alexandre Lenoir, vol. ii. p. 95. — Plon, Leone Leoni, pp. 56, 63, 188. This author is 
 inclined to think that this was the very model of which Leoni superintended the casting 
 in Paris, 1549. 
 
 X 2
 
 J 56 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Michelangelo, meeting Leonardo in the streets of Florence, taunted 
 him bitterly before a group of friends with having abandoned his work 
 unfinished : " Thou who madest the model of a horse to cast it in 
 bronze, and finding thyself unable to do so, wast forced with shame to 
 give up the attempt." 
 
 Had Michelangelo known of the trials that awaited him in con- 
 nection witli his own work for the tomb of Pope Julius II., he would 
 perhaps have been less severe upon an undertaking to which his rival 
 might have applied his own phrase, calling it the tragedy of his life. 
 
 None the less, it is 
 deeply to be deplored that 
 Leonardo was not more 
 energetic in his efforts 
 to rescue the magnificent 
 work which formed his 
 chief title to renown as 
 a sculptor. He must 
 have had a strong strain 
 of fatalism in him to 
 witness the destruction 
 of the masterpiece which 
 had occupied the best 
 years of his manhood 
 without one word of 
 regret. His note books overflow with records of every impression, 
 even the most fleeting, but we may search in vain for a syllable 
 concerning the demolition of his equestrian statue. 
 
 In it, not only the city of Milan, but all humanity lost a master- 
 piece, the beauty of which no description and no sketch can convey — a 
 masterpiece worthy to be ranked with the Last Supper of Santa Maria 
 delle Grazie. 
 
 STUDY FOK 1 HE EQUbïiTKiA.N STATUE OF FRANCEsCU SFOKZA. 
 
 (Windsor Library. Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) 
 
 Marshal Trivulzio, the rival of Lodovico il Moro, was also 
 exceedingly desirous of having a memorial statue executed by Leonardo. 
 It was thought, at one time, that the nea:otiations relative to the 
 subject took place during Leonardo's residence in France, where he 
 met the Marshal who, like himself, ended his days in that country.
 
 DESIGN FOR A STATUE OF TRIVULZIO 
 
 157 
 
 But Dr. Richter, with more show of probabih'ty, suggests the date 
 1499, at which time Trivulzio returned in triumph to his native 
 city, from which he had long been banished by Sforza. Some 
 thought of defiance and of vengeance may have inspired him 
 with the idea of erecting on his tomb a statue, less colossal in 
 dimensions, but not less sumptuous, than that of Duke Francesco 
 Sforza. 
 
 An elaborate project in Leonardo's own handwriting proves that 
 the monument was to have been most ornate. The marble 
 base, very richly worked, 
 was to be flanked by 
 columns with bronze 
 capitals, and adorned with 
 friezes, festoons, and 
 pedestals, with six panels 
 ("tavole") bearing figures 
 and trophies (evidently 
 in bas-relief, as on the 
 tomb of Gaston de Foix), 
 with six harpies bearing 
 candelabra, and with 
 eight figures (the Vir- 
 tues ?) at a price of 23 
 ducats each. The statue 
 of the Marshal, valued 
 at 150 ducats, was to 
 
 crown the monument. The whole cost was fixed at 3046 ducats, 
 432 for the models in clay and in wax, 200 for the iron frame- 
 work and the mould, 500 for the bronze, and 450 for the polishing 
 and chasing. These figures are not without interest in their bearinsf 
 upon the history of bronze sculpture at the end of the fifteenth 
 century.^ 
 
 The bronze statuette of a horseman in the Thiers collection may 
 perhaps have had some connection with this design. A competent 
 critic, M. Molinier, does not hesitate to recognise in it the portrait of 
 Trivulzio ; he is of opinion that the statuette originated in Leonardo's 
 
 1 Richter, vol. ii., p. 15 et seq. 
 
 \\ J^ 
 
 
 -^^É 
 
 V 
 
 ^R 
 
 Mcv 
 
 ?^c jj R ^ 
 
 i 
 
 STUDY FOR THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA. 
 
 (Windsor Library. Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.)
 
 iS8 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 atelier, and is much inclined to believe that the master himself worked 
 upon it.^ 
 
 Leonardo deemed himself equally skilled in sculpture and in 
 painting — "Seeing that I execute sculpture no less than painting, and 
 that I practise the one in an equal degree with the other, it appears to 
 me that 1 may, without reproach, pronounce an opinion as to which 
 demands the more talent, skill and perfection."- Nevertheless, he 
 showed himself relatively hard upon the former branch of art, 
 which he systematically subordinated to the latter, always laying 
 stress upon the fact that sculpture demands more physical than 
 intellectual labour. 
 
 A whole series of sculptures of more than doubtful authenticity 
 have been attributed to the master on the strength of these 
 pronouncements. 
 
 According to a contemporary critic, the marble bust of Beatrice 
 d'Este, in the Louvre, should be included in the list of Leonardo's 
 works. ^ But it is now declared to be the work of Gian Cristoforo 
 Romano.* 
 
 Another famous bust, the marvellous bas-relief of Scipio Africanus, 
 bequeathed to the Louvre by M. Rattier, has also been ascribed to 
 Leonardo, but on insufficient grounds.^ 
 
 I have yet to mention the stucco bas-relief, Discord, in the South 
 Kensington Museum, which M. Millier Walde has not hesitated to 
 ascribe to Leonardo. The composition, it is true, is marked by all 
 the fire, the spirit, and the inspiration so characteristic of the master. 
 But the general arrangement seems to me too soft and facile. 
 The predominance of the rich architectural background, again, an 
 unprecedented feature in any authenticated work of Leonardo's, is not 
 a reassuring detail. Note the colonnades, the domes, the arches, the 
 galleries, the pseudo-classic palaces, etc. Discord, a spirited female 
 figure, striding along, brandishes a long stick behind her, after the 
 
 ' Revue de r Art andeii et moderne, 1897, vol. ii., p. 421 et seq., 189S, vol. i., p. 74. 
 The horse has been restored by M. Fréniiet. (See Charles Blanc, Collection d'Objets 
 d'Art de AL Thiers, léguée au Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1884, p. 22.) 
 
 - Trattato délia Pittura, chap. 38. Cf. chaps. 35, 36. 
 
 8 Courajod, Conjectures à propos d'un Buste en Marbre de Beatrix d' Este au ALusée du 
 Louvre, Paris, 1877, Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 
 
 * Venturi, Archivio storico delP Arte, iSgo. 
 
 * See the article in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February, 1S97.
 
 Btisi of Scipio. Sc/ioo/ of Leonardo. 
 
 {». I'AiM. kat'i'ikk's collection.)
 
 SCULPTURE ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO 159 
 
 fashion of a Parthian dart. This figure recalls the types of the school of 
 Fontainebleau, rather than those of Leonardo. 
 
 Strange to say, the composition, which contains passages of great 
 freedom — a series of torsoes not unworthy of Michelangelo — abounds 
 in faulty foreshortenings. All the figures in the foreground, running 
 or seated, are very much too short. ^ 
 
 All the information we have as to other sculptures by Leonardo is 
 more or less open to question. 
 
 Among the works ascribed to him are : The Infant Jesus blessing 
 the little S. John, a terra-cotta, formerly the property of Cardinal 
 Federigo Borromeo ; " and a S. Jerome, in high relief, formerly in the 
 Hugford collection at Florence.'^ 
 
 According to Rio,* Leonardo even worked in ivory ! " M. Thiers," 
 remarks this uncritical writer, "owns a little ivory figure of exquisite 
 workmanship, which can hardly be attributed to any one but 
 Leonardo." It is enough to reproduce such an assertion to show its 
 inanity ! 
 
 Needless to say, the sculpture of the School of Milan fell under 
 Leonardo's ascendency no less evidently than the painting. Indeed, the 
 principles of the creator of the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza 
 and of the Last Supper'' were so suggestive that they extended their 
 
 ^ Dr. Bode ascribes the Discord to Verrocchio : Archivio storico delP Arte, 1893, 
 p. T] et seq. 
 
 - Rio, V Art Chretien, vol. iii. p. 78. 
 
 ^ Venturi, Essai sur les Ouvrages physica-matliéiualiqucs de Leonard de Vinci, ]">. 46. 
 
 * L'Art Chrétien, p. 57. 
 
 " Copies without number, both in marble and bronze, prove how great must have 
 been the sensation produced among the sculptors of Northern Italy by the Last Supper. 
 First, we have the copy in bas-relief by Stefano da Sesto in the Certosa at Pavia, then two 
 very similar copies in the church at Saronno and in S. Maria dei Miracoli at Venice 
 (Frizzoni, Archi-i'io storico dell' Arte, 1889). Another artist substituted silver for marble 
 in a copy executed about the same time (Bossi, del Cenacolo, pp. 143, 165). In 1529, 
 Andrea da Milano copied the picture in high relief, and replaced the painted figures by 
 thirteen statues. Traces of the Leonardesque may be noted in the Virgin enthroned 
 of Stefano da Sesto, also in the Certosa at Pavia (Liibke : Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, 
 vol. vi. p. 44). The Apostles standing or kneeling at each side of the Virgin are 
 reminiscent both of Leonardo and of Raphael. On another monument in the Certosa, 
 the tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, by Benedetto Briosco, there is a head of a Virgin 
 which, with its perfect oval face and compressed mouth, at once recalls Leonardo. 
 According to Vasari, Gugliemo della Porta is to be reckoned among the imitators of 
 the master. Finally, we may note that in Tuscany Leonardo had the sculptor Rustici 
 for a pupil, and honoured the young Bandinelli with his counsels.
 
 i6o 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 vivifying influence even into regions apparently inaccessible to their 
 action. It appears unexpectedly in artists like Bernardino Luini 
 and Sodoma, who never had the good fortune to come into per- 
 sonal contact with Leonardo. But this influence did not manifest 
 itself everywhere with identical, or equally beneficial, results. Though 
 the Milanese .sculptors recognised the supreme grace of Leonardo's 
 creation and, to a certain extent, the difficulties that he had over- 
 come, they had no conception of the infinite amount of detailed 
 research and strenuous labour that went to make up the sum of his 
 perfection. Hence it was that Milanese sculpture passed from 
 extreme ruggedness to the facility, the polish, the sentimental 
 insipidity so apparent in the statues and bas-reliefs of Briosco at the 
 Certosa of Pavia, and those of Bambaja, on the famous tomb of Gaston 
 de Foix. 
 
 ,..*■» i«s«es*r>^-^ 
 
 '^.^^:é^^r:-l 
 
 STUDY FOR THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FRANCE<;CO SFORZA. 
 
 (Windsor Library. Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.)
 
 % 
 
 
 STUUV OF HORSES. 
 
 (Windsor TJbrarj'. ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS " — OTHER MADONNAS OF THE MILANESE PERIOD 
 
 T 
 
 HERE is no more tantalising problem 
 in the history of modern art than that 
 of the classification and chronology of 
 Leonardo da Vinci's works. One is sometimes 
 tempted to believe that just as the master's 
 handwriting remained absolutely unchanged for 
 thirty-five years, making it impossible to dis- 
 tinguish the manuscripts of his extreme old 
 age from those of his first literary efforts,' 
 so, too, his manner of drawing and painting 
 never varied an iota throughout his career. 
 1 will not undertake to solve all the difficulties, 
 many of them inextricable, which beset the 
 determination of dates in a life-work of such 
 importance as that of Leonardo. In such investigations it is 
 impossible to show too much reserve, scepticism, and above all 
 modesty, a virtue which is becoming extremely rare in the domain 
 of artistic erudition. But I may claim to offer some materials for 
 
 A FM;irΠFOR "the ADOCAIU-'N 
 OF THE MAGI." 
 
 (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 
 
 1 See M. Charles Ravaisson-Mollien's A/a/iusi/i/s de Leonard de Vinci, vol. v. y. i. 
 
 V
 
 i62 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 the building up of a monument which no isolated efforts can hope 
 to raise. 
 
 Successive biographers of Leonardo have fixed the date of the 
 Virgin of (kc Rocks, some before his removal from Florence,^ some 
 after his establishment at Milan ; - in other words, some before and 
 some after the year 1484. A recently discovered document has settled 
 this vexed question ;^ the picture was painted at Milan. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is a vast gulf between the Louvre picture and 
 other works painted by Leonardo at Milan ; technique, style, expression, 
 all differ. The drawing is slightly dry and hard, somewhat in the 
 manner of Verrocchio ; the crumpled draperies, the anxious, even 
 fretful expression of the faces, are peculiarities (we dare not say 
 faults, for such faults disarm criticism) which were soon to dis- 
 appear in the master's more mature works. In a word, though 
 it was painted at Milan, the Vii-gin of the Rocks is Florentine in 
 feeling. 
 
 The picture, in spite of the impression of rapid and spontaneous 
 creation it makes upon the spectator, was one of the most laborious of 
 the master's works, as his drawings bear witness. A characteristic 
 
 1 Charles Clement, Miiller-Walde. I myself once shared this opinion. 
 
 ^ Liibke, Geschichte dc>- italienischen Malerei, vol. ii. — A. Gruyer, Voyage autour du 
 Salon carré du Louvre, p. 33. Paris, 1891. M. Gruyer believes the picture to have been 
 painted at Milan, rather at the beginning than at the end of Leonardo's sojourn there- 
 According to him, it dates from between 14S2 and 1490, rather than from between 1490 
 and 1500. 
 
 ^ Motta, Archivio storico lombardo, 1893, vol. x.\., p. 972-977. — Frizzoni, Archivio 
 storico deir Arte, 1894, p. 58-61. The following is an abstract of this curious document : 
 At a date unspecified, between 1484 and 1494, Giovanni Ambrogio Preda and Leonardo 
 da Vinci agreed with the Brothers of the Chapel of the Conception of the Church of San 
 Francesco at Milan, to execute an altar-])icce ("una ancona '') for them, to consist of 
 gilded figures in relief, an oil jiainting of the Virgin, and two other pictures, also in oil, 
 large figures of angels. Difficulties arose in connection with the price : the two artists 
 valued the work at 300 florins ; the friars, however, declined to give more than 25 florins 
 for the Madonna, though several amateurs had offered loo. In the petition addressed to 
 the Duke on the subject, the artists ask that the Madonna should be left in their hands, 
 and that the 800 lire paid them by the friars should be considered the price of the reredos 
 and the two angels. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that Preda was Leonardo's collaborator in the 
 picture. They were associated in the execution of a carved reredos with three pictures. 
 Preda clearly produced the sculptures ; he is, too, the reputed author of the two 
 angels; and Leonardo — as this document finally establishes — painted the Âla.lonna with 
 his own hand.
 
 VI 
 
 First Idea for " The Virgin of I lie Rocks." 
 
 (dlkk OI' ni-;vuNsiiiKK"s coi.i.k-
 
 STUDIES FOR THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS" 163 
 
 drawing (p. 167) in the Ecole des Beaux Arts reveals the various 
 transformations of a single figure, that of the angel. He appears first 
 in profile, standing, his left foot on a step ; with one hand he holds his 
 mantle, and with the other he points to some object unseen in the 
 drawing, evidently to the little S. John. Lower down are studies in 
 silver-point for the left arm, holding back the drapery, and for the 
 right arm, which appears first with the hand extended, then with 
 the hand closed, save for the first finger. This last is the action 
 Leonardo finally adopted for the picture. I hasten to add that it is 
 also the only part of the drawing he retained. In the picture the angel 
 is no longer in profile, but turns his face three-quarters to the spectator, 
 which adds greatly to the animation of the scene, for in a composition 
 of four persons, two of whom are children, an actor in profile would be 
 an actor more or less lost. The action of the left arm has undergone 
 a modification no less important ; instead of holding the drapery, 
 it supports the Divine Child, and the angel, who was standing, now 
 kneels on one knee. It needed Leonardo's consummate art to 
 mask so much effort, and preserve an appearance of freshness and 
 spontaneity in a work which was the result of long and elaborate 
 combinations. 
 
 There are other drawings, showing us Leonardo's dealings with the 
 head, the figure, and the draperies of the angel. First in importance 
 is the superb study of the head in the Royal Library at Turin, perhaps 
 even more beautiful than the head in the picture itself I may also 
 mention a tracinQ- of a lost original in the Ambrosiana at Milan, a head 
 with long curling hair, turned three-quarters to the spectator (Gerli, 
 pi. xxi. ; Braun, no. 27). 
 
 In the Windsor Library, again, we have a sketch for the figure of 
 the angel (Grosvenor Gallery Catalogue, no. 71), another for the arm 
 with the outstretched forefinger (no. 72), and a study of drapery for 
 this same angel (no. 75), who looks towards the background instead 
 of at the spectator. 
 
 A drawing in the Uffizi (Braun, 431), a study of drapery for a 
 
 kneeling figure, seen in profile, is somewhat akin to the Windsor study, 
 
 but was certainly designed for a different and older figure. (The 
 
 shoulder and left arm are bare.) 
 
 Y 2
 
 164 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Among the studies for the head of the Virgin, I may mention as 
 most important a drawing on green paper in silver-point, in the Duke 
 of Devonshire's collection at Chatsworth (see our pi. vi.). In this she 
 is represented side by side with the little S. John, looking from left to 
 right, in an exactly opposite direction to that of the picture. The 
 type, over-slender and affected, is far from attractive, and differs 
 altogether from that fmally adopted. But that this head was a 
 study for the Virgin of tlic Rocks is proved by the presence of the 
 
 little S. John, repro- 
 duced almost exactly 
 from the drawing in the 
 Louvre. 
 
 Having thus esta- 
 blished the relation of 
 the Chatsworth draw- 
 ing to the Virgin of 
 the Rocks, we are 
 further enabled to con- 
 nect a head of the 
 Virgin in the Christ 
 Church collection at 
 Oxford (p. 171), with the 
 picture. In type and 
 technique this drawing 
 is almost identical with 
 that at Chatsworth.^ 
 
 I may add that, dif- 
 fering altogether from 
 Herr Miiller-Walde (Fig. 8), I consider the head of a young woman 
 on green paper, in the Uffizi, closely akin to the head of the Virgin in 
 
 1 This connection has escaped Herr MiillerAValde, who assigns the date 1472-1473 to 
 the Clirist Church study. (Fig. 9, pi. xliii.) We must, in view of the demonstration 
 in the text above, antedate it by some six or eight years. As to the laborious theory 
 built up by Signor Morelli on the Christ Church drawing, which he ascribes to his 
 favourite, Bernardino dei Conti, it is overthrown at once by the mere fact that this 
 drawing was a study for the Virgin of the Hocks, and that in execution it shows an absohite 
 identity with other drawings by Leonardo. It is not improbable that the head of a 
 woman in the Borghese Gallery (Mi.iller-Walde, Fig. 7) may also have been a study for 
 the picture, if indeed this drawing is really by Leonardo. 
 
 S1L;U\ 1 UK riih AN». IX IN I lit "\ Hit. IN <'K lllli KÛLKs. 
 
 (koyal Library, Turin.)
 
 STUDY FOR THE AXCEL IN THE "VIRGIN OF THE KOCKS." 
 
 (École des Beaux Arts, Paris.)
 
 1 66 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 the picture. It has the same short but firmly modelled nose, the same 
 straight lips, the same somewhat square chin.^ 
 
 We may now briefly mention the studies for the Infant Jesus. 
 
 The Louvre owns three, in silver-point heightened with Chinese 
 white, on that greenish paper Leonardo .seems to have specially 
 afifected during his first Florentine period. They are all of the Child's 
 head, and show it in profile ; he looks before him, while, in the 
 picture, he turns to look at his mother. Note, however, that whereas 
 in tlie first the face is in sharp profile, in the other two the artist tries 
 the effect of a " profil perdu" (i.e., less than a full profile). Dr. 
 Richter (vol. i., p. 345) questions the authenticity of the principal 
 drawing (no 383 in M. Reiset's catalogue), which he holds to be a 
 copy of later date. But I am unable to share his views on this 
 point. Herr Miiller-Walde, on the other hand, describes the drawing 
 as " herrlich " (superb). 
 
 A smaller, but more complete study of the same head, with the 
 shoulders and part of the breast added, is in the Royal Library at 
 Windsor (Richter, pi. xliv.). It is a very realistic drawing, the 
 expression of the face curiously old and prescient. It is noticeable 
 that it is in red chalk, a medium never used by Leonardo's prede- 
 cessors, and infrequently by himself till a comparatively late perioil 
 of his career. Nothing short of Richter's authority, therefore, would 
 induce me to accept the authenticity of this study, the earliest in date 
 of Leonardo's drawings in red chalk. 
 
 Another study for the Child, seated, and leaning on one hand, an 
 angel's head beside him, was published by Gerli (pi. xix.). 
 
 Finally, a pencil drawing of a child's head, touched with Chinese 
 white, in the Chatsworth collection, is also supposed to be a study for 
 the picture.- 
 
 We may now pass on to the studies for the little S. John. A 
 sketch for the head, three quarters to the front, is to be found in the 
 Vallardi collection, in the Louvre (Braun, no. 170). It is drawn in 
 silver-point, on greenish paper: (Richter, vol. i., 342). This head 
 
 ' I only know xhe grisai/k sketch for the head of the Virgin in the Holford collection 
 by Rio's mention of it in L'Art Chretien (vol. iii., p. 81). 
 
 - Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. iii., p. 353.
 
 STUDIES FOR THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS" 167 
 
 served Raphael as his type for a whole series of Infant Saviours. 
 The same head re-appears in a drawing in the Duke of Devonshire's 
 collection, also on green paper, side by side with a head of the Virgin. 
 (See our pi. vi.) 
 
 Two drawings in the Mancel gallery, in the Hôtel de Ville at 
 Caen, to which my attention was drawn by M. Leopold Mabilleau, 
 and for photographs of which I am indebted to the learned keeper of 
 the gallery, M. Decauville-Lachenée, are studies for the little S. John 
 and the Infant Jesus. A long interval, however, perhaps sev^eral 
 years, seems to have divided these studies from the finished work. 
 As his habit was, ihe artist, before sitting down to his easel, sub- 
 mitted his various figures to a laborious process of adaptation. Thus, 
 he made the profile head considerably younger in the picture ; from 
 a boy, the child became an infant. He also reduced the masses 
 of hair to normal proportions, and softened the expression of the 
 little S. John. 
 
 German critics, from Passavant and Waagen to Herr Miiller-Walde, 
 have contested the authenticity of the Virgin of the Rocks from time 
 to time.^ 
 
 Setting all patriotic considerations aside, I cannot but maintain the 
 Louvre picture to be one of those in which the master's genius manifests 
 itself most gloriously. Allowances must, of course, be made for the 
 unhappily numerous repaints, and the blackening of the shadows, a 
 defect aggravated by the thick yellow varnish that overlies the surface. 
 Granted that the composition has not achieved the breadth and 
 grandeur of the Last Supper, or the suavity of the S. Atme, yet it 
 shows us Leonardo as his own precursor. 
 
 A replica of the Virgin of the Rocks was bought in 1880, at the 
 considerable price of ^9,000, for the English National Gallery, which 
 claims in this example to have acquired the true original by Leonardo. 
 The replica, which came from the Suffolk collection, was bought in 
 
 1 Quite recently, M. Strzygowski pronounced the Virgin of the Rocks, in the Louvre, a 
 bad copy ! (Jahrbuch der kgl. Kunstsammliingen, 1895, p. 165.) See also Sir E. Poynter's 
 article in the Art Journal, 1894, p. 229-232. But of. Signor Frizzoni (Gazette des Beaux 
 Arts, 1884, vol. i., p. 235), Herr Koopmann {Repertorium fiir Ktinstioisscnschaft, 189 r, 
 P- 353-36o)> Dr. Richter {Art Journal, 1894, pp. 166-170, 300-301), and various other 
 foreign critics, who all uphold the Louvre picture.
 
 ' 1 ME VIKGIN' OF TI[K ROCKS. 
 
 (National Gallery, London.)
 
 THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS," NATIONAL GAI.LICRN' 
 
 1 6. 
 
 
 Italy in 1796 by the collector, Gavin Hamilton, for 30 ilucats. It is 
 declared to be the picture described by Lomazzo as in the church of 
 San Francesco at Milan at the end of the sixteenth century.' The 
 two side pictures, single figures of angels, passed into the collection of 
 the Duca Melzi. They have now (July, 1S9S) been acquired by the 
 National Gallery, and have lately been placed on either side of the 
 altar - piece, as works 
 by Leonardo's fellow- 
 labourer, Ambrogio de 
 Prédis. 
 
 An absolutely deci- 
 sive arsfument in favour 
 of the authenticity of 
 the Louvre picture is 
 furnished by the fact 
 that there are studies 
 by Leonardo in the 
 Ecole des Beaux Arts 
 and at Windsor (see 
 pp. 165, 167), showing 
 the angel's hand out- 
 stretched towards the 
 Infant Jesus. As is 
 well known, this ges- 
 ture is modified in the 
 London example, which 
 must therefore be of 
 later date than ours. 
 
 In the first of these drawings, which has escaped the investigations of 
 all my predecessors, the standing figure certainly seems to have been 
 re-touched, perhaps even re-drawn in parts ; but the two fragments 
 of the arms and hands proclaim Leonardo's authorship with unmis- 
 takable precision. The handling is not yet devoid of archaism. Note 
 that the angel's arm resembles that of S. Peter in the Las/ Slipper at 
 Milan ; there is the same gesture, the same bending back of the hand. 
 
 ' Tiailato della Pitlura, book ii., cliaii. xvii. 
 
 
 STUDY 1-OU IHE "viUGlN Oi- THE ROCKS." 
 
 (Christ Clmrcli Library, Oxford.)
 
 170 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 The London picture is, in my opinion, a replica, painted under 
 Leonardo's supervision by one of his pupils.^ 
 
 The Louvre picture, I freely admit, is hard of aspect, and harsh 
 in tonality. Time has fastened his cruel teeth into it. The painting 
 has lost its bloom, and the groundwork seems to lie bare before 
 us. Nevertheless, it speaks to the eyes and the soul with supreme 
 authority. 
 
 We must further remember that the Louvre picture has a venerable 
 history. It has been on the spot for hundreds of years. In the 
 first part of the sixteenth century, it was already in the collection of 
 Francis I., a sovereign, who, it must be admitted, was very favourably 
 circumstanced as regards the acquisition of works by Leonardo.^ 
 
 One word more. The differences between the London and Paris 
 examples are of precisely the same nature as those of the two examples 
 of Holbein's Madonna, that in the Dresden Gallery, and that in the 
 Darmstadt Museum. The first, which is the original, is more archaic, 
 heavier perhaps, but more deeply felt ; the second, the copy, is freer 
 and more elegant. 
 
 If, as I suppose, the National Gallery picture was painted in 
 Leonardo's studio and under his supervision, it is easy to see why 
 certain harshnesses apparent in the Louvre example, have disappeared 
 in that of the National Gallery. The master was seeking, hesitating ; 
 the pupil had only to copy and to soften. 
 
 It is time to study the composition of the Virgin of the Rocks. 
 
 It is a group of four figures, three kneeling, the fourth seated at 
 
 '' I entirely endorse M. Anatole Gruyer's judgment on this head: "The London 
 I)ictiire is fresh in colour, well i)reserved, fascinating, graceful, full of charm ; but it is a 
 superficial charm. The faces are slightly insipid in their beauty ; there is something 
 heavy and woolly in their contours ; they lack the intensity of expression so characteristic 
 of Leonardo. The angel is not wanting in grace, but the grace has little elevation. This 
 figure differs to some extent from that in the Louvre picture. Supporting the Infant 
 Jesus with both hands, he looks at the little S. John, unheeding of the spectator. The 
 Virgin and the two " bambini " are distinctly feebler. In short, it is a pretty, rather 
 than a beautiful work, and one in which we do not feel the real presence of the master. 
 (yoyage autour du Salon carré, p. 31.) 
 
 ^ Testimony of Cassiano del PoziiO, published in the Mémoires de la Société de 
 r Histoire de Paris, 1886. — Père Dan, in his Trésor des Merveilles de la Maison royale 
 de Fontainebleau, p. 135, mentions "Our Lady, with an Infant Jesus supported by an 
 angel, in a very graceful landscape."
 
 \II 
 
 The Vii-_:^tii 0/ the Rocks. 
 
 (1 mi; \\>\ VKK.)
 
 THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS" IN THE LOUVRE 171 
 
 the entrance of a cavern. These figures are arranged in the pyramidal 
 form afterwards so much in favour with Raphael. The Virgin, in the 
 centre, but in the middle distance, dominates the other actors. A blue 
 mantle fastened at the breast by a brooch, hangs from her shoulders. 
 One hand on the shoulder of the little S. John, at whom she is looking, 
 the other extended over her Son, she invites the precursor to approach 
 him. The Infant, seated on the ground, and steadying himself with 
 his left hand, blesses his young companion with the right ; the angel, 
 one knee on the ground beside the Child, supports him with one hand, 
 and with the other shows him the little S. John. Here we have 
 already the germs of the consummate art of gesture, of which Leonardo 
 afterwards made so brilliant an application in the Last Stipper at 
 Milan. It is this which gives such extraordinary animation to the 
 composition. 
 
 The master, however, is far from perfect as yet. A certain inex- 
 perience reveals itself, side by side with the most exquisite sensibility, 
 the rarest faculty for observation. There is, in particular, something 
 slightly archaic in the Virgin's type. (The painter seems to have 
 lagged behind the draughtsman, for the studies for this picture are free 
 and supple in the highest degree.) The nose is straight, not aquiline, 
 the mouth but slightly curved, the chin low and square, as in certain 
 faces of Perugino's and Francia's. As to the angel, who wears a red 
 tunic and a green mantle, his expression is vague and undecided. He 
 is more firmly modelled in the two preliminary drawings, the one in the 
 Royal Library at Turin, the other in the École des Beaux Arts. Note 
 the affinity between his type and that of the Virgin. 
 
 In the two children there is also something hard and arid ; the 
 desire for objective truth occasionally gets the better of a sense of style 
 and expression. But what a knowledge of colour and of modelling ! 
 The result is a mingling of Correggio and Rembrandt. In the Infant 
 Jesus, with his somewhat mournful expression, his chestnut locks, his 
 chubby contours (there are dimples on the elbow and shoulder), the 
 effect of the wonderful foreshortening, the broadly treated surfaces, is 
 little short of miraculous. In the little S. John, the foreshortening is 
 curt and abrupt, after the manner of Verrocchio. The type, too, has 
 striking analogies with those of Verrochio. I may add that the light 
 
 z 2
 
 LEONARDO DA \INCI 
 
 falls full on tho Infant Saviour, whereas his young companion is in 
 shadow. 
 
 It is not easy to sum up the beauties of such a work. First of all, 
 I must point out the ]irofound originality of the conception, and the 
 
 infinite charm of the ex- 
 ecution. Like a balloon 
 soaring in the air to such 
 a height that presently all 
 but a few points on the 
 earth are out of sight, it 
 rises above all anterior 
 and contemporary works ! 
 Once more an artist has 
 arisen, who, casting off 
 the trammels of tradition, 
 looks at things face to 
 face, and renders them as 
 he sees them, with sove- 
 reign grace and distinc- 
 tion. Before Raphael, 
 Leonardo treats the little 
 intimate drama : the Virgin caressing her son, watching his .play, 
 directing his education — and treats it with as much charm, if not with 
 quite the same precision of touch. The playfulness, the lightness, and 
 at the same time, the conviction with which he endows these scenes of 
 two or three actors, are not to be rendered in words. They are idyls 
 of the freshest and most innocent kind, without that note of melancholy 
 which the prescience of pain to come often puts in the eyes and on the 
 lips of the young mother. 
 
 The composition is curiously modern. How much of freedom there 
 is, even in the faces ! The artist, unfettered by traditional portraits, 
 takes as model for the Virgin, Christ, the Apostles and Saints, the men 
 and women around him. He troubles himself little about attributes, 
 preserving or suppressing them according to the exigencies of his 
 scheme. He goes so far as to represent the Virgin with bare feet, a 
 heresy into which Fra Angelico, nourished in the severe tradition of 
 
 STUDY FOH THF, INFANT S. JOHN TUn DAI'TIî;T. 
 
 (Mailed Cillery, Caen.)
 
 LEONARDO'S IDEA OF COLOUR 
 
 '73 
 
 the Dominicans, would never have fallen, a heresy which orthodox 
 painters abjured once more after the Council of Trent. lUit if Leo- 
 nardo, like the majority of his Florentine contemporaries, brought his 
 divinities down to earth, he gave a warmth and poetry to his concep- 
 tions, well calculated to awaken religious fervour, and no painter, 
 indeed, has passed for a more devout artist. Strange paradox ! 
 Leonardo ant! Perugino, the two artists Vasari charges with absolute 
 scepticism, are just the two whose works breathe most eloquently of 
 faith ! 
 
 Leaving warmth and intensity of harmony to his fellow-student, 
 Perugino, with his deep and brilliant greens and reds, his precise con- 
 tours, his firm, and often hard modelling, Leonardo, in his J'irgin of the 
 Rocks, as in all his later works, determined to win colour from shades 
 apparently the most neutral, greens verging on gaays, with silvery 
 reflections, bitumen, dull yellow. Nothing could be more strongly 
 opposed to the scale 
 
 adopted by the Primi- ' - — ~ ^ 
 
 tives. All hioh, frank 
 tones are banished from 
 his palette ; he renounces 
 gold, rich stuffs, and bril- 
 liant carnations. It was 
 indeed, with a sort of 
 camaïeu that he achieved 
 his marvels of chiaroscuro, 
 and the incomparable 
 warm and amber harmony 
 of his Rfona Lisa. No 
 artist before him had 
 made so severe a demand 
 on the possibilities of pure 
 painting. 
 
 ']"he ease of the composition and the richness ot the handling claim 
 our admiration in an equal degree. The Florentines, those incom- 
 parable draughtsmen, might justly have exclaimed : " At last a 
 painter is born to us!" The angles and articulations of the figures 
 
 Mm 
 
 ■A < i*3. 
 
 STUDY FOR THE INFANT JF-SUS. 
 (Manc(--i GaUery, Caen.)
 
 174 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 have disappeared, giving place to the most harmonious lines ; these, 
 in their turn are bathed in light of infinite suavity, or rather, the figures 
 themselves are conceived with a view to the light which bathes them. 
 This art of wrapping objects in atmosphere, of enveloppe, to use a 
 modern phrase, was, in fact, if not invented by Leonardo, at least first 
 brought by him to that high degree of perfection to which it now 
 attains. In his effects of chiaroscuro, in the unprecedented subtleties of 
 his colour-harmonies, wc recognise the born painter. Leonardo was 
 as well versed in the laws of linear perspective, anatomy, and kindred 
 sciences as any of his rivals. But far from looking upon them as an 
 end in themselves, he treats them as accessories, a mechanism, to be 
 concealed as soon as it has played its part. A picture, according to 
 his idea, should betray no effort ; it must only show the result — the 
 ideal of grace, beauty, or harmony in full perfection. 
 
 The landscape of the Virgin of the Rocks calls for special analysis. 
 
 From the first, Leonardo manifests a love for rocky and broken 
 landscape, in preference to scenery of broad lines and undulations. 
 The Italian painting of the Renaissance hovered, so to speak, between 
 these two tendencies. The one was followed by the " trecentisti," whose 
 successor Leonardo was on this point ; the other by Perugino, and to 
 some extent, by the Venetians. The partisans of the first system 
 affect marked contrasts ; rugged boulders, alternating with smiling 
 vegetation ; scenery tunnelled by ravines, and ravaged by convulsions, 
 as in some parts of the Apennines. They are one with the Flemings 
 in their love of detail. The others incline to laroe surfaces ; their 
 hills descend to plains and lakes by gradual undulations. Their land- 
 scape, in short, is the Roman Campagna, rendered with masterly effect 
 by Perugino and the Umbrian school. 
 
 Leonardo, however, loves to complicate and refine upon the 
 traditional material. The gorges of Chiusuri and of Monte Oliveto 
 do not suffice him. He is not even content with the erratic boulders 
 of the monastery of La Vernia, in the Casentino. The mineralogist 
 and geologist dominate the artist. He is fascinated by the strange 
 and monstrous dolomite rocks of the Friuli, gigantic cones emerging 
 from vast table-lands, jagged peaks, grottoes no less imposing than the 
 dolmens and menhirs of Brittany.
 
 Study for Ihc Hciid of I lie Infant fcsns in 
 
 of the Rocks." 
 
 /'he Virent 
 
 (I'llE l.(IL'VKl--«)
 
 Prinled by Dracger, Paris
 
 THE "MADONNA LITTA " 175 
 
 The soil is treated with all the tenderness the Primitives bestowed 
 on accessories. Mantegna could not have been more exact, but Leon- 
 ardo adds fancy to exactitude. Slabs of rocks, pebbles, plants (irises), 
 make up the foreground. The grotto seems to breathe forth a strange 
 and penetrating moisture : we dream of nymphs, of sylphs, of gnomes, 
 of all that world of fantasy evoked by Shakespeare in the Midsîinmier 
 Night's Dream, a world only Leonardo could have translated on 
 canvas. The background is composed of a series of perpendicular 
 rocks, like sugar-loaves. 
 
 Leonardo, spirit of hesitations and experiments though he was, 
 shows a rare tenacity in his choice of landscape motives. Through- 
 out his works, in the Virgin of the Rocks, the >S. Anne, the Mona Lisa, 
 we find the same dolomite mountains, abrupt peaks rising from high 
 plains in bizarre outline.^ He very probably made a journey in his 
 youth through the Friuli, and retained a vivid recollection of its 
 scenery.- 
 
 I think it not impossible that the famous Madonna Litta bought 
 at Milan for the Hermitage, S. Petersburg, in 1865, may also 
 have been painted at this period. 
 
 The fact that the beautiful study in profile for the Virgin's head, 
 in the Vallardi collection at the Louvre (see our pi. xi.), is on greenish 
 paper of the same sort as that used for the studies of the Virgin of the 
 Rocks tends to prove that the Madonna Litta is a more or less 
 contemporary work. 
 
 This drawing contains the master's first idea. A pen drawing in 
 the Windsor Library shows the Child at the mother's breast, in an 
 attitude differing little from that of the picture. 
 
 In the picture, we see the Virgin seated, a half-length figure, in a 
 room the two windows of which open on an arid landscape. Dressed 
 in a red robe bordered with gold embroidery, and a blue mantle lined 
 with yellow, she wears on her head a grayish scarf striped with black 
 and enriched with gold ornaments, not unlike those worn by Raphael's 
 
 ' In his drawings, too, there are many of these sugar-loaf rocks. See Richter, vol. ii., 
 pi. cxvii.-viii. A picture in the Berlin Museum attributed to Verrocchio, Tlie Meeting of 
 tlie yout/iftil Saviour and S. JoJin Baptist, contains dolomite rocks like those of 
 Leonardo's backgrounds. 
 
 ^ In one of his notes relating to the canal of Romorontino, he speaks of sluices 
 established in the Friuli by his orders. (Richter, vol. ii., p. 253.)
 
 176 
 
 I.IX)N.\I<I)() I».\ \INCI 
 
 Aldobraiidini Madonna :uk1 his Madonna dclla Scdia. She gazes 
 tenderly at the Babe, offeruig liim her right breast. The Child looks 
 
 towards the spectator ; 
 he lays one hand on his 
 mother's breast, and 
 grasps a goldfinch in 
 the other. The con- 
 ception is singularly 
 sincere and touching. 
 
 Criticism has waver- 
 ed considerably in its 
 ascriptions of the J\Ia- 
 donna Lit la. It has 
 been very generally ac- 
 cepted as a copy of an 
 original by Leonardo. 
 Clement de Ris attri- 
 buted it to Luini/ 
 whereas Signor Morelli 
 claimed it for the in- 
 evitable Bernardino dei 
 Conti,- and Herr Marck fur the no less inevitable Ambrogio de 
 Prédis [Repei/oriii;//, 1896, [). z;2 2). 1 will only say that it approaches 
 very closely to the master himself 
 
 ' Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1S79, vol. i., p. 343. 
 
 - 'I'his attribution was demolished by M. Soiiiofl" in the last edition (1S91) of the 
 Cataloirue of Pictures in the Hermitaire. 
 
 STL'IJV FOR THE INI-ANT S. JOHN THE DAl'TIST. 
 ('I'llc I.ullvrc.) 
 
 CHILI) I'LAYING Ul'IH A CAT. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 Sfiin/ics for the I fard of the Jiifaiil /es//s m " The ï'iroin 
 
 of the Ro(k.^.' 
 
 (■I m- r.oiîviîi..)
 
 FIKSl" IDEA fOR THE LAST SL'fPEK. 
 
 (Windsor Library.) 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 'THE LAST SUPPER 
 
 I 
 
 :) 
 
 
 FIRST IDEA FOR "THE LAST SUI'PEK. 
 
 (The Louvre ) 
 
 N the present chapter 
 1 propose to show 
 how the painter of 
 the A/oiici Lisa, the Virgin 
 of the Rocks, and the Saint 
 AiiiiL developed, by what 
 teachings of his predeces- 
 sors he profited, through 
 what intimate vicissitudes 
 his ideas passed before cul- 
 minating in the immortal 
 page of Santa Maria delle 
 Grazie. For in this, needless to say, we have no abstract and 
 artificial work, born of the caprice of an artist's imagination, but a 
 page from the book of life itself, a story that has been seen and felt, 
 a drama that has been acted. I devote myself to the " processus," 
 congratulating myself on the fact that my predecessors have confined 
 themselves to the collection of materials, and that I have the 
 pleasure of offering my readers an attempt at a co-ordination of 
 these materials, which, whatever its merit, will at least be novel. 
 
 Before entering on this analysis I would say a few words as to the 
 originality of the great picture, and its destination. 
 
 A A
 
 lyS LEONARDO DA VIXCI 
 
 The word " Cenacolo " has a certain breadth of application in IiaHan. 
 It is used indifferently for a dining-hall or refectory, for the special 
 " upper room," in which the Saviour ate the Last Supper with his 
 disciples, and for a picture representing that holy rite. The church of 
 Santa Maria delle Grazie, that masterpiece of Lombard architecture as 
 developed under the ini])Lilse given it by Bramante, was founded by 
 the Dominicans, who began to build it in 1464, on Gothic lines. The 
 work advanced slowly, and was carried on parsimoniously, until Lodo- 
 vico il Moro, who took a fancy to the building, gave orders for the 
 reconstruction of the cupola and the apse, causing the foundation stone 
 to be laid in 1492. But it was after the death of Beatrice d'Este that 
 the Milanese prince lavished gifts on his favourite church with special 
 profusion, for it was here he buried his wife and children. Not content 
 with pushing on the work vigorously, he filled the sacristy with plate 
 and costly draperies. 
 
 • The history of The Last Slipper in Santa Maria delle Grazie 
 is buried in obscurity. Wc know not when the masterpiece was begun, 
 when it was finished, nor (in my opinion, the main point of the whole 
 problem) what were the conditions which gave it birth. Let me say 
 at once, and thus make it unnecessary to come back to this question of 
 chronology, that Leonardo was at work upon it in 1497, and that he 
 finished it in that year.^ 
 
 The refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie forms a very long and 
 fairly high rectangle, vaulted by means of demi-vaults, of which the 
 pendentives sink into the vertical walls, and give rise, at each end of the 
 room, to three demi-lunes. Square-headed windows, seven on the left, 
 four on the right, in the upper part of the wall, give a sufficient light. 
 The room is damp, and shamefully neglected ; a layer of bricks does 
 duty for flooring ; the dirty green plaster that replaces the marble inlays 
 and tapestries on the walls has scaled off in many places. The visitor 
 
 1 Early in June, 1497, Lodovico wrote to one of his agents, telling him to urge 
 Leonardo the Florentine to finish his work for the refectory of Santa Maria, and then to 
 take the decoration of the opposite wall in hand. It would be well, added the Prince, to 
 refer with him to the articles he signed, by which he engaged to finish it within a term 
 specified by himself. {Archivio storico lombardo, 1874, p. 4S4.) — Cf. Miiller-Walde, 
 Jahrbiich der kg. Kunstsammlun^cn, 1898, p. 114-115. — Leonardo's friend, Luca Pacioli, 
 speaks of the Last Supper as completely finished in his Divina Proportione, concluded in 
 December, 1497.
 
 "THE LAST SUPPER" 179 
 
 finds himself suddenly before the masterpiece 01 Leonardo and of 
 modern painting, without any of that preparation the mind receives by 
 approaching a work of art set in fit surroundings. The composition is 
 painted on the end wall ; it fills the entire width, and is thus naturally 
 enframed at either end by the return of the wall, and above, by the two 
 little vaults. 
 
 Leonardo, as I have already said, disliked working in fresco. It is 
 a process demanding a decision and rapidity utterly opposed to his 
 methods. He accordingly used oil-colour, which, in addition to its 
 other merits, had the charm of novelty to recommend it. 
 
 Before examining his work in the refectory of Santa Maria delle 
 Grazie, we must pass in review the Last Stippers by which it had been 
 preceded. For terms of comparison I may take those by Giotto, 
 Andrea del Castagno, Ghirlandajo, and the unknown painter of the 
 monastery of Sant' Onofrio at Florence. 
 
 As Burckhardt has well observed, representations of this sacred 
 feast include two distinct motives, the institution of the Eucharist, and 
 the solemn declaration made by Christ to his apostles : " Unus 
 vestrum . . . . " one of you shall betray me. 
 
 In Giotto's Last Supper, in the Arena Chapel at Padua, the disciples 
 are placed all round the table, an arrangement which practically 
 suppresses three of the number, their backs being turned to the 
 spectator. By an arrangement no less curious— I refrain from applying 
 the word comic, even to the oversight of such a master as Giotto — the 
 haloes of these three are placed, not behind their heads, but in front of 
 their faces, making it impossible for them to see what was happening 
 before them. Action — of which Giotto was generally so lavish — there 
 is none ; not a gesture, not a movement ; the disciples look inquiringly 
 at one another. That is the whole drama, a very negative one, 
 as we see. A fresco of the school of Giotto, in the cloister of 
 Santa Croce at Florence, shows greater skill in the arrangement, 
 and more animation. We note certain reminiscences of the triclinia 
 of the ancients, and one very touching motive, the beloved disciple 
 leaning his head on Jesus' breast — (" discipulus recumbens in sinu 
 Jesu ; " S. John xiii, 23). 
 
 A work that comes much nearer to Leonardo's masterpiece, and 
 
 A A 2
 
 i8o 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 is, in fact, its truc prototype in many respects, is the Last Supper 
 painted by the harsh and gloomy Andrea del Castagno in the refec- 
 tory of the convent oi" Sant' Apollonia at I'Morence. The figures are 
 placed in a setting ot severe architecture inlaid with marbles ; a 
 monumental bench or seat surrounds the table. The personages gain 
 greatly in vigour and in dignity by this arrangement of the back- 
 ground. In the centre, Christ raises his hand in benediction ; beside 
 him is the beloved disciple in the traditional attitude, his head leaning 
 on the table ; opposite is Judas, startled and trembling. One of the 
 
 LODOVICO IL MORO GRANTING A CHARTED TO THE TRIOR OF SANTA MARIA DFI.LK GRAZIE. 
 Miniature from the collection of llie Marquis of -Adda at Milan.) 
 
 Other disciples — the prototype of the third apostle from the end on the 
 right in Leonardo's painting — opens his hands, as if in amazement, 
 vk'hile one of his neighbours clenches his ; a third drops his head on 
 his hand, as if bowed down by the fatal discovery ; others whisper 
 their suspicions to one another, or ponder over the matter in silence. 
 The action is of the liveliest ; it abounds in life-like traits, and bears 
 witness to rare faculties of observation. The figures themselves are 
 grave, austere, almost grandiose. It is the composition which is the 
 weak spot in this important work, a work that was undoubtedly known 
 to Leonardo, for he imitated it. Andrea has isolated the actors, in-
 
 1 82 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Stead of welding them together in harmonious groups ; and has thus 
 sacrificed both variety of line and richness of combination. In spite 
 of this, his fresco, a work too little known, is the one that comes nearest 
 to Leonardo's masterpiece. 
 
 With Domenico Ghirlandajo's fresco, in the convent of San Marco 
 at Florence, we return to the vagaries of the Primitives. The group- 
 ing is faulty to a degree. The apostles at the end of the table are 
 huddled together, those near Jesus are too far apart ; the stooping 
 figure of S. John leaves an unpleasant void in the composition, which 
 Judas, vi^ho is placed opposite, on the outside of the table, fills but im- 
 perfectly. The general lack of animation and unity aggravates this 
 initial fault ; the majority of the apostles know not what to think, still 
 less what to say. One clasps his hands and raises his eyes to heaven ; 
 another throws back the folds of his toga with an unmeaning gesture ; 
 not one among them shows any vigour, not to say eloquence. Ghir- 
 landajo, indeed, seems to have depicted the institution of the Eucharist 
 (" Dispono vobis sicut ....') rather than the revelation of Judas' 
 treachery. 
 
 A Last Slipper contemporary with Leonardo's adorns the refectory 
 of the monastery of Sant' Onofrio at Florence. Certain accomplished 
 critics, M. Vitet among the number, have attributed it to Raphael, but 
 on insufficient grounds. It is a timid work, and but for the youth- 
 ful grace of expression in some of the heads, one might describe it as 
 childish, so naively does the painter's inexperience betray itself in 
 the dramatic conception of the subject. The beloved apostle, his head 
 on the table, appears to be sleeping ; thus one actor disappears ; 
 another pours himself out some wine ; the rest look calmly in front of 
 them. As to Judas, he is placed, as usual, on the near side of the table, 
 opposite to Jesus. We look in vain for men who show traces of 
 astonishment, indignation, or grief ; all we see are personages — and 
 even this is almost too emphatic a term for them — without elevation 
 and without character. I pass over the other faults of the composi- 
 tion, the absence of grouping, the distraction caused by the portrayal 
 of the subordinate incident in the background — Christ on the Mount 
 of Olives — the introduction of movable discs, detaching themselves 
 in the most puerile fashion on the chancel enframing the principal
 
 VIII 
 
 " The Last Supper." 
 
 (RKPKCIOHV OK SANl-A MAKIA IIKI.LK »;KA/IK, MILAN.
 
 "THE LAST SUPPER" 183 
 
 picture. In short, it is only too evident that we need not seek either 
 prototype or pendant for the miracle of Santa Maria delle Grazie in 
 this feeble work. 
 
 In his religious compositions, Leonardo, it must be admitted, was 
 given to straying a little from his theme. The Virgin of the Rocks, 
 the Adoration of the 3/agi, the John the Baptist, astonish and charm 
 us beyond measure ; but they hardly tend to edify us in the same 
 degree. In his Last Supper, on the other hand, the master attacked 
 the problem from the front, without circumlocution or subterfuge, 
 determined to restrict himself to the gospel story, and to look to the 
 subject itself for all it could offer. Hence it is that the painting in 
 Santa Maria delle Grazie may be classed with Raphael's cartoons, 
 as a work breathing forth the purest evangelic spirit, a work before 
 which believers of every creed love to meditate, and in admiration of 
 which they find a stimulus to faith. 
 
 No picture was ever lingered over more lovingly. It had matured 
 
 in the artist's mind long before his hand began to translate the image 
 
 engraven on his brain. Leonardo thought of it day and nio-ht ; he 
 
 rigorously applied this maxim of the Trattato delta Pittnra (cap. 
 
 xvii.) : "It is useful to go over in one's mind at night the thino-s one 
 
 has studied. I have also found it very useful," he adds, " when in 
 
 bed, in the silence of the night, to recall the ideas of things one has 
 
 studied and drawn, to retrace the contours of the figures that demand 
 
 most reflection and application. By this means, the images of objects 
 
 become more vivid, the impression they have made is fortified, and 
 
 rendered more permanent." So great was his power of evocation, 
 
 that when absent from his work, he suddenly saw the features, the 
 
 characteristics required for such and such figures. Eager to fix the 
 
 image that was in his mind, he would run in haste to the refectory to 
 
 make the necessary corrections, and then return to his business or his 
 
 walk. The anecdote told in this connection by Matteo Bandello, the 
 
 skilful bishop-diplomatist, and licentious author of the Navette, is very 
 
 instructive : " In the time of Lodovico Sforza Visconti, Duke of Milan, 
 
 certain gentlemen, visiting Santa Maria delle Grazie, the monastery of 
 
 the Dominican friars, stood motionless in contemplation before the 
 
 marvellous and celebrated Last Szipper, on which the excellent
 
 ■84 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Florentine painter, Leonardo da Vinci, was then working. The 
 artist took pleasure in hearing eacli one freely express his opinion of 
 the work. It was his habit, as I myself was witness on several 
 occasions, to mount the scaffolding before it (for the painting is at 
 some considerable height above the ground) and to remain, brush in 
 hand, from sunrise to sunset, forgetting to eat and drink, and painting 
 without intermission. Sometimes, after this, he would be three or 
 four days together without touching it, and yet he would stay before 
 
 ^<£^^^<^<r^^^^-^^^^^|^|g^^g^^^^^^^^;;^g^:^^;7;^^;^ 
 
 ■THE LAST SUPPER, IÎV ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO. 
 
 (Convent of S. Apollonia :it Florence ) 
 
 it an hour or two every day, contemplating it, considering and ex- 
 amining the figures he had created. I have also seen him, following 
 the dictates of fancy or of eccentricity, start off at midday, when the 
 sun was in the sign of the Lion, from the Corte Vecchia, where he was 
 modelling his marvellous equestrian statue, and go straight to the 
 monastery, where, mounting the scaffold, he would seize his brush, 
 give a touch or two to one of the figures, and then depart and go 
 elsewhere." ^ 
 
 ' Leonardo seems to draw ui)on his own experience in a passage of the Trattato delta 
 Pittura (cap. Ivi.) in wliich he says : " Do not act after the manner of some painters, who, 
 finding their imagination fatigued, leave their work, and take exercise by walking ; they 
 carry away with them a weariness of mind that prevents tliem fiom .seeing or hearing the 
 friends and relatives they meet." ... Is there not a striking analogy between this 
 passage and Bandello's anecdote ?
 
 THK I,AST SUPPER' 
 
 185 
 
 " Cardinal dc Gurck was lorlgcrl at the Monastery dellc Grazie at the 
 time ; ^ he entered the refectory at the moment when the gentlemen 
 in question were assembled before the painting. As soon as Leonardo 
 perceived him, he came down to pay his respects to him, and the 
 prelate received him graciously, and loaded him with praise. Many 
 subjects were discussed, notably the excellence of the painting ; several 
 of those present expressed regret that none of the ancient pictures so 
 highly extolled by classic writers had survived, that we might decide 
 
 FIRST IDEA FOR " THE LAST SUl'PER."' 
 
 (Accademia, Venice.) 
 
 whether the masters of our time were equal to those of antiquity. 
 The cardinal asked the painter what salary the Duke gave him. 
 Leonardo replied that his regular pay was 2,000 ducats, apart from the 
 gifts and presents the Duke continually lavished on him with the 
 g-reatest munificence. The cardinal said it was a oreat deal. After he 
 had quitted the refectory, Leonardo began to tell the assembled gentle- 
 men a pretty story, showing how great painters have been honoured in 
 all ages, and I, being present during his discourse, made a note of it in 
 
 ' Cardinal de Gurck \isitcd Milan in January, 1497, and lodged at the monastery. 
 Signer Uzielli infers that the /-ast Supper was finished by then. {Leonardo da Vinci e ire 
 Gentildonne milanesi del Secolo xv., p. 5.) 
 
 B B
 
 i86 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 my memory, and had it present in my mind when I began to write my 
 Noveller 
 
 Tradition says the Prior tormented Leonardo unceasingly to get the 
 painting finished promptly. " This simple person could in no way 
 comprehend," says Vasari, " wherefore the artist should sometimes 
 remain half a day together absorbed in thought before his work, 
 without making any progress that he could see ; he would have had him 
 work away as did the men who were digging in his garden, never 
 laying the brush aside. Nay, more ; he went and complained to the 
 Duke, and with such importunity, that the latter was at length 
 compelled to send for Leonardo. Lodovico very adroitly exhorted 
 Leonardo to finish the work, taking care to let it be seen that he had 
 only acted on the solicitations of the Prior. Leonardo, knowing the 
 prince to be intelligent and judicious, discoursed with him at some 
 length on the matter, talking of art, and making him understand that 
 men of genius are sometimes producing most when they seem to be 
 labouring least, their minds being occupied in invention, and in the 
 formation of those perfect conceptions to which they afterwards give 
 form and expression with the hand. He added that he still had two 
 heads to execute : that of Christ, which he could not hope to find on 
 earth, and yet had not attained the power of presenting to himself in 
 imagination, with that perfection of beauty and of celestial grace 
 proper to the Godhead incarnate ; and that of Judas, which also gave 
 him much anxiety, since he could not imagine a form by which to 
 render the countenance of a man, who, after so many benefits received, 
 had a heart so base as to be capable of betraying his Lord, and the 
 Creator of the world. With regard to the second, however, he would 
 continue to make search ; and, after all, if he could find no better, he 
 might always make use of the head of that indiscreet and importunate 
 Prior. This last touch made the Duke laugh heartily ; he declared 
 Leonardo to be completely in the right ; and the poor Prior, utterly 
 confounded, henceforth occupied himself in overlooking the workers in 
 his garden, and left Leonardo in peace." We know, however, that 
 Lodovico was at last obliged himself to press the over-fastidious artist. 
 On June 30, 1497, he ordered one of his agents "to beg Leonardo 
 the Florentine to finish his work in the refectory of Santa Maria
 
 9 
 Stiidy foi' the Head of ait Apostle. 
 
 (WINDSOR I.inRARV ) ,
 
 Printed by Draeger, Paris
 
 STUDIES FOR THE "LAST SUPPER" 187 
 
 delle Grazie." " The master finished the Virgin (this is a slip of 
 Vasari's, for there is no Virgin in the Last Sitpper) and Judas, a 
 perfect type of treachery and cruehy. As to the head of Christ, he 
 left it unfinished. 
 
 Another sixteenth century writer, the Milanese Lomazzo, has 
 completed Vasari's story by explaining why Leonardo left the head of 
 the principal figure unfinished. After endowing the two saints, James 
 the Greater and the Less, with the beauty we still admire, even in the 
 ruin to which the Ccnacolo is reduced, Leonardo, despairing of render- 
 ing the head of Christ in accordance with his ideal, took counsel with 
 his old friend Zenale, who made this memorable speech to him : 
 " Leonardo, the fault thou hast committed is one of which God only 
 can absolve thee. It is of a truth impossible to conceive of faces more 
 lovely and gentle than those of S. James the Greater and S. James 
 the Less. Accept thy misfortune, therefore, and leave thy Christ 
 imperfect as he is, for otherwise, when compared with the apostles, 
 he would not be their Saviour or their Master." Leonardo took 
 his advice, and this is why the head of Christ was left a mere 
 sketch. ^ 
 
 The drawings for the Last Supper are few in number, and 
 yet its process of evolution, as everything tends to show, was 
 laborious in the extreme. I will mention one study only for the 
 general arrangement, a sketch in the Louvre, which shows us lour 
 persons seated at table ; one seems to be accusing another, with 
 outstretched finger ; the accused meets the accuser's gaze steadily ; 
 the two others listen untlinchingly ; a fifth mounts on the table as 
 if to protest. 
 
 In a drawinof in red chalk in the Accademia at Venice, a mediocre, 
 yet perfectly genuine work, the composition is more vivacious and less 
 rhythmical than in the painting. Judas is seated at the outer side of 
 the table ; the beloved disciple rests his head on the cloth, making a 
 vacuum in the grouping, the others gesticulate and declaim. The 
 apostle last but one on the right is the only one to undergo little, if any 
 modification. As to the Saviour himself, his face and attitude are alike 
 
 ^ Does not this incident recall the story of Tinianthes, who, despairing of rendering the 
 grief of Agamemnon at the sacrifice of I]>higenia, veiled his face? 
 
 U B 2
 
 i88 
 
 LEONARDO DA \INCI 
 
 unremarkable. A little lower down is a study of Christ seated, his 
 left hand outstretched, the first Hnger pointing to a dish, his right 
 laid upon his breast with a somewhat theatrical gesture. We may 
 mention that both in his studies for the Adoration of the Magi and 
 for the Last Supper, Leonardo drew his figures naked, in order to 
 observe the play of movements, just as he drew nearly all the 
 apostles without beards, the better to note the play of facial expres- 
 sion. This sketch 
 shows through how- 
 many stages the com- 
 position passed before 
 completion. 
 
 These drawingfs are 
 followed by notes, in 
 which Leonardo indi- 
 cates the attitude he 
 intends to give to each 
 apostle: 'One, in the 
 act of drinking, puts 
 down his glass, and 
 turns his head to the 
 speaker ; another, twist- 
 ing his fingers together, 
 turns to his companion, 
 knitting his eyebrows ; 
 another, opening his 
 hands, and turnino- the 
 palms towards the spectator, shrugs his sholders, his mouth ex- 
 pressing the liveliest surprise ; another whispers in the ear of a 
 companion, who turns to listen, holding in one hand a knife, and in 
 the other the loaf he has cut in two ; another, turning with a knife in 
 his hand, upsets a glass upon the table ; another rests his hands upon 
 the table, and looks ; another, gasps in amazement ; another leans 
 forward to look at the speaker, shading his eyes with his hand ; 
 another, drawing back behind the one who leans forward, looks into 
 the space between the wall and the stooping disciple." 
 
 STUDY FOK THE HEAD OF JUDAS. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 STUDIES FOR "THE LAST SUPPER" 
 
 189 
 
 Comparing this project with tlie painting, we see that, as at first 
 conceived, the Last Supper contained a number of reahstic motives, 
 perhaps rather over-famiUar for so solemn a theme. As he pro- 
 gressed, the artist gradually abandoned them. Thus, he suppressed 
 the gesture by which one of the apostles put down the glass from 
 which he had begun to drink, and the gesture of the apostle holding 
 a loaf he had cut in two. Of the two knives spoken of in the note, 
 
 STUDY FOR THE ARM OF S. I'ETEK. 
 
 (Windsor Library.) 
 
 only one appears in the painting, in the hand of S. Peter. There 
 is no apostle shading his eyes with his haml, either. In short, the 
 action, though less lively and dramatic, becomes more imposing, and 
 gains in elevation. 
 
 A drawing in the Windsor Library, in which a disciple shades his 
 eyes with his hand, is undoubtedly connected with this design. It 
 further contains S. John, his head on the tablecloth, and another 
 apostle who approaches Jesus with a reverent inclination of the body.
 
 I go LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Leonardo, we must conclude, had for a time some thought of 
 representing the institution of the Eucharist, a theme often treated 
 by the Byzantines, and one which Justus of Ghent had ilUis- 
 trated a year or two before in a picture he painted for the Duke of 
 Urbino. 
 
 A sketch on the same sheet, the intention of which it is difficult 
 to seize, shows a group of ten persons at table, and Judas placed alone 
 on the opposite side, as if he were already excluded from intercourse 
 with the other disciples. A little later Leonardo broke away from 
 tradition on this point. Instead of following the example of his 
 predecessors and isolating Judas on one side of the table, like a 
 diseased sheep, he conceived the more dramatic idea of placing him 
 side by side with his victim ; from this proximity he evolved a motive of 
 the most poignant mimetic expression : the explosion of surprise and 
 indignation among the disciples at the Master's revelation of the 
 treachery among them. 
 
 We may sum up by saying that the primitive conception of the 
 scene was more or less violent ; the master gradually tempered and 
 disciplined his action, and it is the expression of condensed and latent 
 power in his final rendering to which he owes his most brilliant 
 triumph. 
 
 Sketches for single figures follow on those for the composition as a 
 whole. The majority are in the royal collection at Windsor. I may 
 first call attention to a study in red chalk for the head of the apostle on 
 the extreme left ; the beard is as yet short and slight (no. 8) ; another 
 drawing in the same medium (no. g), a head in profile to the right, is a 
 study for the beardless apostle on the right, the third from the end, who 
 holds out both hands towards the Saviour. (There are also certain 
 points of resemblance here to the apostle on the extreme left of the 
 composition.) The red chalk drawing (no. lo) is a beardless head in 
 profile to the right ; it is for one of the apostles on the left. No. 1 1 is 
 apparently the same head, rather older. The attitude is identical with 
 that of Judas in the painting, and there can be little doubt that this 
 study was the master's first thought for this justly famous type. A 
 drawing in black chalk (no. 1 7) is another head, of an energetic 
 cast, in profile to the right, with crisp, curling hair, and a short
 
 IX 
 Study for the Head of Christ. 
 
 '(thf nkKK \. Mil *v.)
 
 P-.n-.fd bv Wi-'.-r^An" Pa- =. (' Fr.
 
 "THE LAST SUPPER" tgi 
 
 beard. It is for the apostle last, or last but one, on the right. The 
 master, as we see by these various examples, ^ experimented as 
 freely in his choice of types as in the general arrangement of his 
 composition. 
 
 Various critics have attempted to identify the twelve disciples ; 
 but save in the cases of three or four, their conjectures seem to 
 have been pure hypothesis. Leonardo himself noted the names of 
 each person on the red chalk drawing in the Accademia at Venice ; 
 but he only introduced one or two of these figures in the painting 
 itself.-^ 
 
 The perfection of grouping achieved in the Last Supper would of 
 itself be sufficient to mark an epoch in the annals of painting. Its ease 
 and rhythm are indescribable, The figures, placed on two planes in 
 perspective, are further arranged in groups of three, with the exception 
 of Christ, who, isolated in the centre, dominates the action. Eight of 
 the apostles are in profile, three three-quarters to the front ; Jesus and 
 S. John face the spectator. The skill and knowledge necessary to 
 bring these trios of heads into relation one with another, to animate the 
 groups without destroying their balance, to vary the lines without 
 detracting from their harmony, and finally to connect the various 
 groups, were so tremendous, that neither reasoning nor calculation 
 could have solved a problem so intricate ; but for a sort of divine 
 inspiration, the most gifted artist would have failed. I may add that 
 the most perfect sense of line and mass would have proved insufficient 
 without an equally perfect knowledge of chiaroscuro and of aerial 
 perspective, for some of the juxtapositions — that, for instance, of the 
 
 ^ The drawings in the Grand Ducal collection at Weimar (heads of apostles), I take 
 to be, not studies for the Last Supper, but drawings made from it, and, consequently, not 
 by Leonardo's hand. They are the subject of an article by B. Stark in the Deutsches 
 Kunstblatt of 1852 and of articles by Messrs. Frizzoni, Dehio, etc., and are said to have 
 come from the Arconati collection, whence they passed into that of the Zeni family, of 
 Venice. They were bought by the English Consul, Outry, and crossing the Channel, 
 successively formed part of the Lawrence and of the Woodburn collections, before they 
 were bought by the King of Holland. 
 
 * The following are the names adopted by Bossi : To the right of Christ, starting 
 from the centre : S. John, Judas, SS. Peter, Andrew, James the Less, and Bartholomew ; 
 to the left (also from the centre) ; S. James the Greater, throwing out his arms as if in 
 amazement, SS. Thomas, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon. Note that these 
 identifications are the same as those inscribed on the old copy at Ponle Capriasco.
 
 192 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 head facing three quarters to the front, reHeved against a head in 
 profile are too daring to have l)een successfully attemjjted hy means 
 of mere draughtsmanshi[) or linear perspective. 
 
 The way was ojjened at last ; Raphael was not slow to follow in 
 the footsteps of Leonardo the i)ionecr, whose worthy rival he proved 
 
 himself, first in the 
 Dispiitc of the Sacra- 
 ment, and afterwards in 
 the School of Athens. 
 
 The anecdotes re- 
 lated by Bandello, 
 Vasari, and Lomazzo 
 might lead us to sup- 
 pose that Leonardo in- 
 troduced portraits in the 
 Last Snpper. But this 
 was not the case. The 
 master, no doubt, relied 
 to some extent on living 
 models for the general 
 lines of his types ; but 
 he was too complete an 
 idealist to content him- 
 self with what he looked 
 upon as the first por- 
 tion only of his task, a 
 work of preparation. Hence, with the exception of two or three 
 types, in which certain popular traits are noticeable, all the heads 
 have been subjected to a long and elaborate process of assimilation 
 and arrangement, with the result that we see before us, not mere 
 representatives of the Milanese race, but citizens of the world. Nor 
 did Leonardo lay his predecessors under contribution ; there is only 
 one head, perhaps, that of the second apostle from the end on the 
 right (S. Thaddeus), with its marked Semitic type and floating hair, 
 which recalls some model of the school of Giotto or of Siena. 
 
 The dominant notes in all these faces are virility, breadth, gravity. 
 
 STL'D\' FOU THK HEAD OF S. MATTHi:u, 
 
 (Windsor Library.
 
 "THE LAST SUPPER" 
 
 193 
 
 conviction. They indicate free and upright natures, men who have a 
 perfect consciousness of their feelings, and are ready to accept the 
 responsibility for their actions. Energy and loyalty are stamped on 
 every feature. The master has given a great variety of types. (I am 
 speaking less of physical differences, such as the crisp, waving, or 
 curly hair of the various heads, than of moral divergencies.) In some, 
 plain fishermen trans- 
 formed into missionaries, 
 he has preserved the 
 rudeness proper to their 
 former calling. Of this 
 class is the apostle to 
 the left of Jesus, who 
 extends his arms and 
 opens his mouth to ex- 
 press his stupefaction. 
 To others — as, for in- 
 stance, the old man with 
 a long beard on the left, 
 he has given a patri- 
 archal majesty; to others 
 again — such as the be- 
 loved disciple and S. 
 Philip — the sweetness of 
 the " quattrocento " ado- 
 lescent, with the resig- 
 nation of the Christian convert. Judas, with his hooked nose, his bold 
 forehead, his admirably defined silhouette, is a perfect type of the 
 malefactor. It would be impossible to imagine anything more 
 dramatic than these contrasts. 
 
 How little affinity was there between such a conception and the 
 delicate refinements and elegances of II Moro's Court! What power 
 and vigour breathe from these actors in a drama which, overflowing the 
 boundaries of its narrow Milanese environment, has thrilled humanity 
 for four centuries ! 
 
 If we turn to expression and gesture, we must again do homage to 
 
 c c 
 
 STLUV 1-uK THE HEAD OF S. PHILIP. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 194 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 the master's extraordinary perception of dramatic effect. The Saviour 
 has just uttered the fateful words : " One of you shall betray me," with 
 sublime resignation. In a moment, as by an electric shock, he has 
 excited the most diverse emotions among the disciples, according to 
 the character of each. One rises, as if asking his Master to repeat the 
 accusation, for as yet he can scarcely believe his ears ; another 
 shudders in horror ; those who are placed farther from Jesus com- 
 municate their impressions one to another ; S. James the Greater 
 stretches out his arms as if in amazement; S. Thomas, his forefinger 
 uplifted, threatens the unknown traitor ; S. Philip, rising, and laying 
 both hands on his breast, cries in anguish : " Master, is it I ? " Doubt, 
 surprise, distrust, indignation, are manifested by ineffable traits. Souls 
 vibrate in unison, from one end of the table to the other. But it was 
 necessary to mingle lighter notes in the epic concert, in order to 
 emphasise this outburst of generous feeling. Judas, leaning comfort- 
 ably on his elbow, the money-bag in his right hand, his left opening as 
 if involuntarily when he hears his treachery unmasked, is the personifi- 
 cation of the hardened villain, who has justified his crime in his own 
 mind, and is bent on carrying it through to the end. S. John, his head 
 bowed, his clasped hands on the table, is a perfect type of supreme 
 devotion, gentleness, and faith. 
 
 Inspiration, or the most prodigious experimental knowledge, which- 
 ever term we may elect to use — and, in Leonardo's case, it is difficult 
 to say which would be the more exact — is apparent even in the details 
 generally sacrificed by the most famous artists. " Looking at the 
 hands alone," says Burckhardt, " we feel as if painting had slumbered 
 hitherto, and had suddenly awakened." Since the time of Giotto, the 
 great dramatist, no such important attempt to translate the passions of 
 the soul by means of gesture had been made. Leonardo, indeed, does 
 not make us hear the cries of mothers, whose infants have been torn 
 from them by Herod's executioners, or of the damned, tormented by 
 demons in hell. His subject demanded treatment less violent than 
 these. But with what consummate art he renders all the intricacies of 
 feeling! How full of delicate gradation and reticence is his pantomime, 
 entirely free though it is from artificiality ! How fully we feel the artist's 
 mastery of his subject, nay, more, his perfect participation in the
 
 Head of S. John. An Early Copy from " The Last 
 
 Supper^ 
 
 (WKIMAK MISUUM.)
 
 BLENDING OF IDEALISM AND REALISM 195 
 
 sentiments with which he endows his characters ! For the Last Supper 
 is more than a miracle of art. Leonardo's heart and soul had as great 
 a part in it as his imagination and his intellect. Without such partici- 
 pation, can any work of art live ? ^ 
 
 While affirming the principles of idealism throughout the whole of 
 his work, Leonardo has nevertheless endeavoured to give his composi- 
 tion all the appearance of reality. Fearing to fall into abstraction, he 
 has multiplied the details that give an illusion of life. With what care 
 he has painted all the accessories of the frugal banquet ! The table is 
 laid with dishes, bowls, bottles, glasses that give an opportunity for the 
 play of varied light, rolls of bread, fruit — pears and apples, some with 
 a leaf still clinging to the stalk. Making a concession to the conven- 
 tions of his day, he has not forgotten the salt-cellar overturned by 
 Judas. He has treated the table-cloth itself with the utmost care, 
 marking the folds of the damask, the pattern at the ends, the four 
 knotted corners. It is to this minute observation, which a modern 
 master of style would despise, and which Leonardo had learnt from 
 the Primitives, that the picture owes its convincing quality. It 
 was because he had gauged and probed the mass of detail 
 involved in such a problem to its depths, that Leonardo was able 
 to simplify and to condense when necessary, without becoming merely 
 declamatory. 
 
 The mise-en-scène increases the illusion, besides adding greatly to 
 the effect of the composition. It is a large room, extremely simple 
 in line ; the walls to right and left are decorated with four panels of 
 
 1 In the Trattato della Pittura, cap. 368, et seq., Leonardo the theorist has 
 formulated the rules applied by Leonardo the painter in the Last Supper : 
 
 " How the arms and hands should reveal the intention of the actor in every movement. 
 The arms and hands should manifest the actor's intention as far as possible ; he who 
 feels keenly constantly uses them to enforce what his soul would express. When good 
 orators wish to persuade those who listen to them, they always have recourse to their 
 arms and hands to emphasise their words. True, there are fools who despise this 
 resource. Seeing them in the tribune, we might suppose them to be wooden statues, 
 through whose mouths the voice of some speaker hidden behind passes. This is a grave 
 defect in real persons, still graver in those represented by art. For if their author does 
 not give them lively gestures, corresponding to their parts, they are doubly dead, firstly 
 because they have no life in reality, and secondly, because their attitude is lifeless. But 
 to return to our subject : I shall treat below of certain motions of the soul, namely, 
 of anger, pain, fear, sudden terror, grief, flight or precipitation, authority, sloth, 
 diligence, &c." 
 
 C C 2
 
 196 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 brownish tapestry, of a very simple pattern, enframed in mouldings 
 of white stone. The wall at the end is broken by three square- 
 headed windows, the central one surmounted by a semi-circular 
 pediment ; through these windows we sec an undulating landscape, 
 with scattered buildings, and distant blue mountains. An open 
 timbered ceiling completes the architecture of the room, which 
 has a monumental aspect, in spite of its severity. There is not 
 
 'the last SUl'PEK." LEFT SIDE. (iN ITS I'RESENT STATE.) 
 
 an ornament, not a fragment of sculpture, to divert attention from 
 the action. 
 
 Leonardo was undoubtedly the advocate of a rigorous delimitation 
 in the various branches of art. It would be difficult otherwise to 
 explain why he, familiar as he was with all the laws of architecture, 
 should have excluded from his pictures those architectural back- 
 grounds and views of buildings so admirably calculated to enhance 
 their effect. Perhaps no other artist, with the exception of Brunel- 
 lesco, Piero della Francesca, and Mantegna, had worked out the laws
 
 ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUNDS IN ART 
 
 197 
 
 of linear perspective with equal ardour. It would, therefore, have 
 been easy for him to have brought the various planes of his composi- 
 tions into relief by the introduction of buildings. But the only works 
 in which we find him making use of this artifice are the Last Slipper 
 and the cartoon for the Adoration of the Magi ; in the latter, only for 
 the background. To this artistic scruple, Leonardo's easel pictures 
 no doubt owe much of their freedom ; but, on the other hand, it has 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER." KIGHT SIDE. (IN ITS PRESENT ST.\TE.) 
 
 deprived them of many beauties. It is evident that the innumerable 
 devices of linear perspective, the art of bringing figures, buildings, and 
 ornament into relief by their inter-relation, enabled Mantegna to give 
 to decorative painting a vigour, a wealth of combination, unknown 
 before his time ; that the progress thus achieved was carried further 
 still by the Venetians, notably by Paolo Veronese, the successor of 
 Mantegna in this domain ; and that it was finally brought to perfection 
 in the seventeenth century by the great Rubens, in his turn the 
 artistic offspring of Veronese. Leonardo, however, seems to have
 
 içS LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 had too deep a veneration for the human form to subordinate it to 
 the exigencies of any architect, even such an architect as his rival 
 Bramante.' 
 
 The Last Supper has undergone so many sacrilegious mutilations 
 that it is, unhappily, no longer possible to judge of its technical quality. 
 I must be content to say that the general tone was limpid, sunny, and 
 exquisitely delicate. The master made use of simple tones only, but 
 these he varied agreeably. Most of the figures wear a red robe and a 
 blue mantle, or " vice versa ; " but among these we note yellow tunics, 
 green mantles, green tunics, mantles of yellowish brown, a purplish 
 tunic and mantle, and here and there, a yellowish band or border, to 
 relieve them. The costumes themselves are extremely simple, as we 
 may suppose those of Christ and his disciples to have been. They 
 consist of a toga, or rather tunic, with closely fitting sleeves, but 
 loose at the neck, and leaving the throat bare ; over this is thrown 
 a full, flowing cloak ; an uncut precious stone sometimes takes 
 the place of a brooch or fibula, and the bare feet are cased in 
 sandals. Despite this severity, the draperies are cast with con- 
 summate knowledge and perfection. Those of the Saviour are 
 especially ample and majestic. The tunic is displayed on the 
 right breast and shoulder, and the mantle is draped from the left 
 shoulder across the body, enveloping all the rest of the figure in 
 its folds. 
 
 In the Last Stippcr of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, 
 painting triumphs over the final difficulties, resolves the final problems 
 of aesthetics and of technique. Leonardo had realised his ideal, 
 whether we judge of his work by its arrangement of line and mass, 
 its colour, its movement, its treatment of drapery, or its dramatic ex- 
 pression. Alas ! the master's triumph was short-lived. Incalculable 
 disasters were soon to burst upon his protector and his fellow-citizens. 
 But let us not anticipate events. For a moment, we may linger in 
 
 1 Leonardo protests against exuberance of ornament in the Trattato delta Pittura 
 (cap. 182) : " In historical compositions," he says, "do not add to the figures and other 
 objects ornaments so numerous that they injure the form and attitude of the figures, and 
 the reality (' I'essentia') of the objects."
 
 IMITATIONS OF "THE LAST SUPPER" 199 
 
 delighted contemplation of Leonardo's masterpiece in all the plenitude 
 of its splendour.^ 
 
 Innumerable copies, Italian, French, Flemish, and German, attest 
 the admiration excited by the work. One of Leonardo's pupils, Marco 
 d'Oggiono, made a sort of speciality of reproductions of the Last 
 Supper ; others copied it in tapestry, marble, and metal. Raphael was 
 inspired by it in a drawing now in the Albertina : the apostle who 
 presses his hands against his breast as if protesting his innocence, was 
 obviously suggested by Leonardo's composition, though the figure falls 
 far short of its prototype. Indeed, the work throughout is summary; 
 the groups are ill distributed, as compared with the rich and varied 
 arrangement of Leonardo's masses ; rhythm and vigour are alike 
 wanting. The Christ is insignificant, and lacking in majesty. The 
 two most satisfactory figures are those of the disciples on either side of 
 the Saviour, questioning him, their hands on their hearts. We cannot 
 but feel that where Leonardo triumphed, even a Raphael could not 
 compete with him. A little later, Andrea del Sarto paid his tribute of 
 admiration to Leonardo in his fresco at San Salvi, as did Holbein in 
 his picture in the Basle Museum. 
 
 But the superiority of the Last Supper- at Milan was incontestable. 
 
 1 The Last Supper underwent innumerable vicissitudes. Louis XII. was so struck 
 by its beauty that he determined to remove it to France. He sought everywhere for 
 architects who would undertake to construct a framework of wooden or iron battens by 
 means of which it might be taken from the wall without accident, and shrank from no 
 expense, so great was his desire to possess it. But as the painting adhered obstinately to 
 the wall, " His Majesty, according to the testimony of Paolo Giovio and of Vasari, was 
 obliged to carry his desires away with him, and to leave the painting to the Milanese." The 
 process of which Leonardo had made use was so defective that three parts of the work 
 may be said to have been destroyed by the middle of the sixteenth century. Vasari, who 
 saw it in 1566, laments the ruin to which it was already reduced, as does also Lomazzo. 
 In 1652, the incredible atrocity was perpetrated, by which the legs of the figures were; rut 
 away to make a door ! In 1726, the work was restored, orrather re painted, by Bellotto ; 
 in 1770, by Mazzo ; and it was probably subjected to the desecration of some miserable 
 dauber of our own century. During the Revolution, the refectory was converted into a 
 forage store and stable ! For the various restorations the painting has undergone, see 
 Bossi's Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Fi'««' (Milan, 18 10), and Stendhal's Z^M/wV^ de la 
 Peinture en Italie, ed. 1868, p. 150-151. 
 
 Leonardo further painted portraits of Lodovico il Moro, wiih his eldest son Maximilian^ 
 and of Beatrice, with her second son, Francesco, in the refectory of Santa Maria delle 
 Grazie, on either side of Montorfano's Crucifixion. Vasari, who has been unjustly accused 
 of not having appreciated the genius of his illustrious countryman, speaks of these 
 portraits as truly sublime. (See p. 95.)
 
 200 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 No artist might henceforth wholly escape its fascination, though none 
 could attain to its perfection. 
 
 On several occasions Leonardo was employed on the decoration of 
 the ducal residences. 
 
 He worked principally in the famous " Castello di Porta Giovia" 
 (Gate of Jupiter, now the Vercelli Gate), in which the V'isconti had 
 
 ' THE LAST SUPPER." LEFT SIDE. (iN ITS PRESENT STA.TE.) 
 
 collected so many treasures. Destroyed in the revolution of 1447, it 
 was rebuilt by the Sforzi on a more magnificent scale than before, 
 only to be given over again to pillage. In our own times, it was 
 converted into a barrack, and was used as such till its restoration 
 was determined. The task of transforming this venerable monu- 
 ment into a central museum worthy of the city of Milan has 
 fortunately been entrusted to the eminent architect, Signor Luca 
 Beltrami. 
 
 I may here say a few words concerning this famous building,
 
 XI 
 Study for ''The Madonna Lit ta.' 
 
 (the I.OLVRII.)
 
 ' "t 
 
 Printed by Wittmann Pa-
 
 THE CASTLE OF MILAN 201 
 
 which played so great a part in the history of the Sforzi, and of 
 Leonardo.^ 
 
 Somewhat irregular in construction, the main façade, on the Piazza 
 d'Armi, is flanked at either end by a massive tower of freestone. Brick 
 is the material mainly used throughout the rest of the building. The 
 machicolated walls are pierced by windows, some pointed, some square- 
 headed. The interior, which is terribly mutilated, consists of gigantic 
 
 "THE LAST SUPPER." RIGHT SIDE. (IN ITS PRESENT STATE.) 
 
 but somewhat gloomy halls, which were converted into stables at 
 one time, and small, elegantly proportioned rooms. Semicircular arches, 
 springing from massive monolithic columns, their plinths still preserving 
 the Romanesque imprint in places, coincide with the architraves, which 
 rest on slender pillars. The capitals, many of which are very richly orna- 
 mented, are adorned with armorial shields, and devices. Here and there, 
 we find windows decorated with terra cottas, vases of flowers, etc ; but in 
 
 1 The history of the Castle has been written by Signor Casati (Jicende edilizie del 
 Castello di Milano, Milan, 1876) and by Signor Beltrami (// Castello di Milaiio, Milan, 
 1894. — Hesoconto dei Lavori di restaura esequiti al Castello di Milano, Milan, 1898.) 
 
 D D
 
 202 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 general, beauty seems to have been sacrificed to the exigencies of defence. 
 The employment of a variety of artists — Filarete, Benedetto Fcrrini, 
 Bramante, etc. — explains the irregularities of the plan. 
 
 Several sketches and notes of Leonardo's show that he occupied 
 himself with schemes for the modification of the defences, the moats, 
 bastions, etc. Among his projects was one for replacing Filarete's 
 tower by a kind of lighthouse, 1 50 metres high. We have also 
 his plans for a pavilion and baths, to be built for the Duchess in 
 the park.^ Not content with doing the work of architect and de- 
 corator, he himself made the models for the eels' heads, from which 
 hot and cold water was to flow, and even gave minute instructions 
 as to the proportions of each : three parts of hot water to one of 
 cold. The date, 1492, written at some little distance from the 
 plan of the baths, probably refers to the year of their construction. 
 
 The discovery of some fragments of frescoes in several rooms 
 of the Castle by Herr MuUer-Walde, has given rise to a good deal of 
 discussion within the last two or three years. Leonardo has been 
 suggested as the author of these decorations ; and indeed, in one of 
 his letters to Lodovico, the master himself mentions his paintings 
 in the " Camerini." ^ Here again his dilatoriness seems to have 
 annoyed his protector. At any rate, in June, 1496, there was a question 
 of some scandal caused by the painter engaged on the decoration of the 
 " Camerini," in consequence of which the said painter was forced to 
 withdraw. The Duke's secretary accordingly proposed to ask Perugino, 
 then at Venice, to finish the work. In 1497 the Duke returned 
 to the charge, and tried to persuade the authorities of Perugia to 
 
 ' Beltrami, // Castello di Milano, p. 465-477. 
 
 2 An autograph note records the details of some of the works in the Castello di Porta 
 Giovia. They belong to the domain of the decorator rather than to that of the historical 
 painter. This is the document in question : " The narrow gutter over the rooms, 30 lire ; 
 the gutter below, each square compartment, 7 lire ; cost of blue, gold, ceruse, plaster, size, 
 and glue, 3 lire ; time, three days ; histories (subjects) under these gutter.s, with their 
 pilasters, 12 lire each ; I reckon the outlay for enamel, blue, and other colours at li lire ; 
 1 reckon the days spent over the design, the little pilaster, etc., as five. Item for each 
 little vault, 7 lire. . . . The cornice under the window, 6 soldi the ' braccia.' Item for 
 24 Roman histories (i.e. classic subjects, perhaps grotesques), 10 lire," etc. . . . The 
 modest sum claimed for this last item authorises the supposition that the painting consisted 
 of small decorative motives, perhaps in camaieu (MS. H. of the Library of the Institut, 
 fol. 129™).
 
 FRESCOES IN THE CASTLE OF MILAN 203 
 
 send him their famous fellow-citizen. In April, 1498, Leonardo 
 was at work again in the "saletta negra," in accordance with the 
 programme he had elaborated in concert with the chief engineer, 
 Ambrogio Ferrario, and in the " camera grande delle asse, cioè, 
 della torre." 
 
 But to return to the recently-discovered frescoes. 
 
 The " Sala del Tesoro," which occupies the ground-floor of the 
 tower at the western angle of the Castle, contains a Merairy or Ai'gus, 
 the head of which has unfortunately disappeared.^ Around this figure 
 is painted architecture in perspective, richly decorated with consoles, 
 medallions, etc., and inscriptions : 
 
 Quod deus abstulerat tot lumina reddidit Argo, 
 Fervigil anguigerae servet ut arcis opes. 
 Adulterinœ abite claves. 
 
 In one of the medallions is a thief, crouching down, his right hand 
 in a chest ; near him, four judges, seated, one of them a bishop ; 
 further off, the Duke of Milan, enthroned between two pages. Then 
 two men, standing, one holding scales, the other, an executioner, 
 preparing to carry out the sentence. The three lay judges, according 
 to Herr Muller-Walde, recall the three figures on the left in Leonardo's 
 cartoon for the Adoration of the JSIagi, in the Uffizi. A second 
 medallion shows Mercury looking at the corpse of Argus. The figure 
 of the god, says Herr Miiller-Walde, was the prototype of the Apollo 
 in the little picture from the Moore collection, now in the Louvre ; 
 it is of a pronounced Umbrian type. - 
 
 But is it the work of Leonardo or of Bramante ? The latter 
 name was the one suggested to me the moment I looked at a 
 photograph of the fresco. The precision of the contours, and an 
 indescribable want of liberty, imagination, and fire, an indefinable 
 archaism, certainly incline me to pronounce for the great architect, 
 
 1 Beltrami, // Castello di Milano, p. 214-215. Cf. p. 197-198. — Millier- WaJde : 
 Jahrbuch der kg Kutistsammlungen, 1897: p. 111-117. 
 
 - A very useless discussion, if the fresco is not by Leonardo, has been raised as to 
 whether the central figure represented Mercury or Argus, {/atirbuc/i der kg. Kitiistsamm- 
 lungen, 1897, p. 146 (t sec/. — Novato : La Perseveranza, 24 January, 1898. — Salomon; 
 Reinach, La Chronique des Arts, 1898, p. 47. — D. Sant' Ambrogio : Lega lombarda, 4-5 ; 
 February, 1898.) 
 
 D D 2
 
 204 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 rather than for the great painter. This is also the opinion of Signer 
 Beltrami, the distinguished Milanese architect and archreologist, who 
 has directed the restoration of the Castle with so much taste, and to 
 whom I am indebted for the photograph here reproduced. My friend 
 the Baron de Geymûller, the devout and acute historian of Bramante, 
 fully confirms it, and the author of the catalogue of the exhibition 
 of Lombard Masters, held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 
 in 1898, is no less emphatic in his support. We must not forget 
 
 the inconsequences of 
 which H err Miiller- 
 Walde is guilty. He 
 attributes the sur- 
 rounding medallions 
 to Bramante, though 
 he makes Leonardo 
 the author of the 
 Mercury. Is it likely 
 that two masters, 
 each so distinguished 
 in his own line, would 
 have collaborated on 
 a purely decorative 
 piece of work ? ^ 
 
 Another room in 
 the castle, the " Sab- 
 etta Negra," is adorned with four couples of winged genii, finely 
 developed in form, and distinguished by great freedom of movement, 
 who are flying or running amidst a decoration of rich festoons. 
 Here again, Herr Muller-Walde sees the hand of Leonardo, or at 
 least, of one of his pupils. Signor Beltrami is more cautious. - For 
 
 1 It is true that a microscopic drawing in the Codex Atlanticus (fol. 94) — we give 
 Herr Mùllcr-\\';ilde all credit for having noted the fact — represents a man standing in 
 the attitude of Praxiteles' Apollo Sauroctonos, a possible link between the antique 
 marble and the fresco in the Castle at Milan. But can we infer from this that the fresco 
 was painted by Leonardo ? We might as well affirm that Leonardo was the sculptor of 
 the David, and not Michelangelo, because there is a sketch of the statue in a drawing by 
 Leonardo in the British Museum. 
 
 - // Castello di Afilaiw, p. 700-703. 
 
 IHE (.ASILE OF MILAN. FKOM A SIXTEENTH CENTUUV UKAWINU
 
 XII 
 The Madonna Lit ta." 
 
 (the MF.RMITA*;!-. S. I'KTBRSBI'RG.)
 
 PORTRAITS BY LEONARDO 
 
 20^ 
 
 
 DESIGN FOR A LIGHTHOUSE, KEHROUUCED FROM IJR. RICHTER S WOKK. 
 
 (Vallardi Collection, the Louvre.) 
 
 my own part, I am inclined to pronounce the painting a work of 
 the second quarter of the sixteenth century, by some one belonging to 
 the circle of the Campi, who was haunted by reminiscences of Luini. 
 
 The decoration of the " Sala della Torre," or " delle Asse," which we 
 know to have been undertaken by Leonardo, consists of a vast 
 interlacement (one of the master's favourite motives), forming a kind 
 of bower of branches of trees, and knots or bows. 
 
 In addition to these mural decorations, Leonardo painted a certain 
 number of easel pictures : a Nativity (which has disappeared), presented 
 by II Moro to the Emperor of Germany, and several portraits.^ 
 
 We have already men- 
 tioned the portraits of 
 Lodovico il Moro and 
 Beatrice d'Este, painted 
 opposite the Last Supper, 
 and long since destroyed. 
 Let us now consider the 
 portraits of nobles and 
 ladies of II Moro's Court. 
 
 Leonardo, as we know, 
 
 made his d<!but at that Court as a singer and lute-player. We shall 
 
 not, therefore, be surprised to find him humouring the caprices of 
 
 his patron in his artistic capacity. He readily consented to paint 
 
 ' WAzxss.%\, Documenti inediti riguardanti Leonardo da Vinci, -ç. ii. 
 
 _^m^ 
 
 PLAN' OF A PAVILION FOR THE DUCHESS OF MILAN. 
 
 (Library of the Institut de France.)
 
 2o6 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 portraits of the ducal family, legitimate and illegitimate. Two of the 
 prince's mistresses, Cecilia Gallerani and Lucrezia Crivelli, sat to him 
 in succession. 
 
 Despite II Moro's passion for her, and the dithyrambs of contem- 
 porary poets, Cecilia Gallerani's name would have been forgotten long 
 since, but for the immortality conferred on her by Leonardo's brush. 
 
 It is not known when the master painted this portrait. It was, 
 however, before 1492 ; for the Florentine poet, Bellincioni, who died 
 that year, extolled it in a sonnet rather more rugged than usual ; ^ and, 
 in a letter written in 1498, Cecilia speaks of it as having been painted 
 when she was still very young.- 
 
 What became of La Gallerani's portrait ? De Pagave says it was in 
 the Palazzo Bonesana at Milan in the seventeenth century, and that 
 Cecilia was painted with a cithar in her hand. Amoretti adds that in 
 his time there was a copy in the Milan Gallery. This copy has been 
 identified with an absolutely insignificant portrait now in the Am- 
 brosiana, known as the Lute-Player. Among other old copies, we 
 hear of one belonging to Signor Frisian! of Milan, and another in 
 the Minutoli collection, near Greifenberg in Silesia. ^ 
 
 1 Another sonnet by Bellincioni, in which the name Cecilia occurs, is said by Signor 
 Uzielli to refer, not to Cecilia Gallerani, but to some unknown namesake of hers. 
 
 - " We saw some fine portraits by Giambellino to-day,'' writes Isabella d'Este to Cecilia, 
 "and this led us to discuss Leonardo's works, and to wish we could see some, in order 
 to compare them with other pictures in our possession. We know he painted a portrait 
 of you from life, and we beg you to send us your portrait by the bearer, whom we 
 despatch for this special purpose. Besides desiring to make the comparison in question, 
 we have also a great wish to see your features. As soon as we have examined and com- 
 pared it, the picture shall be returned to you," etc. 
 
 To which Cecilia replies: "Most excellent and illustrious lady .... I have read 
 what your Highness says as to your desire to see my portrait. I send it to you, and 
 should send it even more willingly, if it were like me. Let not your Highness suppose me 
 to imi)ute any fault to the master, for I do not think his equal is to be found ; but the 
 picture was painted when I was extremely young (' in una età si imperfetta '), and my 
 face has changed so much that, seeing the portrait, and seeing me, no one would suppose 
 it to be meant for me. I beg your Highness, however, to receive this proof of my good- 
 will favourably, and not the i)ortrait alone. For I am ready to do much more to give 
 pleasure to your Highness, whose very devoted servant I am, and I commend myself a 
 thousand times to your Grace. From Milan, April 29, 149S. From your E.xcellency's 
 servant, Scicilia Visconta Bergamina." (Luzio, Archivio storico dell' Arte, 1888, p. 181.) 
 
 * Uzielli, Leonardo da Vinci e ire Gentildotine ?nilanesi. — Amoretti mentions another 
 supposed portrait of Cecilia, which belonged to the Pallavicini family of San Calocero in 
 his time. It represented a woman between thirty and forty years old. There was no
 
 "LA BELLE FERRONIÈRE" 207 
 
 But ail this is mere hypothesis, and what we really know of 
 Leonardo's portrait is summed up in Bellincione's sonnet. 
 
 The portrait of Cecilia's successor, Lucrezia Crivelli, is, according to 
 some critics, to be identified with the famous picture in the Louvre 
 known as La Belle Ferronûre. This delicate work, admirably frank 
 and firm in handling and in colour, rich and luscious as a fine 
 Ghirlandajo, is unfortunately disfigured by numerous cracks, and by 
 clumsy repaints, which have blurred it and made it heavy. Its essen- 
 tial distinction, however, has survived all ill-treatment. The costume 
 of the sitter is at once dignified and simple : she wears a bodice of a fine 
 red, slashed sleeves tied with bows of yellowish ribbon, and an em- 
 broidery of gold on a black ground as a finish to the square-cut opening 
 which displays her throat. Her jewels are a diamond or ruby, hanging 
 from a bandeau in the centre of her forehead, and a necklace ot 
 alternate black and white beads in four rows. In front of her is a 
 stone balustrade. The work has all the freshness and simplicity of the 
 Primitives, with an added grace and liberty. The eyes are large and 
 well-opened ; the carefully painted lids are somewhat heavy and 
 languid ; the mouth is sweet and noble ; the general outline full of 
 grace ; the hair is drawn down in flat bands on the temples, and the 
 whole e.xpression is serious, chaste, and timid. If this was a prince's 
 mistress, she was certainly not one of those proclamatory favourites, 
 such as the fair Catelina, who demand an endless profusion of fetes 
 and jewels. Rather was she a Marie Touchet, or a Clara (the beloved 
 of Egmont), happy in the love of a great prince, and asking neither for 
 riches nor splendour, but only for his affection.^ 
 
 Two other pictures in the Ambrosiana, one of a man, the other of 
 a woman, seem to belong to the category of official portraits. 
 
 The first, a bust three-quarters to the front, represents a beardless 
 
 lute, and the hand was occupied in arranging the folds of the dress. According to 
 Amoretti, Leonardo painted La Gallerani a third time, as Saint Cecilia, in a picture 
 which, in his time, belonged to Professor Franchi. Here again we have to deal with 
 conjectures devoid of all scientific basis. 
 
 1 The Codex Ailanticus contains three Latin epigrams of a somewhat trivial order, 
 addressed to Leonardo in praise of Lucrezia's portrait. M. Valton, one of the most 
 learned and discriminating of amateurs, calls my attention to the analogy between the 
 Louvre portrait and the medal of Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino. The head- 
 dress, among other details, is almost identical. Unfortunately, it is difficult to solve the 
 problem, the portrait being full face, and the medal a profile.
 
 208 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 man of about thirty, in a red cap and a black doublet, relieved by two 
 bands of brown. In spite of a vigour of modelling worthy of Rem- 
 brandt, the work lacks freedom and individuality. The expression 
 
 is sullen. The painter 
 seems to have taken little 
 pleasure in his task. The 
 excessive brownness of 
 the colour also injures the 
 general effect. The pic- 
 ture, too, is hardly more 
 than a sketch.^ 
 
 The second portrait in 
 the Ambrosiana is a half- 
 length of a young woman 
 in profile. The face is 
 rather long and thin, but 
 exquisitely pure in out- 
 line. It is painted in 
 brownish tones, and re- 
 lieved against a dark 
 There is a 
 smile on the lips, 
 the corners of which are 
 strongly marked ; the eye, 
 dark, deep, and limpid, is put in with a rich, generous brush. The 
 painting is firm rather than fused, but the firmness is fat and 
 luscious. Leonardo has worked a miracle, and painted a portrait 
 while creating a type. The admirably modelled head combines certain 
 defects — a turned-up nose, slightly atrophied — with beauties that 
 disarm criticism ; a tender, almost voluptuous mouth, a long veiled 
 
 1 According to the Cicerone (Burckhardt), this is a portrait of the young Gian Galeazzo 
 Sforza, II Moro's nephew, the lawful ruler of Milan. But besides the fact that the 
 apparent age of the sitter does not agree with that of the young Duke, the face shows no 
 trace of resemblance to the refined and fragile Gian Galeazzo, as known to us by 
 Caradosso's exquisite little medal. Signer Morelli attributes the male portrait in the 
 Ambrosiana to the anonymous painter of the Virgin of the .Rocks in the National Gallery 
 of London. {Die Galerie Borgiiese, p. 235.) I confess that my connoisseurship does 
 not go so far. 
 
 background 
 
 slight 
 
 MEKCLKV OR ARGUS. A FRESCO BY BRAMAXTK ('). 
 
 (The C-islle of Milan.)
 
 XI 1 1 
 Portrait of a y'ounj; Princess. 
 
 (thR AMaeOMANA, Mil AN.)
 
 Printed by CényG'*OS ^ai^'S f Fr
 
 FEMALE PORTRAIT IN THE AMB ROSI ANA 
 
 209 
 
 glance. The costume, a red dress, simple yet elegant, makes an 
 exquisite harmony with the chestnut hair, which is drawn down in 
 bandeaux along the cheek, and fastened under a pearl-embroidered 
 net. The arm-hole of the slashed sleeve is embroidered with an 
 interlaced pattern, finished off on the shoulder by a jewelled ornament 
 of two large cut gems, and a hanging pear-shaped pearl. From a row 
 of large pearls round the throat hangs a similar pendant, attached to a 
 short gold chain. The whole work breathes an air of youth, of grace, 
 and of freshness that only Leonardo could have suggested. Signor 
 Morelli ascribes this picture to Ambrogio de Prédis,^ whereas Dr. 
 Bode, while insisting on Leonardo's authorship, proves that the young 
 woman represented was not, as has been asserted, Bianca Maria 
 Sforza, wife of the Em- 
 peror Maximilian. For- 
 tunately, Dr. Bode's argu- 
 ments in favour of the 
 authenticity of the work 
 are irrefutable. The 
 learned Director of the 
 Berlin Gallery shows that 
 Ambrogio de Prédis cer- 
 tainly painted a portrait 
 of Bianca Maria, which 
 now forms part of the 
 Arconati - Visconti collec- 
 tion in Paris, but that this 
 has nothing in common, 
 either in feature or tech- 
 nique, with the master- 
 piece in the Ambrosiana.- 
 
 ^ Die Galerie Borg/iese, p. 
 2 38. — Cf. Motta, Archivio storico 
 lomhardo, 1893, p. 987. 
 
 2 Jahrbuch der kg. Kunst- 
 sammlufigcn, 1889, no. 2. — A bronze statue in the cathedral at Innspriick represents 
 Maximilian's consort standing, one hand on her hi]), the other slightly extended. Her 
 costume is gorgeous in the extreme. .Strings of i)earls are arranged upon her 
 
 I'OKTUAIT OF AN fNKNOWN MAX. 
 
 (The Ambrosiana, Milan ) 
 
 E E
 
 210 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 From Leonardo's own admissions, as well as from the evidence of 
 his contemporaries, it is evident that, unable to satisfy his own fasti- 
 dious taste, he painted extremely slowly, correcting incessantly. Did 
 he not himself declare that the painter who has no doubts makes no 
 progress ? "Quel pittore, che no' dubita, poco acquiesta " {Ti'attato 
 delta P'tttiira, cap. 62). If he left many works unfinished it was, as 
 Vasari has well said, because he was always striving after a higher 
 excellence. The biographer quotes Petrarch's verse in this connection : 
 
 E I'amor di saper che m'ha si acceso, 
 Che rojjera e retardate dal desio. 
 
 " My love of knowledge so enflamed me, 
 That my work was retarded by my desire." 
 
 Fortunately, he has left innumerable drawings to make up for the 
 rarity of his pictures, and these reveal the incomparable mastery, the 
 incredible variety of the draughtsman in the most varied aspects. It is 
 to this manifestation of his genius that I now propose to call attention. 
 
 Although the painter too often left his creations mere sketches, the 
 draughtsman tried his hand at every process, and excelled in all. We 
 find him alternately making use of pen and ink, charcoal and silver- 
 point, with equal mastery, the latter method being perhaps especially 
 to his taste, because of the mysterious quality inherent in it. After 
 his establishment at Milan, he used red chalk, a more expeditious 
 medium, which first appears in his studies for the Last Supper. It is 
 not improbable that his first essay, in fact, was the sketch in the 
 
 bodice ; from her necklace hangs a diamond or ruby cut to a point, at the end of 
 which is a pearl, as in the drawing in the Accademia at Venice here reproduced 
 (p. 106), and the Arconati-Visconti picture. As in these again, the hair is brought 
 down on either side of the face in bandeau.\, hidmg the ears, and is gathered into a net 
 at the back of the head. The face, round and full, indeed, a little heavy, resembles the 
 two portraits in question, but has nothing in common with that of the Ambrosiana 
 picture. 
 
 Signor Coceva has attempted to show, in the Anhivio storico deW Arte (1889, p. 264), 
 that the latter represents Beatrice d'Este. It has, in fact, certain analogies with her bust 
 in the Louvre, especially in profile. But we have only to examine the various portraits of 
 Beatrice to see that the unknown in the Ambrosiana is of a very different type. The 
 lines of the mouth are totally dissimilar ; the chin especially is of quite a different shape. 
 In the Ambrosiana picture it is attached to the throat by a straight line of supreme 
 distinction. In all Beatrice's authentic portraits, it is round and heavy.
 
 LEONARDO'S DRAWINGS 211 
 
 Accademia at Venice, which is certainly one of the earhest studies for 
 the composition.* He also used wash, water-colour, and body-colour. 
 The variety of paper used by the master was equally great. The 
 majority of the studies for the Virgin of the Rocks are on green paper. 
 I may instance the head of the Infant Saviour (in the Louvre) and the 
 little S. John, in the same collection, and in the Duke of Devonshire's 
 collection at Chatsworth. 
 
 According to several critics (Emile Galichon, Morelli, and Richter), 
 one distinguishing characteristic of Leonardo's manner was his method 
 of shading by means of parallel hatchings from left to right, a pecu- 
 liarity to be explained by the fact that he was left-handed."- But M. de 
 Geymiiller has shown this theory to have been an exaggerated one. 
 In one single drawing (a study in the Louvre for the little S. John of 
 the Virgin of the Rocks), the hatchings are laid in se\'en different 
 directions ; in the corner of the eye, they are laid one above the other 
 in three directions.^ 
 
 A painter even more pre-eminently than a draughtsman, Leonardo 
 avoided over-definite contours in painting. He modelled with colour 
 and with light, rather than with lines and hatchings. I cannot do 
 better than let him speak for himself here: "On the beauty of faces. 
 Do not make the lines of the muscles too insistent (' con aspra defini- 
 zione'), but allow^ soft lights to melt gradually into pleasant and 
 agreeable shades. This gives grace and beauty."^ 
 
 1 Red chalk drawings in Richter's work : vol. i., plates xxi., xxix., xL, xliv., xlvi. 
 xlvii., 1., li., etc. — For the methods of draughtsmanship recommended by Leonardo, see 
 Richter, vol. i., p. 315 et seq. 
 
 - " Looking over these sketches, made with the left hand, as we see by the direction 
 of the hatchings (from left to right)," says Emile Galichon, " we are amazed at the facility 
 with which Leonardo handled the pen. A careful examination of his drawings would almost 
 lead us to the conclusion that his left hand was the more, obedient to the pulsations of his 
 soul, his right to the directions of his reason. When he wished to translate the feelings 
 that stirred his heart, when he came home, perhaps, after having followed a man about all 
 day whose bizarre or expressive features had struck him, his left hand fi.xed his emotion 
 or his recollection rapidly on the paper. But when he wanted to model or work out a 
 figure clearly present to his mind, the final study of the Infant Jesus for the Virgin of the 
 Rocks, or the head of the .S". Anne in the Louvre, his right hand undertook the task." 
 {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1867, vol. ii., p. 536.) 
 
 3 Les derniers Travaux sur Léonard de Vinci, p. 55- 
 
 ■• Trattato, cap. 291. 
 
 E E 2
 
 21 2 
 
 T.EONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 He recommends the 
 use of the same colour 
 for the contours as that 
 used for the background 
 — in other words, he de- 
 precates the practice of 
 separating the figures 
 from the background by 
 means of a dark outHne 
 (cap. 1 1 6). 
 
 To him, the chiet 
 triumph of painting lay 
 in chiaroscuro and fore- 
 shortening : "II chiaro e 
 lo scuro insieme co li 
 scorti è la eccelenzia della 
 scienza della pittura " 
 (cap. 671). He at- 
 
 A SHEET OF SKETCHES. 
 
 (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 
 
 tached the utmost importance to relief, to the 
 tactile quality of painting. Here he is at one 
 with Michelangelo, who, in his letter to 
 Varchi, pronounced painting to be excellent 
 in proportion to the effect of relief it pro- 
 duces.^ 
 
 On the other hand, as if divining the 
 abuses that were to spring from Michel- 
 angelo's example, the author of the Trattato 
 condemns the anatomist-painters, who, anx- 
 ious to show their knowledge of bones, 
 nerves, and muscles, paint figures that might 
 be of wood (cap. 125. Cf. cap. 340). 
 
 It was, indeed, the human body in its 
 
 ^ Let ter e, Milanesi's éd., p. 522. 
 
 STUDY FOR A STANDING FIGURE. 
 
 (Librarj' of the Institut de France.)
 
 LEONARDO'S TREATMENT OF FORM 
 
 213 
 
 "Ç-fr'-T 
 
 :!:""f.»5 
 
 • -vV 
 
 ^-ss* 
 
 rnS l^Hitr r 
 
 STUDY OF A HEAD. 
 
 (The Louvre.) 
 
 His independent genius rebelled 
 
 most flexible aspect, and 
 
 still more the human 
 
 soul in its most sensitive 
 
 moods, that he took as 
 
 the basis and inspiration 
 
 of his art. But it was 
 
 the human body as a 
 
 softly moulded mass, 
 
 rather than as a bony, 
 
 anatomical structure. In 
 
 spite of his interest in 
 
 anatomy, or rather my- 
 ology, he had a horror 
 
 of all things connected 
 
 with death. No art was '=— 
 
 ever more radiant than 
 
 his. Hence his distaste 
 
 for architectural backgrounds. 
 
 against rigid statical laws. 
 
 I may add, to complete the antithesis between Leonardo and 
 
 Michelangelo, that Leonardo was a respectful disciple of Nature, 
 
 approaching her without foregone conclusions, whereas the great 
 
 Florentine sculptor made his researches under the influence of a 
 
 preconceived idea, a 
 dominant ideal, and 
 interpreted anatomy by 
 artistic canons. 
 
 Is it possible to fix 
 the dates of Leonardo's 
 drawings ? The German 
 writer, Miiller - Walde, 
 has attempted it. For 
 my own part, I think 
 we may place a rung in 
 
 STUDY FOK iHb t^jLEsTKlAiS ^iAilt ut- hh. SFORZA. 1 • 1 I 1 1 
 
 ,,„. ^ ,.^ , the chronoloorical ladder 
 
 (Windsor Library.) o
 
 2 14 T.EONARIH) DA X'INCI 
 
 here and there. Thus we know that there was a certain ruggetlness 
 about his pen-drawing about 1473, when the young artist was twenty 
 years old. 
 
 There is, on the other hand, a series of drawings in bhick chalk ur 
 charcoal which are marked by a breadth, a suavity, and at the same 
 time, by a freedom, wanting in the drawings of the first Florentine 
 period. Among these are the Voicng Man with a Lance, the Young 
 Woman, the so-called Beatrice, the Convict, the Neptune, etc., in the 
 Windsor collection (nos. 60, 63, 65, 68 in the series published by the 
 Grosvenor Gallery). Shall we be accused of temerity if we assign 
 these drawings to the Milanese rather than to the Florentine period ? 
 
 Although Leonardo's drawings escape chronological analysis, they 
 are by no means all equal in quality. His sketches, for instance, are 
 full of violent transitions and dissimilarities. Even in drawings the 
 authenticity of which cannot be questioned — those, for instance, in his 
 own manuscripts — the inequalities of technique are remarkable. The 
 manuscripts preserved in Paris contain a series of absolutely coarse 
 and archaic — or perhaps I should rather say Verrocchiesque — drawings. 
 I may instance the man standing, with a child sitting (MS. B. fol. 4), 
 and the David standing, holding a sword (MS. 2037, in the Biblio- 
 thèque Nationale, fol. 7, v.). No one would suppose them to be by 
 Leonardo, if they were not in the midst of his own writings. His 
 sketches for the Virgin and Child with a cat — the mother's figure 
 singularly thick-set and ungraceful — are no less rough and uncouth. 
 And yet the master had drawn the free and confident portrait of the 
 conspirator Baroncelli as early as 1478. Thus, at every turn we are 
 confronted by anomalies ; at every moment, his pen becomes as clumsy 
 as that of an inexperienced scholar. 
 
 Leonardo looked at drawing from three points of view. Firstly, as 
 an art in itself, — an end, and not merely a means. The elaboration of 
 some of his portraits sufficiently proves this. His disinterestedness 
 on this point was greater than that of Raphael, whose drawings are 
 almost without exception sketches and cartoons for his pictures. 
 Secondly, drawing was in Leonardo's eyes a preliminary to the 
 execution of pictures and statues ; and thirdly, a kind of graphic com- 
 mentary on, or necessary illustration of, his works. In the last case,
 
 Head of an Old Ma7i. 
 
 (BRITISH MUSEUM.)
 
 LEONARDO'S DRAWINGS 215 
 
 drawing was to him merely a form of writing, a means of rendering 
 his thought more clearly. These rough sketches of his show the most 
 admirable penetration and precision ; they evoke the very essence 
 of beings and of things. The most complex mechanisms become 
 intelligible under Leonardo's pen or pencil. 
 
 Setting aside the innumerable sketches that illustrate the manu- 
 scripts, we have two distinct categories of drawings to consider : 
 drawings made in preparation for pictures, and studies of heads.^ 
 
 The first, I am bound to admit, betray a certain vacillation. The 
 conception is too often confused, the handling hasty, and occasionally 
 incorrect. Leonardo here obej-s the precept in the Trattato delta 
 Pittura (cap. 64) : " When sketching out a composition, work rapidly, 
 and do not elaborate the drawing of the limbs. It will be enough to 
 indicate their position ; and you can finish them afterwards at your 
 leisure." 
 
 The studies of heads, on the other hand, are marked by an extra- 
 ordinary sincerity and assurance. Taken as a whole, these types make 
 up a rich human iconography, ranging from the dreamy adolescent to 
 the vigorous old man, robust as the Farnese Hercules. Note the 
 marvellous variety even in such a detail as the arrangement of the 
 hair. Here we have a luxuriant mane, encircling the face like an 
 aureole ; there, woolly, curly, waving or braided tresses. 
 
 The drawings for the Battle of Anghiari, especially those in the 
 Turin Library, have a fire and vigour which are wanting in the 
 drawings of the Florentine period, and betray an intention on the part 
 of the master to measure himself with Michelangelo. 
 
 The so-called Caricatures serve as pendants to these types of ideal 
 beauty, making up a gallery of idiots and crétins, goîtred, toothless, 
 
 1 In the master's manuscripts we find the embryoes of a series of figures which he after- 
 wards developed and completed in finished drawings. Thus, certain birds in the manuscripts 
 of the Institut de France (E. fol. 42 v°) were the forerunners of the standing eagle with 
 outspread wings in the enigmatic drawing at Windsor (Grosvenor Gallery Series, no. 38). 
 Thus, too, the interlaced ornaments of the engraving inscribed " Academia Leonardi Vinci " 
 were preceded by a considerable number of analogous motives, such as the sketch in 
 MS. E. (fol. 41 v"), in the Institut. The same process may be traced in the work of 
 Raphael He, too, loved to ruminate. Some of his figures that seem to us the 
 inspiration of a moment, were carefully elaborated. A boyish sketch in the Accademia 
 at Venice became a figure of radiant beauty and astonishing firmness after a period of 
 fifteen years.
 
 !l6 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 i" 
 
 
 ? 
 
 
 . 
 
 ^^1^ 
 
 i 
 
 4 
 
 J J 
 
 ^^^B 
 
 f 
 
 < 
 
 < 1 
 
 ^9f| 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 à. 
 
 A MUSE (?). FKOM AN ENGRAVING ASCRIUED TO I.rONARDO. 
 (lîrilish Museum.) 
 
 hnre - lipped abortions, 
 with noses and chins 
 atrophied or developed to 
 exaggeration. The artist 
 who created the most 
 perfect types of humanity 
 also applied himself, long 
 before Grandville and 
 Callot, to the reproduction 
 ot the most monstrous 
 deformities, caricatures 
 which show the interme- 
 diate degree between the 
 man and the beast, or, 
 rather, man degraded be- 
 low the level of the 
 
 beast, by a hideous hy- 
 bridism. In some e.xamples, the nose is flattened, while the upper lip 
 protrudes like those of the felidae : in others, the nose is hooked and 
 prominent as a j^arrot's 
 beak.i 
 
 ' A thoughtful enquirer, 
 himself an authority on the 
 art of caricature, has left us a 
 definition of what he calls the 
 anatomy of ugliness that I 
 may offer to the attention of 
 my reader. Leonardo, said 
 ('hampfleury, " was of the race 
 of those who have sought to 
 demonstrate tlie gradual tran- 
 sitions which lead from the 
 Apollo to the frog. He con- 
 cerned himself both with the 
 traits that divide man from 
 brute, and those which con- 
 nect them. Occupied with 
 such a train of thought, 
 Leonardo must often have 
 pondered the order of jirimal 
 organisms. He inclined per- 
 haps to the ideas of the 
 
 STUDY OF AN OLD MAN. 
 
 (Trivuizi Library.)
 
 DRAWINGS AND CARICATURES 
 
 217 
 
 But here again we may ask, was Leonardo a realist, or did he 
 distort nature by dwelling exclusively on exceptions ? Realism, as we 
 understand it in our own times, is either platitude or an exclusive pre- 
 occupation with what is ugly. From this grovelling point of view, 
 proud, free spirits such as Leonardo can never be realists. Has not 
 the master shown us by his example that art must be either subjective 
 or non-existent ? Take any one of his heads of old men : even when 
 he seems to be giving 
 himself up to the work 
 of mechanical reproduc- 
 tion, he eliminates, per- 
 haps unconsciously, 
 everything opposed to 
 the type that rises be- 
 fore his imagination, in- 
 terposing between his 
 eyes and the model. 
 He ends by giving us, 
 not a photographically 
 faithful image of some 
 individual, but an ideal 
 of his own, which has 
 incorporated itself in 
 some face, seen, per- 
 haps, by chance. Under 
 his pencil this face is 
 unwittingly transform- 
 ed, and in a moment 
 
 its personality is exchanged for one the artist has evolved from 
 dreams. 
 
 Darwins of his day. Yet Leonardo seems to have studied only the exterior physiognomy 
 of beings ; his pencil does not penetrate beyond this. But he wished to create, and even 
 to overstep Nature ; in all branches of knowledge, his love of research was very strongly 
 developed, and he inquired into the greater in order to obtain the less. His sheets 
 of sketches must be looked upon as jottings purposely exaggerated, a teratological 
 system carried to an extreme, a jcii d'esprit akin to those of Bacon, when he amused 
 himself by turning rhetorician, and arguing the pros and cons of a question. ' {Gazette 
 des Beaux-Arts, 1879, vol. i., p. 201.) 
 
 V V 
 
 HEAD 01- A UOM.VN. FKOM AN ENCKAVING ASCRIBED TO LEO.NARDO. 
 
 (British Museum.)
 
 2i8 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 These grotesque drawings, which were a mere accident in 
 Leonardo's art, an accident I do not hesitate to call regrettable, 
 became the favourite food of vulgar taste among a certain class of 
 amateurs. They were eagerly sought after by collectors, and, what was 
 worse, were laboriously copied and imitated by many artists. Hence 
 the frequency with which they occur in various European collections. 
 
 By this creation of the aesthetics of ugliness side by side with a 
 sublime formula of beauty, Leonardo showed the way on a path of 
 extreme danger. 
 
 Towards the close of his sojourn in Milan, the master drew up a 
 list of his drawings on one of the sheets of that Codex Atlanticus 
 which is, so to speak, the Palladium of the Ambrosiana Library. I 
 will transcribe this document, for in spite of its curiously laconic nature, 
 it gives evidence of the singular catholicity of Leonardo's studies, and 
 at the same time, it allows us to plunge into some of the mysterious 
 recesses of his mind : "A head full face, of a young man, with fine 
 flowing hair. Many flowers drawn from nature. A head, lull face, 
 with curly hair. Certain figures of S. Jerome. The measurements of 
 a figure. Drawings of furnaces. A head of the Duke. Many designs 
 for knots. Four studies for the panel of S. Angelo. A small com- 
 position of Girolamo da Fegline. A head of Christ done with the pen. 
 Eight S. Sebastians. Several compositions of angels. A -chalcedony 
 [probably an antique cameo]. A head in profile with fine hair. 
 Some pitchers seen in (?) perspective. Some machines for ships. 
 Some machines for water-works. A head of Atalante [Atalante da 
 Migliorotti ?], looking up. The head of Girolamo da Fegline. 
 The head of Gian Francisco Borso. Several throats of old women. 
 Several heads of old men. Several nude figures, complete. Several 
 arms, eyes, feet, and positions. A Madonna, finished. Another, 
 nearly in profile. Head of Our Lady ascending into Heaven. A 
 head of an old man with a long chin. A head of a gipsy girl. 
 A head with a hat on. A representation of the Passion, a cast. 
 A head of a eirl with her hair gathered in a knot. A head with the 
 brown hair dressed." ^ 
 
 Did Leonardo make any essays in engraving ? We may afifirm at 
 1 Richtcr, vol. i., pp. 355-356-
 
 ENGRAVINGS ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO 219 
 
 least that, like Diirer, Holbein, Jean Cousin, and other masters, he never 
 himself engraved on wood. This fact has been definitely established 
 by the Marchese d'Adda.' In the dedication of the Trattato del/a 
 Divina ProporHone, Leonardo's friend Pacioli certainly declares that 
 he asked the latter to engrave the " schemata " for the treatise. 
 " Schemata .... Yincii nostri Leonardo manibus scalpta." But a 
 little farther on he adds, in referring to the base of a column (ch. vi. 
 fol. 28 v") : ■' . . . . As you may see in the disposition of the 
 regular bodies and others which you will find further on, done by 
 Leonardo da Vinci, the excellent painter, architect, and musician, a 
 man gifted with all the virtues, at the time when we were in the town 
 of Milan, in the service of the very excellent Duke Lodovico Sforza 
 Anglo, between the years 1496 and 1499. At this period we left the 
 city together, in consequence of events, and went to settle in 
 
 Florence At Milan, I had with my own hands illuminated 
 
 and ornamented these drawings, to the number of si.xty, to insert 
 them in the copy destined for the Duke ^ and also in two others, 
 one for Galeazzo San Severino of Milan ; the other, for the most 
 excellent Piero Soderini, Gonfaloniere of Florence, in whose palace 
 he is at present, etc. ..." It is evident, says the Marchese d'Adda, 
 that Pacioli refers to Leonardo's share in the preparation of the 
 manuscript, and that he had never heard of the woodcuts for the 
 volume, which was not printed at \''enice till 1509, long after the two 
 friends had quitted Milan. 
 
 Gilberto Govi goes even further. He affirms that Pacioli kept 
 Leonardo's original drawings for himself, and made tracings from 
 them for the three manuscript copies. It is certain, at any rate, that 
 the Codex Atlanticus contains sketches of many geometrical figures for 
 Pacioli's work.^ 
 
 1 Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1868, vol. ii., p. 130, et seq. 
 
 " This copy is in the Geneva Library. Although much injured by damp, it bears the 
 true Leonardesque impress, says the Marchese d'Adda. In it, adds the learned Milanese 
 iconophile, I saw the most unmistakable evidences of the master's influence, both in the 
 geometrical figures and in the splendid miniature in which the author is represented 
 offering his manuscript to Lodovico il Moro. The latter is evidently by the hand of Fra 
 Antonio da Monza. {Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1868, vol. ii., p. 133-) 
 
 ^ S^gg'^i P- 13- — Referring to the Leonardesque character certain critics have dis- 
 covered in the two profile heads in Pacioli's work (fol. 25 of the first Treatise, and fol. 28 
 
 F F 2
 
 I.I'ONAKDO DA VINCI 
 
 On the otlicr hand, there are several engravings troni cop|ierplates 
 which pass for the works of Leonardo da Vinci.' 
 
 In the British Museum, to begin with, there is a i'o/rn^ ll'oiiiaii in 
 Pro/ile, turning to the left. Rich tresses hang about her neck, and fall 
 on her shoulders ; a curl strays across her cheek. She wears a 
 slashed bodice. An attempt has been made to connect this head with 
 that of the Mona Lisa. But it is entirely wanting in the llexibility 
 
 so characteristic of La 
 (jiocivic/a, and the fea- 
 tures have a curiously 
 bewildered expression. 
 
 A second example 
 is also in the British 
 Museum, a Yoittio- 
 U^oinan in Profile 
 turned to the right, 
 crowned with ivy, with 
 the inscription AG H A 
 LE. VL The type 
 here has more distinc- 
 tion, and the handling 
 more flexibility. 
 
 A third, the only 
 known example of 
 
 STUDY OF A HEAD. FACSIMILE OF AN ENGUAVING AFTER LEONARDO. whlch bclongS tO the 
 
 same collection, The 
 Four Horsenîcn, is certainly from a drawing by Leonardo, though 
 it is impossible to say whether the plate was actually engraved 
 by him.- 
 
 of tlie second), the Marclicse d'Adda points out that these were borrowed from a work by 
 Piero della Francesca, Pacioli's master and fellow citizen. 
 
 ' D'Adda, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1868, vol. ii., p. 139 et seq. — Passavant, Le. Peintre- 
 Graveur, vol. v., p. i8r.— Delaborde, La Gravure en Italie avant Marc Antonie, p. 1S3. 
 —A drawing in the Vallardi Collection (no. i), a woman in profile to the right, has much 
 in common with the two engravings. There is the same high chin, the same continuity 
 of line in the forehead and nose, the same straight nose, the same astonished gaze. 
 
 ^ Richter, pi. Ixv. — Other engravings ascribed to Leonardo are either .spurious or 
 doubtful. Passavant, Le Peintre-Graveur, vol. v., p. 180.
 
 ENGRAVINGS ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO 
 
 Six engravings are connected with the so-called " Academy of 
 Leonardo." They bear the inscription Academia Leonardi Vmci in 
 the midst of interlaced ornaments, cunningly composed, and forming 
 a sort of labyrinth. 1 
 
 Several heads of old men, long attributed to Mantegna, seem 
 also to have been ex- 
 ecuted in the studio 
 of the great head 
 of the Milanese 
 school. ^ 
 
 The equestrian 
 statue of Francesco 
 Sforza, and the Last 
 Supper represent but 
 a small proportion 
 of Leonardo's almost 
 miraculous activity 
 during sixteen or 
 seventeen years of ex- 
 traordinary fecundity 
 and strenuous toil. 
 We have still to con- 
 sider his work as an 
 architect, an engineer, 
 a mechanician, a natur- 
 
 STUUIES FOR THE STATL'E OF FRANCESCO SFORZA. FROM AS ENGRAVING 
 ASCRIDED TO LEONARDO. 
 
 (British Museum.) 
 
 alist, a philosopher, and 
 
 finally, his labours as a teacher in the Academy to which he gave 
 
 his name. 
 
 The Sforza monument, unfinished though it was, had immediately 
 given Leonardo a place in the front rank of sculptors, just as the Last 
 Supper had raised him to the highest place among painters. Taking 
 into account the scope and variety of his knowledge in the exact sciences, 
 it was natural that the artist should have burned to try his hand at 
 
 1 See M. G. Duplessis' article in the Revue Universelle des Arts, 1862, vol. xv., 
 pp. 157-158.
 
 222 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 architecture. And, as a fact, problems of construction occupied him as 
 much as problems of aesthetics ; hence we find him searching into the 
 causes that produce fissures in walls and niches, inquiring into the 
 nature of arches, &c. The acoustics of church buildings also occupied 
 him a good deal ; he tried to discover an architectural combination 
 which would enable the preacher's voice to reach the most distant corner 
 of the building, and he invented the " teatro da predicare " — a lecture 
 hall in the form of an amphitheatre. Among his designs there is also 
 the plan of a town with a system of streets on two different levels for 
 distinct services (Richter, pi. l.xxvii., Ixxviii). 
 
 An opportunity of coming to the front in this new domain soon 
 presented itself. For years, the completion of Milan Cathedral had 
 occupied the attention of all who were interested in Gothic architecture. 
 The master-builders of Strasburg, as also Bramante, Francesco di 
 Giorgio Martini, and many others, had given advice, and worked out 
 plans. In 1487^ Leonardo, too, entered the lists in this great com- 
 petition, which stirred the enthusiasm of the last champions of the 
 Middle Ages ; he turned his attention to the cupola which was to crown 
 the transept, the " tiburium." But everything tends to prove that his 
 design in the Gothic manner was rejected,- and henceforth the master's 
 researches were purely platonic. 
 
 Leonardo eagerly accepted other works, apparently still more humble. 
 On February 2, 1494, when at the Sforzesca, he made a design for a 
 staircase of twenty-five steps, each two-thirds of a " braccia " high and 
 eight "braccia" wide. On March 20 following, he went to Vigevano 
 to examine the vines. It was perhaps on this occasion that he 
 made a study of the staircase of a hundred and thirty steps in the 
 mansion. 
 
 Although we cannot positively attribute any existing building to 
 Leonardo, it is easy to divine from his sketches what his designs may 
 or would have been in stone. They would first of all have revealed the 
 sense of harmony that characterised this purist "par excellence," by the 
 
 1 1487. "Addi 8 agosto Magistro Leonardo Florentino, qui habet onus faciendi 
 modellum unum tuboril ecclesi» majoris, juxta ordinationem factam in Consilio fabricie, 
 super ratione faciendi dictum modellum." L. 56 {AnnaH della Fabhrica del Duomn di 
 Milano, vol. iii., p. 38. Cf. Boito, // Duomo di Milano, pp. 227-228.) 
 
 ^ Richter, vol. ii., pi. C. — -Trivulzi MS., pi. xxxvii.
 
 ARCHITECTURAL DESKiNS 223 
 
 perfect equilibrium of the different parts of the edifice, attached to the 
 central body by an absolutely organic and vital bond. Churches on a 
 concentric plan, that is to say, with the lower aisles and chapels grouped 
 as closely as possible round a central cupola which dominates the whole 
 structure, on the system dear to the Byzantines, seem to have been 
 preferred by the master. He sketched a great number in the sheets 
 published by M. de Geymiiller, grouping four, six, and even eight 
 cupolas round the central dome. The pavilion he designed for the 
 Duchess Beatrice d'Este's garden had also a domed vault. His 
 masterpiece in the domain of circular architecture is a design, no 
 less majestic than simple in conception, for a mausoleum (inspired, 
 perhaps, by that at Halicarnassus, which still existed in part at the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century). According to M. de Geymiiller, 
 this one desien would have sufficed to rank Leonardo amone the 
 greatest architects of all time.^ 
 
 As an architect, says the same authority, Leonardo was the direct 
 descendant of Brunellesco. He recognised this himself by drawing the 
 plan of San Spirito at Florence, sketching a lateral view of the church 
 of San Lorenzo in the same cit)', and composing a plan almost identical 
 with that of the famous Chapel of the Angels, three of Brunellesco's 
 masterpieces. In his plans of churches he was clearly inspired by the 
 dome and lantern of Santa Maria dei Fiori ; and finally, it was from 
 Brunellesco he borrowed the principle of double entablatures. ^ It is 
 possible that the influence of another of his Florentine compatriots, the 
 great Leone Battista Alberti, had little effect upon him till after his 
 arrival in Milan, and that it worked upon him through the intermediary 
 of Bramante, who proved himself in so many respects the successor and 
 exponent of Alberti. But above all others, Bramante, in his classic 
 rather than in his Lombard vein, made a deep impression on the 
 master. Leonardo the architect, like Leonardo the sculptor, had 
 dreams of colossal, almost chimeric works. The royal necropolis he 
 planned (Richter, pi. xcviii) was to consist, according to M. de 
 Geymiiller's calculations, of an artificial mountain, 600 metres in dia- 
 meter at the base, and of a circular temple, the pavement of which was 
 
 1 M. de Geymiiller's study is incorporated in Dr. Richter's work. 
 - Ch- Ravaisson-MoUien, vol. ii., fol. 67 v°.
 
 224 
 
 LEONARDO 1X\ VINCI 
 
 to be on a level with the spires of Cologne Cathedral, while the interior 
 was to be of the same width as the nave of S. Peter's at Rome. ^ 
 
 On another occasion, fired by the example of Aristotele di Fiora- 
 vante, the famous Bolognese engineer, who had removed a tower from 
 one place to another without demolishing it, he proposed to the 
 Florentine government to raise the Baptistery by means of machinery, 
 and replace it on a base of steps. Needless to say, the project was not 
 favourably received. Here again the great artist and scholar showed 
 himself a visionary. 
 
 1 According to Signor Uzielli, it was in 1499 that Leonardo made a report on the 
 causes that threatened the destruction of the church of San Salvatore al Monte. 
 {Riarc/ie, ist ed. vol. ii , p. 215-216.) G. Mihmesi, however, gives 1506 as the date of 
 this consultation. (Vasari, vol. iv.) 
 
 
 A. 
 
 L 
 
 
 ll^^l 
 
 i 
 
 mm 
 
 1 
 
 Vk 
 
 
 bass 
 
 ifSfj^^^Trî 
 
 ^-L 
 
 \. — - 
 
 — 1»% — >-^ 
 
 
 
 
 DESIGN FOR A LMLUCH WITH A CENTRAL CUPOLA. 
 
 (Library of the Institut de France.)
 
 MODELS OF WEAPONS, OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE. 
 
 (Valton CoUection, Paris.) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LEONARDOS ACADEMY — HIS WRITINGS OX ART THE "TREATISE ON PAINTINO ' — FRA 
 
 LUCA PACIOLI AND HIS TREATISE ON PROPORTION — LEONARDO'S " ATELIER " AND 
 HIS TEACHING. 
 
 L 
 
 STUDY FOR THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. 
 
 (British Museum.) 
 
 EONARDO was not 
 content to create, he 
 burned with the de- 
 sire to teach also. In order 
 to act more strongly on 
 those by whom he was 
 surrounded, he founded 
 the academy which bore his 
 name. This was not, as 
 we might be tempted to 
 think, merely an academic 
 body, devoted to the glori- 
 fication of ability, nor even an institution for public teaching. In 
 all probability, it was a free society, through which its members could 
 obtain a more fruitful influence on each other and their neighbours, 
 by discussion, by working together, and by general community of tastes 
 and studies. All the documents we possess to throw light on this 
 mysterious institution are half a dozen engravings with the words 
 " Academia Leonard! Vinci "^ in an interlaced ornament, and the 
 
 1 Various hypotheses have been put forward to cxjilain these "tondi,'' as they have 
 been called from their circular shape. Leonardo, says Vasari, wasted a good deal of time 
 in drawing festoons of cords — "grupjM di cordi'' — in a ])attern ; one of these, a very 
 beautiful and intricate example, was engraved. Modern writers have suggested that these 
 
 G G
 
 22é Leonardo da vixcl 
 
 engraving of a woman's head, bearing the same inscription. And yet 
 there can be no doubt about the influence this institution had upon 
 the formation of the Milanese school, and even, I may add, upon 
 the orenesis of modern science.^ 
 
 Leonardo's academy is usually pictured as one of those essentially 
 solemn and formal societies which rose into vogue in the sixteenth 
 century, and reached their full expansion in the seventeenth. Such an 
 idea is anachronistic. The epoch with which we are now concerned 
 
 prints were intended to serve as entrance tickets to the sessions or courses of the Milanese 
 Accademia, or that they were destined for " ex Hbris," to be pasted into the books 
 belonging to the Academy library. The Marchese d'Adda explains them as models of 
 linear ornament, for the use of the pupils of every kind who frequented the Academy, 
 painters, miniaturists, goldsmiths, and even handicraftsmen. More recently, M. Charles 
 Henry has suggested that they were demonstrations of the master's scientific aesthetics. 
 (^Introduction à P Esthétique scientifique, Paris, 1S85, p. 5.) 
 
 It is evident that this interlaced ornament is not of German origin, as Passavant 
 declared it to be, though Diirer indeed copied it, for it recurs in Leonardo's manuscripts 
 I^Codex Athinticus, fol. 548 — Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. vi. MS., no. 2038 of the 
 Bibliothèque Nationale, fol. 34 v°.), in the paintings of one of the small rooms in the 
 castle at Milan (see p. 205), on the spandril of the vault in the sacristy of Santa Maria 
 delle Grazie, also at Milan (Mongeri, L' Arte a Mi/ano, p. 213), on the sleeves of the 
 woman in the female portrait of the Ambrosiana, and on those of one of the horsemen in 
 the Battle of Anghiari. M. Errera, Professor of the University of Brussels, suggests that 
 the interlacements may have been an armorial rebus ; the word " Vinci " means 
 " enchained," and is the root of " vincoli " (bonds). Pacioli, however, plays on the 
 word " Vinci," i.e., who has vanquished, who can vanquish. Winterberg's éd., 
 
 P- 32-33- 
 
 1 In Uzielli's last edition (vol i., p. 505), the very existence of Leonardo's academy, 
 whether as a scientific or as an artistic body, is contested. According to Signor Uzielli, 
 it was nothing more than a pious but unfulfilled aspiration. I cannot share his opinion. 
 Do we not know, thanks to Luca Pacioli, that on February 9, 1498, at least, 
 Lodovico organised a grand scientific tournament (" laudabile e scientifico duello ") at 
 the Castle of Milan in which prelates, generals, doctors, astrologers, and men of law, 
 besides Leonardo himself, took part as combatants and spectators. It was there declared 
 • — "ces paroles douces comme le miel" — that nothing could be more meritorious in a 
 man of talent than to communicate his gift to others {Divina Proportione. Cf MiiUer- 
 Waldc : Jalubuih, 1897, p. 115-118). — .\nother contemporary, the chronicler Corio, 
 speaks of the elegant academy of Lodovico il Moro. 
 
 In one of his Novelle, Bandello describes the " salon " of Cecilia Gallerani, the favourite 
 of II Moro and the original of one of Leonardo's most famous portraits, and shows us 
 soldiers, musicians, architects, philosophers, and poets grouped about her. Such " réunions " 
 were in fact academies, and have been compared, reasonably enough, with that of which 
 Leonardo was the instigator. 
 
 The organisation of the Milanese Academy would be of great interest for us, were it 
 only to let us know how far the discoveries of Leonardo had a chance of propagation, and 
 whether some among them may not have come to the knowledge of his immediate 
 successors by direct oral tradition.
 
 LEONARDOS MANUSCRIPTS 227 
 
 had still too much vitality and independence to be shut up in narrow 
 formulae. Putting aside the kingdom of Naples, where external 
 distractions very early became a factor in the encouragement of 
 art, science and literature, the Italy of the early Renaissance had only 
 a few friendly, unofficial, and essentially informal societies to show. 
 At the court of the Sforzi, especially, artists, poets and savants 
 might look for glory and fortune, but not for officiai honours. Those 
 titles of knighthood, which they were already beginning to earn at 
 Rome and Naples, were not awarded elsewhere. The most that II 
 Moro did was to crown his favourite, Bellincioni, in public with the 
 poet's bays, and to turn his physician, Gabriele Pirovano, who had 
 cured him, into the Conte da Rosata. 
 
 It is generally agreed that the manuscripts left by Leonardo are 
 fragments from the teaching he gave in his Milanese academy. We 
 must therefore discuss, in some detail, a system of education nearly as 
 vast as that of Pico della Mirandola, embracing as it did every branch 
 of human knowledge, not excepting the occult sciences. 
 
 Before entering upon any discussion of those theoretical works in 
 which Leonardo treats of painting, of proportion, and of other branches 
 of art, it will be convenient to give a brief history of the manuscripts 
 in which his observations have been preserved. 
 
 From about his thirty-seventh year, according to Dr. Richter, Leon- 
 ardo made it a habit to write down the results of his observations, and 
 continued that work till his death, thus fulfilling to the end that duty 
 of activity which is incumbent on every human creature. Even now, 
 after great and irreparable losses, his manuscripts and fragments of 
 manuscripts reach a total of more than fifty, and form more than five 
 thousand pages of text. Dr. Richter has attempted to classify them 
 chronologically, an attempt in which we shall not follow him, for in 
 most cases it rests on pure conjecture. More than once, indeed, he 
 has been compelled to confess his inability to suggest even an 
 approximate date. 
 
 As for Leonardo's peculiar habit of writing in Oriental fashion, from 
 right to left, it may be well to say now what has to be said about it. 
 We know from the Uffizi drawing reproduced on p. 29, that he 
 began the practice as early as 1473. ^^ ^^'^^ faithful to it to the end
 
 228 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 of his life, and that on no capricious impulse. Various pieces of evi- 
 dence combine to show that it was only one among several precautions 
 taken against the pilfering of his secr(>ts. He was in the habit, for 
 instance, of writing certain words in the; form of anagrams, "Amor" 
 for " Roma," " Ilopan " for " Napoli." ' 
 
 From the palrcographic standpoint, the Avriting of LeoiTardo is still 
 fifteenth century in its character, and in its smalincss, its rigidity, and 
 the shortness of its strokes above and below the line, differs essentially 
 
 Irom the large and ex- 
 pressive writing of 
 Michelangelo and 
 Raphael. 
 
 During the thirty- 
 five years which sepa- 
 rate the first manuscript 
 from the last the writing 
 undergoes no change 
 whatever. The most we 
 can do is to point to 
 some slight difference 
 between the characters 
 used on the two early 
 drawings of 1473 and 
 1478, and those which 
 belong to his maturity 
 or old asfe. M. Charles 
 Ravaisson has remarked 
 that in his first attempts, 
 Leonardo takes pleasure in forming letters of some elaboration, which 
 later on, he abandons for characters more suitable to a thinker and 
 observer, who wishes to lose no time in recording his experiences. 
 In 1478 — adds M. Ravaisson — Leonardo is found experimenting with 
 
 ' Here and there, at long intervals, we come upon a line written in the ordinary way 
 (^Manuscrit B at the Institut de France ; Ravaisson-Mollien, les Ecrits de Leonard da Vinci, 
 p. 23). Some of Leonardo's contemporaries wrote from right to left, Sabba da Castiglione, 
 for instance (Ravaisson, Les Manuscrits, vol. i., p. 2), and the sculptor, Raf da Montehipo, 
 who wrote " all' ebraica " (Gaye, Carteggio, vol. iii., p. 582-3). 
 
 ENGRAVING OF INTERLACED OKNA^!ENT INSCRIBED " ACADEMIA LEONARDl 
 VINCI." 
 
 (The Ambrosiana, Milan.)
 
 LEONARDO'S MANUSCRIPTS 
 
 229 
 
 a sign resembling the beginning of a loop to take the place of n ; 
 later on, he nearly always reduces it to the simple stroke in common 
 Lise.^ 
 
 It is difficult to imagine a spontaneous genius, a genius like Dona- 
 tello, for instance, sitting down to write about art, to dissect and 
 account for his impressions, and to formulate receipts for his pupils. 
 Reasoning is supposed to be inconsistent with spontaneity of inspira- 
 tion ! But without going very far for instances, can we not point, 
 even in the Florence 
 of the fifteenth ccnturV; 
 to more than one emi- 
 nent creator who took 
 up the pen for didactic 
 purposes, to Leone Bat- 
 tista Alberti, to Ghiberti, 
 to Ghirlandajo, to \^er- 
 rocchio? At Milan, 
 Bramante, the rival and 
 colleague of Leonardo, 
 composed several 
 treatises, now unhappily 
 lost ; so, too, did Zenale. 
 Leonardo, then, had the 
 authority of many illus- 
 trious examples for his 
 attempt to combine the 
 honours of the theorist 
 with the glory of the 
 
 creative artist. And yet what a singular contradiction he presents ! 
 This man, whose work is one long, consistent protest against formulée, 
 against teaching, against tradition, pretends to instruct others in the 
 treating of a subject according to set and determined rules! Did 
 the anomaly even strike him .'' If you, my artist reader, have not in 
 your own imagination the force necessary to show you the attitudes 
 and gestures of a man desperate, or transported by rage, do you think 
 1 Ch. Ravaisson-Mollien, Les Manuscrits, vol. \-., p. i. 
 
 LEONARDl VIN'CI. 
 
 (The .'Vmbrosiana, Milan.)
 
 LUMlïACLl 
 
 SKETCH ÏN THE " TRATTATO DELLA l'ITTCRA.' 
 
 (Vatican Librarj.) 
 
 230 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 your brush will ever succeed in depicting such a person by the help of 
 a book ? How thoroughly the precept of the old Latin author, " si vis 
 me flere," applies in such a case ! You may say that Leonardo wrote 
 for second-rate artists; to which I answer that, from the artistic stand- 
 point, such people do not exist, and that it was unworthy of Leonardo's 
 genius to trouble itself about them. 
 
 Like the other works of Leonardo, the Trattato dclla Piltiira 
 awaits the editor. It has not yet undergone the remodelling and 
 co-ordination required to make it a real didactic treatise. The want 
 of sequence in the arrangement of its chapters, and the innumerable 
 
 repetitions show that it 
 never received the 
 master's last touches. 
 Let us add that, im- 
 perfect as it is, it has 
 never ceased, since it 
 was first made public, to 
 excite the keen interest 
 of the artist and the amateur. Between 1651, when it was first sent 
 to the press, and 1898, nearly thirty editions and translations have 
 been published. 
 
 The treatise has come down to us in two different forms. In the 
 first place, we have the autographic fragments, illustrated by numerous 
 drawings of the master, which Dr. Richter was the first to publish ; 
 secondly, we have several old copies, more complete in some respects 
 than the fragments ; in these we can recognise an effort at re-arrange- 
 ment due, no doubt, to one or another of his disciples, if not to 
 Leonardo himself 
 
 Of these the two most important copies are in the Barberini Palace 
 and the Vatican. Upon the former were based the early printed 
 editions, especially that of 1651, which contained illustrations by 
 Nicholas Poussin. ^ The Vatican manuscript was published by Manzi 
 
 1 It is now asserted that some of the figures hitherto ascribed to Poussin are copies by 
 the French master of drawings by Leonardo himself. As to this, a comparison between 
 them and the copies made by Rubens, or one of his pujjils, from the same originals ought 
 to be decisive. (Pawlowski, in Pierre-Paul Ruhetis, p. 227-233, Librairie de l'Art ; 
 De Geymiïller, Les derniers Travaux sur Léonard de Vinci, p. 34, 36). But — " pace " these
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING" 
 
 231 
 
 in 18 1 7. It is much more complete than the Barberini codex, for it 
 contains books i., v., vi., vii. and viii,, all wanting in the latter. As the 
 name of Melzi occurs in three separate passages, it has been supposed 
 that he had something to do with the production or arrangement of 
 the Vatican codex. But that of course is only a more 
 or less probable hypothesis. 
 
 We must add that beyond the diagrams of per- 
 spective and the drawings of trees, the Vatican MS. 
 contains but a small number of sketches : the series 
 of noses, a few anatomical sketches and studies of 
 movement, a horse walking, &c. The nude figure, 
 front and back (plate ix., no. 16, in the Manzi edition) 
 is a reproduction from two of the Windsor drawings. 
 
 Manzi allowed himself various libertie swith Leo- 
 nardo. Not content with much arbitrary modification 
 of his author's orthography, he left out paragraphs 
 and even whole chapters, and so it became necessary 
 to prepare a definitive edition, a task brought to a 
 happy conclusion by the late Heinrich Ludwig (died 
 1898), a German painter, settled in Rome. The 
 German translation facing the text in Ludwig's edition shows a 
 scrupulous fidelity, also evident in the commentaries, of which the 
 third volume is made up. Ludwig followed up his edition of the 
 Trattato with a special volume (1885), in which the differences and 
 analogies between the original manuscripts of Leonardo, and the 
 
 respectable authorities — could there be anything more out of harmony with Leonardo's 
 manner than heavy, common figures like these ? 
 
 After taking, by his drawings, an active part in the publication of the Trattato, 
 Poussin renounced his convictions, and finally wrote the following letter to Abraham 
 Bosse : " As for Leonardo's book, it is true that I drew the human figures in the cojiy 
 which belongs to M. le Chevalier du Puis (del Pozzo) ; but the rest of the drawings, 
 geometrical or otherwise, are by a certain degli Alberti, the same who did the " plantes " 
 (plates or plans?) in the book of subterranean Rome. As for the landscapes ("gaufes 
 paisages") which are behind the figures in the copy printed by M. de Chambray, they were 
 added by one Errard [Charles Errard, first director of the French Academy in Rome], 
 without my knowledge. All that is good in this book might be written on a single sheet 
 of paper, and that in large letters, and those who think I approve of all that is in it do 
 not know me, me who profess never to give free course to things relating to my calling 
 which are ill-said or ill-done." (De Chennevières-Pointcl, Recherches sur la Vic et les 
 Ouvrages de quelques Peintres provinciaux, vol. iii., p. 166.) 
 
 SKETCH IN THE 
 
 " TRATTATO DELLA 
 
 PITTL'RA," 
 
 (Vatican Library.)
 
 232 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 Vatican codex, arc carefully set out. Unfortunately this volume is 
 disfigured by a great deal of coarse and unfair abuse of Dr. 
 Richter. 
 
 As a result of Ludwig's researches we find that the fragments of 
 the Trattato printed by Dr. Richter form 662 paragraphs, while the 
 Vatican MS. runs to 944. The text of 225 paragraphs is identical 
 both in the collected manuscripts and the Vatican copy. 
 
 This great encylopeedia of painting contains eight books: i., On 
 
 Poetry and Painting ; ii., 
 On Precepts for the 
 Painter ; iii., On Ana- 
 tomy, Proportions, &c. ; 
 iv., On Drapery ; v., On 
 Light and Shadow ; vi., 
 On Trees and Verdure ; 
 vii., On Clouds ; viii , 
 On the Horizon. 
 
 The major part of 
 Book i is devoted to a 
 comparison of painting 
 with poetry ..." Sicut 
 pictura poesis "... 
 " Painting is poetry 
 which one can see, but 
 cannot hear ; poetry is 
 painting which one can 
 hear, but cannot see." 
 " A picture is a mute 
 poem, and a poem a blind 
 picture" (c. 20, 21).- But Leonardo pushes his comparison too far 
 
 ' Tlicrc is, uiiliappily, no French translation in which artists and amateurs might note 
 the numerous and important additions to tlie Traltalo contained in the autographs and 
 in the Vatican codex. In France we have still perforce to content ourselves with Gault 
 de Saint-Oermain's very inconi])lete version. This reproach, is, I am glad to hear, in the 
 way of being shortly removed by M. Rouveyre, who has done so much for students of 
 Leonardo. 
 
 - In Lodovico Dolce's .Ire/iiio, Pietro Aretino reminds us that certain men of talent 
 have called the painter a mute poet, and the poet a talking painter. 
 
 ENGRAVING OF INTEKLACEU ORNAMENT, INSCRIDED " ACAUEMIA 
 LE'iNARDl VINCI." 
 
 (The Ainbrosiana, Milan.)
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING' 
 
 233 
 
 when he declares that poetry is supremely suitable for the deaf! 
 (cap. 28). 
 
 The arguments used by Leonardo in favour of [jainting offer a 
 certain analogy with those set forth about the same time by Baldassare 
 Castiglione, in the Cortegiano. I mean that occasionally they have a 
 somewhat prosaic quality, rather than one of high philosophical specu- 
 lation. Hear what he 
 says on the question of 
 visual illusion. " I have 
 seen a portrait so like 
 that the favourite dosf 
 of the original took 
 it for his master and 
 displayed every sign 
 of delight ; I have 
 also seen doo;s bark 
 at painted dogs and try 
 to bite them ; and a 
 monkey make all sorts 
 of faces at portraits of 
 his own kind ; I have 
 seen swallows on the 
 wing attempt to settle 
 on iron bars painted 
 across the painted win- 
 dows of painted houses " «^^^ op an old max crow.veu «.t» laurel. 
 (cap. 14). OVindsor Librar>-.) 
 
 In another section 
 (13) Leonardo brings out the omnipotence of the painter. When 
 he wants to see such beauties as excite his love, he can 
 create them for himself; if he should wish to see monstrous 
 and terrific things, or absurd and laughable things, or things 
 which e.xcite compassion, again he is sovereign and divine ('n' 
 è signore e dio ") ; he can create countries teeming with population, 
 or deserts, places dark and shady with trees, or blazing with the 
 sun, &c. 
 
 II 11
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 SKETCH IN THE " TRATTATO DELLA 
 PITTURA." 
 
 (Vatican Library ) 
 
 These transcendental considerations are followed up by com- 
 parisons between painting and music, painting and sculpture. 
 
 The more or less idle question, whether painting was superior to 
 sculpture, or " vice versa," was passionately 
 discussed all through the Renaissance. Half 
 a century, at least, before Leonardo, Leone 
 Battista Alberti had pronounced in favour of 
 painting.^ 
 
 Leonardo accords the palm to the same art. 
 " Sculpture," he says, " is not a science, but a 
 mechanical art, if there is one, for it makes 
 the sculptor sweat, and gives him bodily 
 fatigue. The only difference I find between 
 painting and sculpture is this : the sculptor 
 carries out his works with more bodily fatigue than the painter, the 
 painter with more mental fatigue than the sculptor " (cap. 35, 36). 
 
 About the same time, perhaps, as Leonardo, Baldassare Castiglione 
 arrived at a similar conclusion in his Cortegiano. 
 
 A decade or two later, in 1549, a distinguished 
 Florentine man of letters, Benedetto Varchi, published 
 a Lezione, in which the question Quale sia pin nob- 
 ile arte, la Sctillura la Piihtra, was discussed. 
 Michelaneelo wrote him a letter in v/hich he makes 
 a determined stand for his favourite art : " I say 
 that the nearer painting approaches to the round, 
 the better it seems to me, and the nearer the round 
 approaches to painting the worse it seems. To 
 me, sculpture appears the lamp of painting ; between the one and the 
 
 1 " And truly," he cries, " is she not the queen and chief ornament of the arts. If I 
 am not in error, it was from the painter that the architect took his architraves, his 
 capitals, his bases, his columns, his pinnacles, and other adornments of his buildings. It 
 is evidently on the principles of the painter's art that the lapidary, the sculptor, the 
 jeweller, and other manual artists regulate their practice ; in short, there is no art, however 
 humble, which has not some connection with painting." {Delia Pitlura.) — Other points 
 of sympathy between the treatises of Leonardo and Alberti have been established by 
 Seibt., Hell-Dunkel (pp. 37, 38, 53). Both Alberti and Leonardo declare that black and 
 white are not colours, that vigour of relief is preferable to beauty of colour, etc. See alto 
 C. Brun's paper in \Y\s Jieperloriuin /iir Kiinsiwisseiischa/t, 1892, p. 267. 
 
 SKETCH IN THE TRAT- 
 TATO DELLA PITTL'RA." 
 
 (Vatican Library).
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING 
 
 235 
 
 SKETCH IN THE"tKATTATO LELLA 
 PITTUKA." 
 
 (\'atican Librarj*-) 
 
 Other there is the same difference as between the sun and the 
 moon." ^ 
 
 It was long before the dispute ceased to set artists and critics by 
 the ears. Vasari, Bronzino, Pontormo, Tribolo, and a crowd of others, 
 Aretino - included, took part in the fight. 
 After the death of Michelangelo, who had 
 ended by condemning the whole sterile 
 discussion, the question of precedence was 
 settled in favour of the painters, which 
 brought Cellini into the lists to break a lance 
 for sculpture."^ In the time of Voltaire the 
 discussion was renewed by the sculptor Fal- 
 conet; * " adimc sub jtidice lis esi." 
 
 Leonardo distrusted inspiration. He 
 thought it necessary to control and cor- 
 roborate it by a criticism which never slept, a criticism exercised 
 both by the artist himself and by strangers. So he begins with a 
 series of precepts calculated to give the painter the greatest possible 
 independence, and to make him an impartial and, as it were, out- 
 side judge of his own productions. " We know, as a fact, that one 
 sees the faults of others more quickly than one's own ; we even go so 
 far as to blame small errors in our neighbours when 
 we ourselves possess them in a still greater degree. 
 To escape this ignorance, master perspective first of 
 all, and then learn thoroughly the measurements of 
 men and animals; become also a good architect, at least 
 so far as the general forms of .buildings, and of other 
 things which stand upon the earth are concerned. 
 These forms are, in fact, infinite. The more various 
 (Vatican Librarj'.) ^^^^^^ knowledgc is, the more will your work be praised. 
 Do not disdain to copy slavishly from nature those details with which 
 you are not familiar." 
 
 " To come back," he adds, '■ to the point from which we started, I 
 
 ' Let/ere, Milanesi's edition, p. 522. - See P. Gauthiez, LAretin, p. 261. 
 
 3 / Tiattati deW Oreficeria, Milanesi's edition, p. xx.-xxxiv., 229, 233, 321, 331. 
 * See François Benoit : Quas apiniones et qiias controversias Falconet de arte habuerit. 
 Paris, 1897, p. 11-12. 
 
 H H 2 
 
 SKETCH IN THE 
 
 ' TRATTATO DELLA 
 
 riTTL'RA."
 
 2j;6 
 
 I.RONARIK) DA VINCI 
 
 tell you that you should always have beside you a llat mirror, and 
 should look continually at the reflection in it of your work. Being 
 reversed, the image will appeal to you as if it were done by some one 
 else. By this means you will discover your faults much more readily. 
 It will also be useful to leave off work pretty often and amuse yourself 
 with something else. When you go back you will judge what you 
 have done more fairly, for too much application lays you open to 
 mistakes. Again, it is good to look at your work from a distance, for 
 
 it then appears smaller 
 and can be more easily 
 embraced as a whole by 
 the eye, which will re- 
 cognise discords, faults 
 of proportion in limbs, 
 and bad quantities in the 
 colours more easily than 
 when close at hand " 
 (cap. 407). 
 
 In his discussion of 
 the weight to be given 
 to remarks made by 
 others, Leonardo, I 
 should think, does some 
 little violence to his own 
 convictions. Seeing how 
 he worked himself, it is 
 l^retty safe to assert that he laid very little store indeed by the advice 
 of his colleagues, whether they were professional artists or amateurs. 
 Did he not know more of the secrets of art than the whole of them 
 put together ? The most he did was to ask, now and then, for some 
 little technical guidance, as, for instance, when he took the advice 
 of Giuliano da San Gallo on the process of casting in metal. 
 
 However this may be, this is what he actually says on the function 
 of criticism : " As a painter should be desirous of hearing what others 
 think of his work, he should not repulse an external opinion while he 
 is painting, k^or we can see clearly that even a man who is not 
 
 
 
 - *i^i 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 
 
 E ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 «<• 
 
 
 m-AD or AN OLD MAN. 
 
 (Windsor Library.)
 
 ■1 Siudy of Draperies.
 
 Prrnled bv Dr.:pger. Pans
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING" 
 
 237 
 
 a painter knows how another man is shaped, and can see whether the 
 latter has a humped back, or one shoulder higher than the other, or 
 a nose and mouth too large, or any other natural defect. If we admit 
 that men are able to discern the mistakes of nature, still more must we 
 allow that they can see our faults. We know how a man may deceive 
 himself about his own works. If you cannot convince yourself of this 
 by examining your own productions, look at those of your neighbours, 
 and you will be convinced and 
 profit by their mistakes " (cap. 
 75). "If you wish to escape the 
 fault-finding with which painters 
 visit any one who, in this or that 
 branch of art, does not agree 
 with their own way ot seeing 
 things, you must familiarise your- 
 self with the different parts of art, 
 so as to conform in each to the 
 judgments provoked by works of 
 painting. These different parts 
 will be treated of below " (cap. 
 114). 
 
 Farther on Leonardo points 
 out, apparently with regret, the 
 essentially subjective nature of the 
 painter's " rôle." Two centuries 
 and a half before Buffon, he shows 
 
 the close relation between a man's character and his artistic style. 
 "On the great defect of painters. — It is a great defect with artists 
 to repeat the same movements, faces, and draperies in one and 
 the same composition, and to give to most countenances the 
 features of the author himself. I have often felt surprise at this, 
 for I have known many artists who, in their figures, seem to have 
 portrayed themselves, so that their own attitudes and gestures have 
 been reproduced in the population of their pictures. If a painter 
 is quick and vivacious in gesture and language, his figures have 
 an equal vivacity. If he is pious, his figures, with their drooped 
 
 
 
 •- 
 
 ^5 
 
 ^^w 
 
 \fy^'^^m 
 
 f4. 
 
 ,;^Kxll. 
 
 ■S*- ■■■- 
 
 ' ir V. 
 
 i 
 
 V 
 
 -. 
 
 V 
 
 r^' .. 
 
 HEAD OF AN OLD MAN. 
 
 (The Louvre.)
 
 238 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 heads, seem pious too. If he is indolent, his figures are laziness 
 personified. If he lacks proportion, his figures are also badly built. 
 Finally, if he is mad, the state of his mind is reflected in his work, 
 which lacks cohesion and reality ; his person- 
 ages look about, like people in a dream. And 
 so all the distinctive features of the pictures are 
 regulated by its author's character. . . .' (cap. 
 1 08 ; cf. cap. 186). 
 
 Elsewhere again he denies and condemns 
 realism : " Among those whose profession it is 
 to paint portraits, the men who make the best 
 likenesses are the least effectual when the com- 
 position of a historical picture is in question " 
 
 SKETCH IK THE " TRATTATO 
 UELLA riTTURA." 
 
 (Vatican Library.) 
 
 (cap. 58). 
 
 The painter of the Last Supper allows his spiritual tendencies to 
 break out in the following paragraph, with its original conclusion : 
 " A good painter should paint two things, man and the thoughts of 
 man's soul. The first is an easy, the second a difficult, task, because 
 the movements of the soul have to be expressed through movements 
 and gestures of the limbs. To this end one should study deaf mutes, 
 for their gestures are more expressive and important than those of 
 other men" (cap. 180). 
 
 Eclectic principles are clearly formulated in the following precepts : 
 " On the choice of beautiful faces. — The painter who gives beauty 
 to his countenances seems to me to betray the possession of an 
 uncommon gift of grace. He who does not possess it naturally may 
 acquire it by a series of accidental observations, thus : watch carefully 
 and choose what is good from a crowd of handsome faces, of faces, 
 I mean, which seem handsome to the generality of men rather than 
 those which please yourself, for you might in the latter case deceive 
 yourself by selecting faces which offered analogies with your own. 
 We are, as a fact, often seduced into error by these analogies, and, 
 being ugly ourselves, choose faces which are not handsome, and so 
 reproduce ugliness instead of beauty. Many painters do this. Faces, 
 in fact, are apt to resemble those who make them. Select beauties, 
 then, as I tell you, and engrave them on your minds" (cap. 137).
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING" 
 
 239 
 
 An echo from the teachings of the old Florentine school — I had 
 nearly said the School of Salerno— and among other things of the 
 Treatise on Painting of Cennino Cennini, may be perceived in the 
 advice given by Leonardo to his pupils on matters of morality and 
 hygiene — ^just as strongly as he recommends a gregarious study of 
 drawing (cap. 71), so does he preach solitude when it is a question 
 of thinking out and composing a work of art (cap. 50, 58). Contempt 
 of money is another of his principles (cap. 64). In short, no artist 
 has ever conceived a higher idea of the dignity of art than he. 
 
 He is often preoccupied with laws of contrast. He shows that 
 the juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness heightens the effect of each 
 (cap. 130, 187). He discourages, nevertheless, the mingling of melan- 
 choly people with cheerful ones ; for, he adds, the law of nature is that 
 we shall weep with those who weep and laugh with those who laugh, 
 so laughter must be separated from tears (cap. 185). It seems to him 
 equally tasteless to mix up children with old people (cap. 378, 379). 
 
 Long before Charles Le Brun, Leonardo busied himself with the 
 expression of the passions. Several chapters of the Treatise are 
 devoted to this interesting problem. One (cap. 255) tells us how to 
 represent anger, another (cap. 257) treats of the movements made when 
 laughing and weeping, and describes their difference. Elsewhere 
 (cap. 256) he asks himself how 
 despair is to be painted, and arrives 
 at the following conclusions: "A 
 desperate man may be repre- 
 sented holding a knife with which 
 he stabs himself, after having torn 
 his clothes and pulled out his hair. 
 He should stand up, with the feet 
 apart, the legs slightly bent, the 
 body bowed and about to fall, and 
 with his other hand he should tear 
 open and enlarge his wound." 
 
 As a theoretical painter, he also insists on the necessity for 
 studying human expression and gesture from actual life, and not from 
 models more or less trained to its display. " After mastering the 
 
 SKETCH IN THE ' TRATTATO DELLA PITTfRA. 
 
 (Vatican Library-.)
 
 240 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 movements of the limbs, the joints, and the trunk, the movements 
 of men and women reciuire to be studied as a whole, and then we 
 
 should, with th(! help of 
 
 
 /' 
 
 k. 
 
 
 '=*»; 
 
 •\ 
 
 '\ 
 
 
 MKAM'KKMKNTS UK Illl-: 111 MAN IN \ 
 
 (Lit>rary of the Institut de France.) 
 
 short notes consisting of 
 a few symbols only, 
 observe (and record) the 
 attitudes men take in 
 their excitement, and 
 that without allowing 
 them to see they are 
 watched, for if they 
 once suspect this, their 
 minds will be occupied 
 with the watcher, and 
 they will abandon their 
 previous violence and 
 frankness of movement. Examples : two angry men disputing, each 
 believing himself in the right ; they move their eyebrows, their arms 
 and other limbs with great vigour, in gestures suitable to their 
 intentions and their words. You could not force them to such a 
 display if you wished to do so, nor make them simulate either this 
 violent anger or any other emotion — laughter, tears, agony, admiration, 
 terror, and other sentiments of the kind. To observe all this, form 
 the habit of carrying a small sketch-book, the 
 pages prepared with bone powder, so that by the 
 help of the silver-point you may set down rapid 
 notes of movements, attitudes, and even the 
 grouping of spectators. You will thus learn how 
 to compose scenes. And when your book is 
 full, lay it on one side and preserve it for future 
 use. Then take another and employ it in the 
 same way. . . ." (cap. 179). 
 
 An enemy — if there ever was one • — of 
 formulée, the author of the Trattato yielded 
 
 occasionally to the temptation to impose over-narrow rules on his 
 disciples. This we may see from the advice he gives on the 
 
 SKETCH IN THE "TRATTATO 
 DELLA PITTURA." 
 
 (Vatic.in Library.)
 
 Portrait of an Old lï/an, 
 
 (BRITISH MVSKI'M.)
 
 Printed by Draeger, Paris
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING" 
 
 241 
 
 -/rh 
 
 question of how to represent the various ages. " Children of tender 
 
 years should be represented in brusque and awkward movement when 
 
 they are sitting down, 
 
 but when standing their 
 
 attitudes should be 
 
 timid and anxious " 
 
 (cap. 142). — " Old 
 
 people should be slow 
 
 and lethargic in move- 
 ment ; when they stand, 
 
 their knees should be 
 
 slightly bent, and their 
 
 feet, set parallel to each 
 
 other and at the same 
 
 line across the toes, 
 
 should be placed slightly 
 
 apart ; their bodies 
 
 should be inclined for- 
 ward, their heads 
 
 bowed, and their arms 
 
 not too far from their sides" (cap. 143). — "Women should be 
 
 represented in modest attitudes, the legs together, the arms crossed, 
 
 the head bowed. — Old women should be made to look bold and lively, 
 with vehement gestures, like infernal furies. The 
 movements of their heads and arms should be more 
 vivacious than those of the legs " (cap. 144, 145). 
 
 He goes on to examine the changes brought 
 about by age in the proportions of the different 
 members (cap. 264, etc.). 
 
 It is surprising to find those iconographical 
 formuke which occupy so large a space in the Mount 
 Athos Treatise on Painting, and in the Rationale of 
 Guillaume Durand, entirely absent from the Trat- 
 tato. Leonardo followed his fancy of the moment ; 
 
 he did not elaborate a programme, like Michelangelo or Raphael. He 
 
 lacked the gravity, the conviction, the dramatic power, of his two 
 
 I 1 
 
 MEASUREMENTS OF THE HL'MAN BODY 
 
 (Accademia, Venice.) 
 
 SKETCH IN THE TRAT- 
 TATO DELLA PITTl'RA." 
 
 (Vatican Librarj-.)
 
 242 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 SKETCH IN THE "trATTATO DELLA PITTURA. 
 (Vatican Library.) 
 
 great rivals. We could not imagine him painting a Crucifixion or a 
 Last Judgment. For him the history of Mary and of Jesus is no 
 more than a pretext for exquisite idylls, in which he elaborates the 
 joys of maternity and the innocence of childhood. The Old Testa- 
 ment is a closed book for him, with the single exception of the 
 Deluge incident. This he treated in a fashion which betrayed the 
 naturalist behind the artist. Once, and once onl)-, did he treat a 
 fundamental event in the history of Christianity, the institution of 
 the Eucharist. It is unnecessary to add that he represented the Last 
 
 Supper of ojir Lord with a dignity, 
 breadth, and eloquence, wliich have 
 made the great work in Santa Maria 
 delle Grazie the highest and most 
 perfect rendering of this cardinal 
 event. 
 
 Although iconography, and literary 
 elements generally, hold so low a 
 place in the Trattalo delta Pitliira, 
 its author aspired to instil new life 
 into allegory. While accepting certain traditional attributes, he set 
 himself to create a new symbolism, and that a symbolism of so deep a 
 subtlety that his own contemporaries could scarcely have understood it.^ 
 On one occasion he gives a receipt for the concoction of monsters ("un 
 animal finto"). "No animal exists," he says, "whose limbs, taken 
 separately, offer no resemblance to those of any other animal. If you 
 wish to give a look of probability to an imaginary animal (say a ser- 
 pent) give it the head of a mastiff or a setter, the eyes of a cat, the ears 
 of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the eyebrows of a lion, the 
 temples of an old cock, and the neck of a tortoise" (cap. 421).'- 
 
 Following close upon what we may call pictorial cesthetics, we find 
 practical advice, technical recipes, and those secrets of practice which 
 are discovered with so much labour and so easily lost. Heie Leonardo 
 
 1 See below, the chapters on Leonardo and the antique, and on Leonardo and 
 the occult sciences. Also cf. my Histoire de V Art pendant la Renaissance, vol. ii., p. 124. 
 
 - A drawing in the Uffizi (Braun, no. 451) represents a dragon springing on a Hon; 
 in the background, two pen sketches of the Virgin holding the Child. The authenticity 
 of this drawing seems to me doubtful.
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING" 
 
 243 
 
 r^ 
 
 SKETCH IN THe"trATTATO DELLA PITTURA." 
 (Vatican Library.) 
 
 gives proof of great experience and of an admirable fertility of re- 
 source. Whether it is a question of perspective, of colour, or of 
 chiaroscuro, he generously pours out 
 the discoveries of a long career of 
 ardent investigation. As it is clearly 
 impossible to summarise here many 
 hundreds of paragraphs, rich both in 
 facts and ideas, it must suffice to select 
 a few passages which throw light on 
 our hero's ingenuity and the extreme 
 interest of his work. 
 
 In a most interesting paper, for 
 •which one of my own publications sup- 
 plied the "apropos," M. Félix Ravaisson 
 
 describes the methods of teaching recommended by Leonardo.^ He 
 advises that the hand should first be exercised in copying drawings 
 by good masters ; and then, after receiving the teacher's advice (it is 
 Leonardo who speaks, and he clearly means " after the teacher has 
 pronounced the pupil ready to take a further step ") in drawing 
 from good works in the round (cap. 63, 82). " In the first of these 
 two passages," says M. Ravaisson, " Leonardo confines himself to 
 recommending the pupil to draw, not from nature, but from good 
 works of art, which will prepare him for the observation and compre- 
 hension of what nature has to give." In the 
 second passage, he divides this first stage into 
 two, and adds that the works to be copied at 
 first should not be objects in relief, such as 
 pieces of sculpture, but drawings, in which 
 
 everything is translated into the flat 
 
 So, too, he recommends that the parts should 
 
 be drawn separately before attempting the 
 
 whole. "If you wish to mount to the top of 
 
 a building, you must go up step by step, 
 
 and so it is, I tell you frankly, with the art of drawing. If you wish 
 
 really to understand the forms of things, you must begin with their 
 
 1 Revue politique et littéraire, 1887, p. 628. 
 
 I I 2 
 
 SKETCH IN THE ' TRATTATO DELLA 
 PITTURA." 
 
 (Vatican Library,)
 
 244 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 parts, and must not go on to the second until you are master, botli in 
 mind antl hand, of the first. If you do otherwise you lose your 
 time, or at least, you prolony your period of study. Accuracy must 
 be learnt before rapidity." 
 
 As Leonardo, in the Trattato, never wearies of asserting that 
 the painter should be universal (cap. 52, 60, 61, -j i, 78, 79), we 
 
 have every right to be- 
 lieve that the teach- 
 ing he gave was ency- 
 clopaedic. 
 
 No artist's eye has 
 seen more profoundly 
 than his into the mys- 
 teries of light ; no artist's 
 brain has more clearly 
 formulated its rules. In 
 him painter and op- 
 tician were combined, 
 as the result of innu- 
 merable experiments. 
 Nothing escaped him — 
 sunlight effects, rain 
 effects, effects of mist 
 and dust, variations of 
 the atmosphere (book 
 iii). He investigated 
 the changes undergone 
 by the tones of nature, by watching them through coloured glasses 
 (cap. 254). 
 
 The book devoted to light and shadow is of peculiar subtlety. 
 Only the eye of Leonardo could distinguish so many shades of differ- 
 ence. This we may see from the following paragraph. "There are 
 three kinds of shadows. One kind is produced b\ a single point of 
 light, such as the sun, the moon, or a flame. The st. ond is produced 
 by a door, a window, or other opening through which a large part of 
 the sky can be seen. The third is produced by such a universal light 
 
 A SHEET OF SKETCHES. 
 
 (Donnât Collection, Paris.)
 
 THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING" 
 
 245 
 
 as the illumination of our hemisphere when the sun is not shining " 
 (cap. 569).! 
 
 The teaching of perspective occupies a large section of the 
 Trattato. Leonardo 
 divides it into three 
 kinds : " linear perspec- 
 tive (prospettiva liniale), 
 the perspective of colours, 
 and aerial perspective ; 
 otherwise called the 
 diminution in the dis- 
 tinctness of bodies, the 
 diminution of their size, 
 and the diminution of 
 their colour. The first 
 has its origin in the eye, 
 the two others in the veil 
 of air interposed between 
 the eye and the object.""^ 
 
 Lonof before Albert 
 Durer, to whom the in- 
 vention of the canio'a 
 luctda is usually ascribed, 
 the Florentine master 
 contrived an easy way 
 of drawingr ficjures in 
 perspective with the help 
 of a sheet of glass. He 
 describes the process in 
 the Codex Atlanticus, 
 and in the Trattato} 
 
 GROTESQUE FIGURE. 
 
 OVindsor Library.) 
 
 1 Richter, vol. i., p. 16. — The laws of aerial perspective are very clearly laid down in 
 cap. cclxii. 
 
 2 Govi, Saggio, p. 13. — On Leonardo's studies in perspective, see Brockhaus, De 
 Sculpturâ, von Pomponius Gauriais, p. 46-48. 
 
 ^ Leonardo's researches in chiaroscuro have been analysed by Seibt : Hell-Dunkel; 
 Frankfort A.M., 1885, p. 33-53.
 
 246 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 The author of the Trattato devoted much study to the preparation 
 of pigments. Unfortunately, the results of his investigations in that 
 direction have only reached us in a very fragmentary condition. 
 
 We have seen that fresco did not appeal to him. On the other 
 hand, unlike Michelangelo, he was passionately attached to the oil 
 medium. He was the first to win a full harmony and transparency of 
 tone, and to obtain effects of chiaroscuro which even now, after four 
 centuries have passed, still transport us with admiration. But these 
 " tours de force " were dearly bought. The master demanded more 
 from oil painting than it could give. He applied it indifferently to easel 
 pictures and to monumental wall paintings. The Last Snppcr, the 
 Vierge aux Rochers, the Bel/c Ferronière, and the Mona Lisa are all 
 in a sad state ; such as are not blackened are covered with cracks. 
 
 In this respect Leonardo's influence worked nothing but harm. 
 His imitator Raphael, who followed the excellent and far-seeing 
 practice of the Umbrians in his early work, relaxed such wise pre- 
 cautions more and more towards the end of his career. Lamp-black, 
 which he used so recklessly, especially in the Louvre St. Michael, did 
 as much damage as bitumen has had to answer for in our own day. 
 Among the Venetians — who, by the way, contrary to usual belief, 
 practised tempera concurrently with oil-painting, there are many 
 canvases, especially those of Tintoretto, which look like vast slabs of 
 ink. And how many victims the same deplorable practice has 
 made even in our own century ! 
 
 In the researches carried on by Leonardo in his "rôle" as an artist 
 and chemist in combination, the archaeologist also finds an opportunity. 
 We shall see, in the chapter devoted to the Battle of Anghiari, that 
 the master, making use of a passage in Pliny, endeavours to recover the 
 secret of painting in encaustic. Nothing came of it. His attempts 
 failed, and greatly discouraged, he never carried his work beyond 
 the sketch. 
 
 As precursor of Correggio and the Dutchmen, Leonardo pointed 
 out how night effects should be managed. " Do you want to paint a 
 night scene ? Represent a great fire, and give to the objects nearest 
 to it the same colour as the fire ; the nearer one thing is to another, 
 the more it participates in its colour" (cap. 146).
 
 HIS STUDIES OF PROPORTIONS 247 
 
 Landscape filled a large place in the thoughts of Leonardo. His 
 oldest-dated drawing — an Alpine view — bears witness to the efforts he 
 made in that direction, even in his youth ! In the Tratlalo he often 
 reverts to the subject. According to him, landscapes should be so 
 represented that the trees are half in light, half in shadow, but the best 
 way is to paint them when the sun is hidden by clouds, so that the 
 trees may be illuminated by the general light of the sky, and shadowed 
 by the universal shadow of the earth. " And these," he adds, "will be 
 most obscure in the parts nearest to the centre of the tree, and to the 
 earth." 1 
 
 His studies of the proportions and movements of the human figure 
 were intended to complete the Trattato. For the most part these 
 researches were carried out between the years 1489 and 1498. At 
 this latter date, Pacioli notes the completion of Leonardo's work in 
 the dedication to his own De divina Proportione (" Leonardo da 
 Vinci .... havenda già con tutta diligentia al degno libro de pictura 
 e movimento humani posto fine - "). 
 
 Naturally enough, Leonardo made use of the labours of his Greek 
 and Roman predecessors. But on one occasion of his taking count of 
 antique opinions he was ill-inspired. Basing himself on Vitruvius, he 
 adopted eight heads, or ten faces, as the normal height of the human 
 figure (cap. 264, etc.). Now this calculation is false. Modern 
 science has proved that the normal height equals seven and a half 
 heads, or, at most, seven and three quarters. As for the head itself, 
 he divided it into 248,832 (?) parts, 12 grades, subdivided into 12 
 " punti," 12 " aminuti," 12 "minimi," and 12 "semi-minimi."'^ 
 
 All these studies of proportion have come down to us, partly in the 
 manuscripts of Leonardo himself, partly in the echoes of his ideas to 
 be found in Pacioli's treatise, De divina Proportione. 
 
 1 Manuscript G, folio ig. 
 
 ^ Leonardo commenced the book entitled De Figura u maria on April 2, 1489 
 (Richter, vol. ii., p. 415). — Zeising gives a very short résume of Leonardo's theory of 
 proportions in his Netie Lehre von den Proporlionen des menschlichen Korpers (Leipzig, 
 
 1854, p. 5°)- 
 
 3 One might be tempted to believe that the engravings of Fra Giocondo {M. Vitruvius 
 per Jocundum, 1511), and of Cesare Cesariano {Di Lucio Vitruvio Pollione de Architeciura 
 Libri decern; Como, 1521, fol. L), were taken from Leonardo's drawing of a man 
 standing in a circle with outstretched arms and legs. It was not so. The engravings in 
 question proceed naturally and ine«tably from the te.xt of Vitruvius.
 
 2^8 
 
 LEONARDO DA \'INCI 
 
 A few words, before goinj^ farther, on this very common-place 
 sateUitc of the great Leonardo. 
 
 Luca PacioH was born at Borgo San Sepolcro in 1450 ; he was 
 therefore two years older than da Vinci. A compatriot of Piero della 
 Francesca, he began, like him, with the study of mathematics, and 
 pushed his admiration of his teacher and fellow townsman so far as to 
 appropriate Piero's Tractatus dc qiiiuqnc Corporibus} Entering the 
 
 Franciscan order, he 
 
 lived sometimes in 
 Rome, where he enjoyed 
 the hospitality of L. B. 
 Alberti, sometimes at 
 Perugia, where from 
 1477 to 1480, and from 
 1 48 7 to 1 48 1, he filled 
 the chair of mathema- 
 tics in the University. 
 He also appeared now 
 and then at Naples, at 
 Florence, at Padua, at 
 Assisi, and at Urbino.- 
 H is Summa de Arith- 
 metic a appeared at 
 Venice in 1494, with a dedication to Guidobaldo of Urbino.^ Here 
 Pacioli betrays himself as the most insipid of bookmakers, as well 
 as a gossip and general blunderer.* His Latin is barbarous and his 
 
 1 The fact of these borrowings has been estabhshed by Hubert Janitschek in the 
 Kunstchronik of 1878 (no. 42), and by Jordan in the Jahrhuch for 1880, vol. i., 
 p. 1 1 2-1 18. See also Winterberg and Uzielli (second edition, vol. i., p. 451). \\'e must 
 not forget, however, that Pacioli, far from concealing his indebtedness to Piero, proclaims 
 it with enthusiasm : " E anco con quello promette darve piena notitia de prospectiva 
 medianti li documenti del nostro conterraneo et contemporale di tal facolta ali tempi 
 nostri Monarca Maestro Petro de Franceschi, di la qual già feci dignissimo compendio 
 e per noi ben apreso. E del suo caro quanto fratello Maestro Lorenzo Canozo da 
 Lendenara." (Winterberg's edition, p. 123.) 
 
 2 Uzielli, 2nd edition, vol. i., pp. 388 ct seq. 
 
 * See Narducci, Iiitorno a due Edizioni della Summa de Arithmeiica di Fra Luca 
 Pacioli, Rome, 1863. 
 
 ^ His last biographer, M. Uzielli, nevertheless credits him with having popularised 
 the highest branches of mathematics. 
 
 .MuDtL UF LETTER COMl'OSED I(V LEO.NAKDO FUK THE TKEATISE " 1)E 
 DIVINA PROPORTIONE."
 
 FRA LUCA PACIOLI 
 
 249 
 
 Italian unworthy of a Milanese, to say nothing of a Tuscan. In 
 spite of his mediocrity he was, however, superior to Leonardo in 
 one point — he gave the results of his labours to the world, while the 
 greater master jealously guarded his from the knowledge of his 
 contemporaries. 
 
 The fact that Pacioli never refers to Leonardo in his preface, while 
 he mentions a crowd of other living artists, ^ justifies us in supposing 
 that his acquaintance with the great painter did not begin till 
 later. It was not, in 
 fact, until 1496 that he 
 entered the service of 
 the Sforzi. Lodovico 
 appointed him professor 
 of arithmetic and geo- 
 metry in the University 
 of Pavia. His pay was 
 modest enough, for while 
 a professor of civil law 
 enjoyed an annual salary 
 of 3,600 lire, he received 
 no more than 310. From 
 1496 to 1499 Pacioli 
 worked side by side with 
 Leonardo, to whom he 
 devotes a generous eulo- 
 gium in his Dc Divina 
 ProportiùueP- After the 
 fall of Lodovico, Pacioli 
 quitted Milan at the same time as Leonardo. In 1500 we find him 
 
 ' I reprinted this preface in Les Archives des Arts, p. 34 et seq. In one of those 
 now incomprehensible memoranda with which he filled his notebooks, Leonardo wTites, 
 " Learn the multiplication of roots from Maestro Luca." Richter, vol. ii., p. 433. 
 
 - Finished in December, 1497. The dedication is dated February, 1498. The work 
 was not published until 1509. The Divina Proportioiie itself is followed by " Libellus in 
 très partiales tractatus divisus quinque corporum regularium et dependentium, activae 
 perscrutationis, D. Petro Soderino principi perpetuo populi florentini, a ^L Luca Paciolo 
 Burgense Minoritano particularitur dicatus. Féliciter incipit." (27 folios.) Ne.\t come 
 
 K K 
 
 GROTESQUE HEADS. 
 
 (Windsor Library-.)
 
 250 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 living once more at Perugia, and afterwards with da Vinci at 
 Florence.^ Here, in 1509, he dedicated to the Gonfaloniere Soderini 
 his Divina Proportione, which had previously borne a dedication to 
 II Moro. In the meantime, between 1500 and 1505,- he had been 
 teaching at Pisa, and had, in 1508, put in an appearance at X'enice. 
 In 1 5 10 we find him again in Perugia, after which all trace of him 
 is lost. 
 
 The following headings will give some idea of the contents of this 
 strange compilation. Perspective, like music, and for the same reason, 
 forms a branch of mathematics (book i, chapter iii). How to divide 
 a dimension, according to the rules of proportion, into a medium part 
 and two extreme parts (chapter viii). How the hexagon and decagon 
 form between them a dimension susceptible of division according 
 to the rules of proportion (chapter xvi).^ 
 
 I must make some reference to the figures inserted in the text of 
 the Divina Proportione. Setting aside the separate plates, they are all 
 geometrical diagrams, except those of fol. 25, v", a man's head in 
 profile, turned to the left, and geometrically divided. We have already 
 said something about Leonardo's share in the production of these 
 engravings. 
 
 We know from the evidence of Geoffroy Tory, brought to light by 
 the Marchese d'Adda and INI. Dehio,-* that the initials in Pacioli's 
 
 the plates, printed only on one side of the leaf. The first, inscribed " Divina Proportio," 
 is the male head described below ; ne.xt come twenty-three plates numbered from A to Y ; 
 and finally three plates, the first columns, the second entablatures, the third " Porta 
 templi domini dicta speciosa. Hierosolomis." There are besides some geometrical 
 diagrams. Note that the majority of the initials contain those interlaced ornaments so 
 dear to Leonardo. 
 
 1 De Architecturà, éd. Winterberg, p. 144. — Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche perugitie, 
 p. 127. 
 
 - Fabroni, Historia AcademicB Fisajiff, vol. i., p. 392. 
 
 ^ A German savant, Herr Winterberg, has had the courage to translate this chaotic 
 work, and to expound its fundamental law, the Golden Section, a magic formula, which, 
 it is asserted, enables the student to establish the value of any work of art by means of 
 three propositions ! This was an honour certainly undreamt of by the humble Pacioli ! 
 
 ■» Repertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft, i8Sr, p. 269-279.— "Frère Lucas Pacioli de 
 Bourg sainct Sepulchre, de l'ordre des frères mineurs et the'ologien, qui a faict en vulgar 
 italien un libre intitule' Divma Proportione, et qui a volu figurer lesdictes lettres 
 Attiques, n'en a point aussi parle' ne baillé raison : et je ne m'en ébahis point, car j'ay 
 entendu par aulcuns Italiens qu'il a desrobé sesdictes lettres, et prinses de feu messire
 
 Head of a Young Woman. 
 
 (WINDSOR I.IDRARV.)
 
 Printed by Dr
 
 HIS STUDIES IN PHYSIOGNOMY 251 
 
 treatise were designed by, nay, that their type was the invention of 
 Leonardo. Inspired, no doubt, by a passage in Vitruvius, which 
 advises that buildings should be given proportions analogous to those 
 of the human body, he chose to divide his letters into ten parts, just as 
 he had done with the human figure. 
 
 As early as 15 14 Sigismondo Fanti, of Ferrara, made no scruple of 
 appropriating the new system of proportion of Leonardo's letters in 
 his Theorica cf Pratica perspicassimi Sigisiiuindi dc Fantis Ferraricnsis 
 in artcin uiathciiiaticc profcssoris dc modo scribendi fabricandiqiie omnes 
 liltcrarum species (Venice, 15 14, book iv.). The alphabet he publishes 
 offers some variations upon that of Leonardo — the letter E, for 
 instance, is without the circle traced in the inner angle of the base, and 
 the other circles are sensibly different in proportion — but in spite of 
 that, it is based on the master's system. 
 
 But to return to the master. 
 
 Studies of physiognomy follow those on proportion and anatomy. 
 Here again Leonardo gives himself up to the most miscellaneous 
 investigations. His countless caricatures are simply illustrations of a 
 theory, unhappily never worked out. The system which governed the 
 conception of the Last Supper \x\^\>'\xçLà. these researches also. Lomazzo, 
 whose authorities were the intimates {domcstici) of Leonardo, tells us 
 that "one day the artist, wishing to introduce some laughing peasants 
 into a picture, made choice of certain individuals whose features 
 appeared suitable for his purpose. Having made their acquaintance, 
 he then invited them and other friends of his to a banquet, where, 
 sitting near them, he related a number of the maddest and most laugh- 
 able stories he could think of, making them scream with laughter, 
 
 Léonard Vinci, qui est trespasse à Amboiseet estoit très excellent philosophe et admirable 
 painctre et quasi ung autre Archimede. Cedict frcre Lucas a faict imprimer ses lettres 
 attiques comme siennes .... De vray, elles peuvent bien estre à luy, car il ne les a pas 
 faictes en leur deue proportion. A veult avoir sa jambe droite grosse de la dixiesme 
 partie de sa hauteur .... et non pas de la neuvieusme partie, comme diet frère Lucas 
 Paciolus .... l'ay entendu que tout ce tjû'il en a faict il a prins secrètement de feu 
 Messire Léonard Vinci, qui estoit grant mathématicien, painctre et imageur." (Champ- 
 fleury, edition of 1529, fols. 13, 35, 41 v°.) The Marchese d'Adda has skilfully defended 
 Pacioli against the accusation of plagiarism. (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1868, vol. ii. 
 
 P- 134- 
 
 K K 2
 
 252 
 
 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 SKETCH FROM THE ' TRATTATO DEI.LA PITTURA, 
 
 (Vatican Library.) 
 
 although they could scarcely have told what they were laughing 
 at. Upon him, none of the looks and gestures provoked by his tales 
 were lost ; afterwards, when these guests had departed, he retired 
 to his own house, and drew them in such a skilful manner that his 
 
 drawinefs made those who saw them 
 laugh as heartily as the stories had 
 made the guests laugh at the ban- 
 quet. Unfortunately this composi- 
 tion never proceeded farther than the 
 sketch." 
 
 This fantastic experiment recalls 
 a picture by one of the primitive 
 Milanese, Michelino da Besozzo, who 
 painted a group of two peasant men 
 and two peasant women convulsed 
 with laughter. About the same period, Bramante ventured on a similar 
 subject: he represented Democritus laughing and Heraclitus weeping. 
 Lomazzo also tells us that Leonardo used to be fond of watching 
 the looks and gestures of prisoners going to execution. He made 
 careful notes of their eye-movements, of the contractions of their 
 brows, and of the involuntary quivering of 
 their muscles. 
 
 These studies have been quite erroneously 
 called caricatures. They are fragments — 
 great fragments — of a treatise on physiognomy. 
 Leonardo had too lofty an intelligence to be 
 content with making mere frivolous combina- 
 tions, good for nothing but to provoke a laugh 
 — an impulse, moreover, quite foreign to the 
 Italians of the Renaissance — but he felt a 
 deep and passionate interest in the laws which 
 govern the physical eccentricity as well as the 
 perfection of the human race. 
 
 Hence we find that, long before Grandville, he had a glimpse 
 of the true relation between certain human deformities and animal 
 
 HE PKOI'ORTIONS OF THE HUMAN 
 HEAD, DRAWN BY LEONARDO FOR 
 PACiOLl's TREATISE.
 
 THE SO-CALLED CARICATURES 
 
 253 
 
 SKETCH FROM THE"TRATTAT0 PELLA 
 PITTUKA." 
 
 (Vatican Library.) 
 
 types. The old man with a bull-dog's face, the old woman with a 
 bird's head, are in his view reflections from an inferior species ; he 
 goes so far as to seek in the human countenance for analogies 
 with web-footed animals and even crustaceans. A step farther, and 
 we should have been tempted to talk of 
 evolution, and to compare him with Darwin.' 
 Modern writers have judged this part 
 of Leonardo's work with great severity. 
 "We can hardly say that he has even 
 skimmed the surface of the subject," says 
 one.^ Another formally condemns one of 
 the laws laid down in the Trattato. " The 
 following passage," he declares, " shows 
 how empty and false were the ideas of 
 Leonardo on the difference which e.xists between the laughing 
 and the weeping countenance: he who sheds tears unites the eyebrows 
 at their junction, knits them closely, forms wrinkles above them, 
 and drops the corners of the mouth ; on the other hand, he who 
 laughs lifts them [the corners of the mouth] and expands them, 
 while he raises the eyebrows and draws them apart." " 
 
 We see, then, that the Trattato delta Pittura forms a perpetual 
 commentary on the artistic activity of Leonardo. It is a collection of 
 subtle ideas and practical counsels, of scientific observa- 
 tions in which the spirit of analysis is pushed to its 
 extreme limits, and of those concrete guesses or in- 
 tuitions which reveal the artist of genius. In spite 
 of the occasional minuteness of its instructions, it is 
 better fitted to stimulate the mind than to act as a 
 practical guide and formulary. In its great suggestive- 
 ness it is addressed rather to those artists who love 
 to think for themselves, than to those who are content to accept ready- 
 
 1 In 1586, the Neapolitan G. B. Porta published his De Humana Physiognomonia 
 Libri h'., in which he establishes relations between the features of certain men and 
 animals. He quotes Aristotle, Pliny, e tutti quanti. 
 
 2 A. Lemoine, De la Pliysionomie et de la Parole, Paris, 1865, p. 29. 
 
 3 Piderit, La Mimique et la Pliysionomie, pp. 26, 99, 152. [French tr.] 
 
 SKETCH FROM THE 
 
 " TRATTATO DELLA 
 
 PITTURA," 
 
 (Vatican Library.)
 
 254 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 made formulre. It must be confessed that no school has felt its in- 
 spiration less than that formed by Leonardo himself, whose immediate 
 pupils — Boltraffio, Marco d'Oggiono, Salai, Melzi — never allowed any 
 hard thinking to disturb their equanimity. 
 
 Wc must not forget, however, that in Leonardo's atelier, theoretical 
 teaching- was always supplemented by practical and direct oral instruc- 
 tion. The master took pupils, or rather apprentices, to live in his 
 house. His "terms" were 5 lire a month, a very modest sum when 
 we remember all the discomforts and responsibilities which then at- 
 tended the taking of apprentices.^ Hear what Leonardo says himself 
 of the troubles this system brought upon him ; it confirms what we 
 already know of his placidity. " Giacomo came to live with me on 
 the feast of S. Mary Magdalen, 1490. He was ten years old. The 
 second day, I ordered two shirts, a pair of hose, and a doublet 
 for him. When I put aside the money to pay for these things, he 
 took it out of my purse ; I was never able to make him confess the 
 robbery, although I was certain of it. A thieving, lying, pig-headed 
 glutton. Ne.xt day I supped with Giacomo Andrea and the said Giacomo; 
 he ate for two and did mischief for four, for he broke three flasks and 
 upset the wine, and then came and supped where I was. Item : on 
 the 7th of September he stole a stylus worth 22 soldi from Marco's 
 studio, while he (Marco) was with me ; afterwards, the said Marco, 
 after a long search, found it hidden in the said Giacomo's box. 
 Lira I, soldi 2. Itc))i: on the 26th of January following, while I 
 was with Messer Galeazzo da San Severino arranging his joust, and 
 while certain footmen were undressing in order to try on some cos- 
 tumes of savages, in which they had to appear, Giacomo crept near 
 the wallet of one of them, which was lying on the bed with other 
 effects, and stole a few coppers which he found in it. Lire 2, 
 soldi 4. Item : Messer Agostino da Pavia having given me, in the 
 said house, a Turkish skin to make a pair of shoes, this Giacomo stole 
 it before the month was out, and sold it to a cobbler for 20 soldi, 
 
 1 "On March 14, 1494, Galeazzo came to live with me, agreeing to pay 5 lire a 
 month for his cost, paying on the 14th day of each month. His father gave me two 
 Rhenish florins." (Richtcr, vol. ii., p. ^140.)
 
 14 
 
 Siudies in Proportion. 
 
 (WINDSt'K LIBKAKV.)
 
 Printed by Draeger, Pan's.
 
 LEONARDO'S PUPILS 255 
 
 and, as he himself confessed to me, bought sweetmeats with the 
 money. Lire, 2. Iton : on the 2nd of April, Gian-Antonio left a 
 silver stylus lying on one of his drawings, and Jacopo stole it ; it 
 was worth 24 soldi. Lira i, soldi 4." ^ 
 
 Certain other pupils of Leonardo's, besides Salai, Melzi, Marco 
 d'Oegiono and Boltraffio, to whom I shall return later, are known to us 
 by the master's autograph notes, or by other documentary evidence. 
 Among them were one Galeazzo(i494), mentioned only by name; two 
 Germans: " Julio Tedesco," who entered the studio March 16, 1493." 
 and "Gorgio Tedesco" (1504-1515) f' finally one Lorenzo (1505), aged 
 seventeen.* The Florentine Riccio della Porta della Croce and the 
 Spaniard Ferrando were the master's assistants when he was working 
 on the Battle of Anghiari. 
 
 Leonardo was not fortunate enough to have a pleiad of engravers 
 around him, like the band who worked for Raphael under the direction 
 of Marc Antonio.^ But indeed his compositions, so much less literary 
 than those of Raphael, could not have failed to lose enormously in 
 reproduction. Their beauty lay mainly in suavity of expression, 
 delicacy of modelling, and charm of colour. If the rude and 
 monotonous processes of early Italian engraving sufficed, as Emile 
 Galichon has happily said, for the rendering of Mantegna's austerity, 
 and Botticelli's somewhat acrid beauty, " it was powerless as yet to 
 translate the indescribable grace of Leonardo's women. Hence it 
 was that Leonardo and his pupils used the burine merely by way of 
 experiment." 
 
 Only five or six early engravings of the Last Supper have survived, 
 
 ' Charles Ravaisson-Mollicn, Les Afanuscrits de Leonard de Vinci, vol. iii., fol. 15. — ■ 
 Cf. Richter, vol. ii., p. 438-439. 
 
 - Richter, Leonardo, p. 50; and The Literary Works, vol. ii. p. 438-439. 
 
 3 Raphael, p. 415. 
 
 * Amoretti, p. 91. 
 
 '•• On the engravings attributed to Leonardo see above, vol. i. p. 219-221, and on the 
 engravings of the Milanese School, Renouvier : Des Types et des Manières des Maîtres 
 Graveurs au XTf Siècle, p. 51-54. Montpellier, 1853. — Duplessis : De quelques Estampes 
 de l'ancienne Ecole milanaise, in the Revue Universelle des Arts, vol. xv. p. 145-164. — 
 Galichon : Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1S65, vol. i. — D'Adda : Gazette des Beaux Arts, 
 Oct. 1863 ; November, 1864; August, 1868. — Comte Delaborde : La Gravure en Italie 
 avant Marc Antoine, p. 184-188.
 
 2s6 LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 
 and they are by anonymous hands. The Madonnas, the ^S". Jolm, the 
 Battle of Anghiari, and the portraits, first engaged the attention of 
 engravers at a comparatively late period. 
 
 The Ti'attato (cap. 36) contains a passage which affords an 
 instructive glimpse into the studio of Leonardo. The painter, we are 
 there told, sits comfortably before his work and drives his brush, with 
 its load of beautiful colour, at his ease. He dresses to please himself. 
 His dwelling is clean and neat, and full of fine pictures. He often 
 has musicians to keep him company,' or readers who, ignoring the 
 sound of the hammers, recite works of literature to the delight of those 
 present. 
 
 1 It would seem, therefore, that Vasari told the truth when he said that Leonardo 
 surrounded Mona Lisa with musicians as he worked upon her portrait. 
 
 ^ 'xV 
 
 STUDV OF FLOWERS. 
 
 (Windsor LibraryJ 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
 L 007 300 165 3 
 
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