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LEONARDO DA VINCI

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LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS

IN VOLUME I

PAGE

La Belle Ferronniere. (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 8

Study of an Old Man. (The Uffizi, Florence.) 9

Studies of Infants (for the "Saint Anne"). (Musee Conde, Chantilly.) .... 12

Study of a Young Woman. (Windsor Library.) 13

Study of a Youth (for the "Adoration of the Magi")- (The Valton Collection,

Paris) 16

Study of Helmeted Heads. (Windsor Library.) 16

The Unbelief of S. Thomas, by Verrocchio. (Or San Michele, 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 Vecchio, Florence.) .... 21

Bust of Colleone, by Verrocchio. (Piazza di SS. Giovanni e Paoli, Venice.) . . 24
Head of a Saint, by Perugino. (Church of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi,

Florence.) 25

Study of a Horseman (ascribed to Verrocchio) 28

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.' (Weimar

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 Venice.) 41

Study of a Horseman. (Windsor Library.) 44

"The Annunciation" (attributed to Leonardo). (The Louvre.) 45

Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Valton Collection, Paris) ... 45

Study of Heads, d.ated 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 Museum.) 57

Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Uffizi, Florence.) 61

Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Louvre.) 61

VOL. l b

LIST OF TEXT ILT.USTRATIONS

PAGE

Tur, "Adoration of the Magi," nv Filippino Lippi. (The Uffizi, Florence.) ... 64
SrUDVFOit THE •' AuoR.vnON OF THE Magi." (The Louvre. Formerly in the

Galichon Collection.) "5

The Madonna of the "ADjR.vnoN of the Magi." (Fragment from the Caitoon.) 68

Cartoon of the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Uffizi, Florence.) 69

Study for the " Ador.\tion of the Magi." (Malcolm Collection, British Museum.) 72

Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (The Louvre.) 72

Types of Virgin and Child. School of Leonardo. (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 73
Study for the "Ador.\tion of the Magi" (fragment). (The Valton Collection.) 76
Study for the "Adoration of the Magi" (fragment). (Cologne Museum.) . . ^i

Study for the " Adoration of the Magi." (The Louvre) So

"S. Jerome in the Desert." (Vatican Gallery.) 81

Head of Christ. (Accademia, Venice.) 88

A Milanese Miniature of the Fifteenth Century (Frontispiece of the

"ISTORIA del Duca FRANCESCO Sforza," BY G. Simonetta). (British Museum.) 89

Study of a Horse. (Windsor Library.) 89

Frontispiece of the "Antiquarie Prospettische." 93

Portrait of Ippolita Visconti, by Bernardino Luini. (Monastero Maggiore,

Milan.) 96

To.MB OF Cardinal A.scanio 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

Bianca 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 : from the Monument by.Cristoforo Solari. (Certosa, Pavia.) 105

Design for Candelabrum. [Codex Atlanticiis) 108

Marshal Trivulzio. From a Plaque ascribed to Caradosso 109

Bramante. After a Medal by Caradosso 112

"The Martyrdom of S. Seba.stian," by Vicenzo Foppa. (The Brera, 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 delle Grazic,

Milan.) 1^0

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. Rouveyrc.) . 128
Studies of Horses. (Library of the Institut de France ; from M. Ravaisson-Mollien's

Leonardo da Vi?tci. ) j -,q

Portrait of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, by V. Foppa. (Wallace Museum, London. ; . 132

Study OF A Horseman. (Windsor Library.) • 133

An Allegory of Envy. (Library of Christ Church College, O.xford.) ' 136

A Beggar or Convict. (Windsor Library.) 137

Frieze by Caradosso. (Church of San Satiro, Milan.) . . . 141

Study for The "Adoration of the Magi." (The Valton Collection, Paris.) . . ' 141
Equestrian Bas-Relief of Annibale Bentivoglio (1458), by Niccolo dlll'

Arca. (Church of San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna.) 144

Equestrian Bas-Relief by Leonardo da Prato (15 it). (Church of SS. Giovanni

e Paolo, Venice.) j,-

Studies for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza. (Windsor Library,

reproduced from Dr. Richter's Book.) .148

Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata, by Donatello, at Padua

Studies of Horses.

Studies of Horses. (Windsor Library,

Study for the Equestrian Statue of F

149

(Windsor Library.) j-

153

OF Jt<RANCESCO Sforza. (Windsor Library.

Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) i q6

Study for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza.' (Windsor Library

Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) 1^7

Stwdy for the Equestrian St.\tue of Francesco Sforza.' (Windsor Library

Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) 160

LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS xi

PAGE

Study of Horses. (Windsor Library.) i6i

A Figure for the "Adoration of the Magi." (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) . . . i6i

Study for the Angel in the "Virgin 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, Oxford.) .... 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 dAdda at Milan.) 180

The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan 181

"The Last Supper," by Andrea del Castagno. (Convent of S. Apollonia 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. Matthew. (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 Last Supper." Left side. (In its present state.) 200

"The Last Supper." Right side. (In its present state.) 201

The Castle of Milan. From a sixteenth century Drawing 204

Design for a Lighthouse. (Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.) (Vallardi

Collection, the Louvre.) . 205

Plan of a Pavilion for the Duchess of Milan. (Library of the Institutde France.) 205

Mercury OR Argus. A Fresco by Bramante(?). (The Castle of Milan.) 208

Portrait of an unknown Man. (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

A Muse (?). From 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. Facsimile of an Engraving after Leonardo 220

Studies for the Statue of Francesco Sforza. From an Engraving ascribed

TO Leonardo. (British Museum.) 221

Design for a Church with a Central Cupola. (Library of the Institut de France.) 224

Models of Weapons, Offensive and Defensive. (The Valton Collection, Paris.) . 225

Study for the "Adoration of the Magi." (British Museum ) 225

Engraving of Interlaced Ornament, Inscribed "Academia Leonardi Vinci."

(The Ambrosiana, Milan.) 228

Engraving of Interlaced Ornament, inscribed "Academia Leonardi Vinci."

(The Ambrosiana, Milan.) 229

Sketch in the " Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 230

Sketch in the "Trattato 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 "Tr.\ttato DELLA Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 234

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 234

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 235

LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS

Head of an Old Man. (Windsor Library.) 236

Head of an Old Man. (The Louvre.) 237

Sketch IN THE "Trattato DELLA PlTTURA.^' (Vatican Library.) - . 238

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 239

Measurements OF the Human Head. (Library of the Institut de France.) .... 240

Sketch in the " Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 240

Measurements of the Human Body. (Accademia, Venice.) 241

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 241

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 242

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pit ruR A." (Vatican Library.) 243

Sketch in the "Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) 243

A Sheet of Sketches. (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 244

Grotesque Figure. (Windsor Library.) 245

Model of Letter composed by Leonardo for ^HK Treatise "De Divina

Proportione" 248

Grotesque Heads. (Windsor Library.) 249

Sketch from the "Trattato della Pittura." (.Vatican Library.) 252

The Proportions of the Human Head, dr.\wn by Leonardo for Paciolis

Treatise 252

Sketch from the " Trattato della Pittura.-' (Vatican Library.) 253

Sketch from the " Trattato della Pittura." (Vatican Library.) . . ... 253

Study of Flowers. (Windsor Library.) 256

:.A IIEI.LE FEKKONNItUK

(The Louvre.)

uol>

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Artist^ Thinker^ and Man of Science

FROM THE FRENCH OF

EUGENE MUNTZ

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE
KEEPER OF THE COLLECTIONS IN THE ECOLE DES BEAUX ARTS

With Forty-eight Plates and Tivo Hiciidred and Fifty-i%vo Text Illustrations

IN TWO VOLUMES

First Vohcvie

LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

MDCCCXCVIII

Rights Reserved.

MAUD Ci.AY AMI Sons, Limi

LONDON AND IIUNGAV.

THE LIBRARY

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 Virgin 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. I 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

PAGE

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 1—44

CHAPTER 11

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

CHAPTER V

LEONARDO'S DEBUT 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 I4I — 160

CHAPTER VI
THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS" — OTHER MADONNAS OF THE MILANESE PERIOD . 161— 176

CHAPTER VII

"THE LAST SUPPER" 177— 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 VURES

To fa.

I. Studies of Youthful Heads. (The Louvre) 4

II. Study of Drapery. (Windsor Library) i6

III. Study for a Head of the Virgin, ascribed to Leonardo (The Uffizi,

Florence) 48

IV. Study for a Head of the Virgin, ascribed to Leonardo (Windsor Library) 56
V. Bust of Scipio. School of Leonardo. (M. Paul Rattier's Collection) . . 15S

VI. First Idea for "The Virgin of the Rocks" (Duke of Devonshire's

Collection, Chatsworth) 162

VI I. "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) 190

X. Head of S. John. An Early Copy from "The Last Supper." (Weimar

Museum) 194

XL 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

A Study of Draperies. (The Louvre.) '.(. 236

Portrait of an Old Man. (British Museum.) 240

13. Head of a Young Woman. (Windsor Library.) 250

14. .Studies in Proportion. (Windsor Library.) 254

THE ANNUNCIATION ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO DA VINCi).

(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.

N Leonardo da Vinci we have the most
perfect embodiment of the modern in-
tellect, the highest expression of the
marriage 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
Quinet'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.

A, Two periods of human life seem to have specially fixed Leonardo's

LIFE STUDY.

(British Museum.)

2 I.I'.ONARDO 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 Boites) 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 GENIUS 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--v^
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 d'Esle, the Belle Ferroniere, and

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

ijV of a volng \voma>
(Windsor Library.)

I
Studies of youthful Heads

c. /c-

■inted b^rWittmann Paris (France)

THE GENIUS 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 della 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
with an evangelic gentleness, an in- (Windsor Library.)

STUDY OF A YOUNG GIRL.

(Windsor Library.)

ST'JDY OF A YOUTH

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 I saying ? He
invented the very method of modern science, and his latest biographer,
M. Seailles ^ 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 fo7'ce, 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
^ Leonard de Vifici. L Artiste et le Savant. Paris, 1893.

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 luxury ; 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 excitability 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 /ante, 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

OF THE TOW^

PVench " Maitre " : 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.

2 Our illustration reproduces a view of the town of Vinci from Signor Uzielli's Ricerche
intorno a Leo?iardo da Vm ci {ist ed. 1872, vol. i. frontispiece ; 2nd ed. 1896, vol. i. p. 3.)

LEONARDO'S FAMILY

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.

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 s^enius 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

^ 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 (thirty-
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 studj e le opere 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 1515 — 1516. (Vasari, ed.
Milan, vol. vi. p. 251.)

LEONARDO'S FAMILY ti

Benozzo Gozzoll painted with so much spirit on the walls of the Campo
Santo at Pisa.

While yet very young, Ser Piero formed a connertion 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 tide 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. In 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

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 v^ithout 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 ot 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

1 " Adi 9 di Luglio 1504, mercoledi a ore 7 mori ser Piero da Vinci, notaio al
palazzo del Potestk, mio padre, a ore 7. Era d'eta d'anni 80, lascio 10 figlioli maschi e
2 femmine." (J. P. Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. ii. p. 416.
London, 1883. 2 vols. 4to. We have borrowed several plates from this richly illustrated
work.)

STUDIES OF INFANTS (FOR THE SAINT ANNE).
(Musee Cond.;, 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

STUDY OF A YOUNG WOW

(Windsor Library.)

T4 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, Hke 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 high estate is the fact that Tommaso da Vinci gave 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

1 These papers now form part of the archives of the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome.

2 Lomazzo, Trattato della 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 whichev^er 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 Vinci, in whom were united physical beauty beyond all

GENEALOGY OF THE DA VINCI FAMILY :

Ser MiCHELE da Vinci Notary.

Ser GuiDO Notary (living in 1339).

Ser PiERO Notary (living in 1381).

Antonio (born in 1372).

Ser PiERO Notary (1427 — r5o4).

WIVES OF SER PIERO:

1. Albiera di Giovanni Amadori, 3. Margherita di Francesco di Jacopo

married 1452. di (juglielmo, married before

2. Francesca di ser Giuliano Lan- 1476-

fredini, married 1465. | 4. Lucrezia di Guglielmo Cortigiani.

CHILDREN OF SER PIEKO :
Leonardo Illegitimate.

Chi Id r 671 of the Third Marriage :

Antonio born 1476.

Ser Giuliano born 1479.

Lorenzo born 1484.

Violante born 1485.

Domenico, born i486. Descendants

living at the present day. I Pierino da Vinci.

Giovanni

Childre?i of the Fourth Marriage :

Margherita born 1 49 1 .

Benedetto born 1492.

Pandolfo born 1494.

Guglielmo born 1496.

Bartolommeo, born 1497, ancestor of

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,

LEONARDO DA VINCI

rissereneva ogni animo mesto." (" The splendour of his aspect, which
was beautiful beyond measure, rejoiced the most sorrowful souls.")

Leonardo was gifted by nature with most unusual

r"'^"~ muscular strength : he could twist the

^.-([^ "^ clapper of a bell or a horse-shoe as if it

\3^ <v=ji-v.,— .^'■^ 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 exceptional 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
the ancients, and a daring innovator, Leone
Battista Alberti, the great Florentine thinker
and artist, excelled 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 ring 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 mano a tutte discipline matematiche accomodatissima " —
" Scrivesi ancora alio rovescia e mancina che non si posson leggere se non con lo
specchio, ovvero guardando la carta del suo rovescio contro alia luce, como so m'intendi
senz' altro dica, e come fa il nostro Leonardo da Vinci, lume . . . della pittura, qual' e
mancino, come pih volte e detto." (Pacioli, De Diviiia Froportione.)

STUDY OF YOUTH (fOR THE ADORATION
OF THE magi).

(Collection P. Valton.)

STUDY OF HELMETED HEADS.

(Windsor Library.)

II
Study of Drapery.

WINDSOU l.ll'.HAl;V.)

Pr'inted b^ Willmar.n Paris (Fran,

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 1515 to Giuliano de' Medici, that
like " il nostro Leonardo da Vinci " 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

IE UNBELIEF OF S. THU.MAS, BY VERROCCHIO.

(Or San Michele, Florence.)

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.)

1 8 LEONARDO DA VINCI

family, are traits wliich the two great painters have in common, but 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 extreme care ; not only gifted but industrious, he occupied himself
early in the foundation of his fortune ; whereas Leonardo lived from
--^Jiand 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 few months he devoted to arithmetic, or rather to mathematics,
he acquired such knowledge of the subject that he nonplussed his
r 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 ed., 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 Tuscany,
and not in the obscure little town of Vinci, that the brilliant faculties
of the child were unfolded. The site of the house occupied by 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 Prdcurseitrs de la Renaissance,
in which 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 Vinci 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 Verrocchio and Pollajuolo ; it is true that his

D 2

LEONARDO DA VINCI

G OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST,
BY VERROCCHIO.

(Museum 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.!
^ ~:A.s in all periods in which inspiration fails, there reigned in the
Florentine studios a spirit of discussion, of death-dealing criticism,

j 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,
Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Piero della
Francesca, or even Andrea del
Castagno, every painter strove after
novelty, originality, " terribilita " —
the word by which Vasari desig-
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 Fllippo LIppo, who was Imitated by his
son Fillpplno 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 by drawing on the rocks
the movements of the goats of which he was keeper. And thus he

FLORENCE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

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 Vasarl 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
son, took some of his
sketches to his friend
Verrocchio and begged
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 Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. i. p. 332.
^ See my Raphael^ 2nd ed., pp. 19, 39 — 40.

■HE CHILD Wn

(Pala

A DOLPHIN, BY VERROCCHIO.

Vecchio, Florence.)

22 LEONARDO DA VINCI

Michelangelo executed the mask of a satxr 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.

Autres temps, autres moeurs ! 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
£2\ 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 first 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 apprenticeship ; each
member of the Academy might only receive one pupil at a time.

■^ In my Histoire de PArt fe?idant la Renaissatice (vol. ii. p. 497) and in the Gazette dcs
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 forriier 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, Herr Bode, attributes to Verrocchio
various bas-reliefs in bronze and stucco : the Descent from the Cross with the portrait
of Duke Federigo of Urbino (?) in the church of the Carmine at Venice 3 the Discord
in the South Kensington Museum, the Judgment of Paris, a bronze plaque in the
collection of M. Gustave Dreyfus of Paris {Archivio storico deW 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 deHght
of his contemporaries, the Majani, the Civitah', 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 1468 — 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 (in 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 affirms — 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 of 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
^ Gaye, Carteggio, vol. i. pp. 569 — 570. Cf. p. 575.

LEONARDO ]^A VINCI

was big with consequences ; it aimed at nothing less than the
substitution of the picturesque, sinuous, undulating, living element,
for the plastic and decorative formulae, 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 C/iiVf/

f\^\ ^''.Mm.^//;ifA^

BUST OF COLLEONE, BY VERROCCHIO.

(Piazza di SS. Giovanni e Paoli, Venice.)

zuit/i 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

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 unheahhy, 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 morbide 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, delighting in hol-
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 mise-en- scene, no
searching after recondite ideas with Verrocchio, any more than with
Leonardo. The simplest subject — a child playing with a dolphin, a
woman holding 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 VArt ChrMien, " does harmony exclude force ; they

HEAD OF A SAINT, BY PERUGINO.

(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 quaHtles, 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 teaching. 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 the 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 ; by
trade, we know, he was a goldsmith ; he became a sculptor 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 im.agined 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 Faifiting 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 ed., vol. in,
p. 574). Such distinctions were accorded only to patrons or to friends.

E 2

LEONARDO DA VINCI

in all probability, already quitted Verrocchio's atelier in 1475. ^t
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 Perugino, begun in Ver-
rocchio's studio, survived the depar-
ture of the latter. The two artists
STUDY OF A HORSEMAN (ASCRIBED TO vERRoccHio). ttiust, howevcr, havc had Hiany 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'^ un divin pittore.

Yet another Umbrian, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo of Perugia, appears to
have worked in Verroc-
chio's studio. His first jj'
dated work, the altar- (/ji*
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, Pinturricchio in Rom , p. 5. Bode, Italienische Bildhauer, p. 151.
Ulmann, Sandro Botticelli^ p. 38.

LEONARDO'S FELLOW-STUDENTS

and was still working under him, at the age of twenty-one, content with
the modest salary of one florin (about £2) a month. He was living
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 execution of the statue

LEONARDOS FIRST DATED LANDSCAPE.

(Uffizi, 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

30 LEONARDO DA VINCI

obsequies should be as simple as possible : " Quo minimo sumptu
fieri potest."

Seven years younger than Leonardo, Lorenzo soon came under
the influence of his fellow-student. No one, affirms Vasari, 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 lively
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 Uffizi 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 m.anual of
the master.

LEONARDO'S FELLOW-STUDENTS 31

It is not impossible 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 Botticelli. 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." He 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 kind. 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 float 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 extravagant habits, it is highly probable that he formed a close
connection with a band of hare-brained young fellows who frequented

^ See Ulman, Sandro Botticelli, pp. 37 — 38. I -shall have occasion to return to the
numerous motives borrowed by Botticelli from Leonardo : in the Virgin of the Magni-
ficat (see the Archivio storico dell' Arte, 1897, p. 3, et seq), in the Nativity of the National
Gallery, in the Adoration of the Magi of the Ufifizi.

2 Trattato delta Pittura, chap. Ix. Piero di Cosimo attempted, like Leonardo, to
form figures with clouds. (See his biography in Vasari.)

T.EONARDO 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 cultivated 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 Orfeo of Poliziano
represented, called upon Atalante to fill the principal part. Later on.

EKUOCCHIOS HEAD OF DAVID,

(Musee National of Florence.)

1 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 documents 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 sitting at San Marco. They were all acquitted, on condition that they
should come up again after a fresh enquiry. At the second hearing, which took place
June 7, 1476, the case against them was definitively dismissed. We see therefore
that his contemporaiies had already exonerated him. {Arc/iivio storiio dcll' Arte, 1896,
PP- 313—315-)

A HEAD BY LEONARDO FOR VERROCCHIO S "DAVID.

(Weimar Museum)

34 LEONARDO DA VINCI

having sown his wild oats, Atalante, like 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
the 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 Pithira, 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 caniaieu, which he pro-
nounced divine.

However, Leonardo soon abandoned this practice. In the Trattato
delta 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 ; ,

^ 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 I' Art
pendant la Renaissance, vol. iii. p. 148).

2 Miiller-Walde puts the date at 1466, which is quite within the range of probability,
Leonardo being then fourteen years old.

F 2

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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

THREE 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

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 ail 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.
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 Gahrien zu Mimchen und Dresden, pp. 350-351. (English translation by Miss
Ffoulkes, 1893, p. 27 t.)

^ Jahrbuch der k. Pr. Kunstsammlungen, 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

SKETCH, SCHOOL OF VERROCCHIO.

(The Louvre.)

38 LEONARDO DA 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 (evidently 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 beginning 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 after 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 Uffizi 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
Verrocchio 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.

^ Great was the impression produced by this group when it was installed, on June
21, 1483, in one of the tabernacles of Or San Michele. A contemporary, Landucci,
declares that never before had so beautiful a head of Christ been seen : "la piu bella
testa del Salvatore ch' ancora si sia fatta." {Diario fiorentino dal 1450 al 15 16;
Florence, 1883, 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 {Anhivio storico dell' Arte, 1892, p. 376).

^ Memoires de la Societe nationale des Antiquaires de France, 1885, 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 Baptism 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 Mona 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

HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, FROM VERROCCHIO'S BAPTISM
OK CHRIST."

(Accademia, Florence.)

STATUE OF COLLEONE, BY VERROCCHIO. (tHE BASE BY LEOPARDI.)

(Piazza di SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice.)

COLLABORATION OF LEONARDO AND VERROCCHIO 43

excellent reason, of looking to Verrocchio for ready-made formulae
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 Baptism of Christ is entirely by Verroc-
chio's 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.

^ An Italian critic, Signor Tumiati, has recently vindicated Verrocchio's claims to the
beautiful bas-rehef in the church of San Giacomo at Rome, signed " Opus Andrese," 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 Galerien zu Berlin, p. 35 ^/ seq.

2 Ascribed, in the National Gallery catalogue, to the School of Verrocchio. — Ed.

G 2

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 Vir-gin of the Rocks, and the Baptism
of Christ r

STUDY OF A HORSEMAl
(Windsor Library )

The Angels frotn Verrocchio s Picticre of the "■ BaptisDi
of Christ."

(Tho Angel on the riglil hy I^eonardo, the Angel on the left by Verrocchio.)

(aCCADTMIA DEI.LE ItF-I.I.E AKTI, FLOKKNCK.)

tTION (ATIKlIiUTED 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 UFFIZI— THE PORTRAIT OF BANDINI EARONCELLI.

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
niingling these together he evolved a most horrible and terrifying

STUDY FOR THE ADORATION OF
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 dl Megera con mirabllj
et varj agruppamenti di serpi."

^ Vasari . Lomazzo confirms this story, saying that the " rotella " was sent to

Lodovico il More. {Trattato della Fittura, 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 portiere 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
portiere 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

1 Milanesi, Documenti hiediti riguardanti Leonardo da Vinci, Florence, 1872, p. 11.
Fabriczy, // Codice dell' Anonimo gaddiano, Florence, 1893, p. 77.

2 See my Collections d' Antiques formees par les Medicis au xvi'. siecle, p. 61.

T.EONARDO DA VINCt

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 Italie, " that among

these young athletes
W n f M> i^ 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 delight, 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.

OF HF
(Uffizi

.DS, HATF-n

Florence.)

Ill

Study for a Head of the Vifi^in, ascribed to Leonardo.

THE ANNUNCIATION" IN THE LOUVRE

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 Morelli, 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 Annunci-
ation of the Uffizi, to

which we shall presently refer. The Virgin, too, presents the
Leonardesque type, with an added touch of morbidesza. But this
type, as we know, was adopted by Boltraffio, 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 Annunciation of the Louvre differs from that of the Uffizi

BUST OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST (ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO).

(South Kensington Museum.)

5° LEONARDO DA VINCI

firstly In its dimensions, its narrowness being quite abnormal, and
secondly, in the attitude of the Virgin, who is here in profile, while
in the Uffizi picture 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 Morelli (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 dl 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 charm of this composition, we may be per-
mitted to hesitate as to its authenticity, and that for various reasons.

^ Miiller-Walde (Fig. 66) connects this head with \\\q Resurrection in the Berlin Gallery.

2 It was assuredly thus, in a manner at once affecting and devout, that Leonardo
considered the Annujiclation should be represented. In his Treatise ofi 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, appeared
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 drapery for a seated figure facing the spectator,
and slightly turned to the left (Louvre) may relate to the Virgin of the Antiunciation,
despite the difference in detail. So too, the drapery of the kneeling figure, turned to the
right (Uffizi) may be that of the angel (Miiller-Walde, fig. 191).

"THE VIRGIN WITH THE CARNATION" 51

The Annunciation has a precision, I mean a rigour and firmness of
outline, 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 Slipper), 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
with Leonardo's style, and refrain froni attempts to solve a problem
calculated to exercise the sagacity of the critics for a long time
to come.

Following on the two Annunciations, If we are to believe certain
connoisseurs, comes a • Virgin and Child, acquired In 1889 by the
Munich Pinacothek, and now known to fame under the title of the
Virgin with the Carnation} The history of this little picture (it
measures 40 x 60 centimetres only) Is quite a romance. Sold at Giinz-
burg for the modest sum of a guinea, it was bought again almost
Immediately by the Pinacothek for £\o, 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. 16 16 In
the same collection), the Virgin 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 Molinier, pointing out a replica of the Virgin with the

1 Bayersdorfer. — De Geymiiller, Gazetfe des JJeavx-Aris, 1890, vol. ii. pp. 97— 106
Koopmann, Repertorwvi fiir Kunsiwissenschaft, 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 Virgin 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. MorelH, whose

^m^m^^m

(Bonnat Collection, Paris.)

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 me the main argument against Leonardo's authorship is the type of

^ See the Bulk tin de la Socictc )iatio7iale des Antiqiiaires de Frajue, 1890. — Reper-
torium filr Ktaisiwissenschajf, 1891, p. 217 — 220. — Morelli, Die Galerien zu Mimchen
tind Dresdett, pp. 349 — ii^(>.--Zeitschrift filr bild. Kimst., 1893, p. 139 — 141.

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 either 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 uplifted
hands (No. 13). This picture appears to me hardly worthy of Lorenzo di Credi, to whom
Herr Woermann ascribes it {Katalog der K. Gemdldegakrie zu Dresden, 1887). According
to Morelli, its author was a Flemish imitator of Lorenzo di Credi.

PICTURES ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO

the Berlin Museum, the

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 Magi, the Virgin of the Rocks, the 5. Jerome,
and the Mona Lisa.

A picture — very much damaged — in
Resurrection of Christ betiveen S. Leona7'd
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 golden 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 Museum) ; lastly, a
pen-and-ink drawing, a sketch, with the
head of Saint Leonard, in the Uffizi
(p. 48). That the Resttrrection 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.

SKETCH OF BARONCELLI.

(Bonnat Collection, Paris.)

1 The choice of these two saints has been regarded as an allusion to the Christian
name of the painter, and that of his father's mother, the aged Lucia.

'^ Jahrbuch der Kg. F?-euss. Ku7istsammlu7igen, 1884 — Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1889,
vol. i. p. 501—505.

54 LEONARDO DA VINCI

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 Ammn-
elation in the Uffizi. But this is important only if the Anminciation
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 doubt, " a fortiori " it would be impossible to fix their
chronology. Any attempt in that direction would be premature and
hazardous.

But though we niay 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. 2>Z)-

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 GeoT-ge striking 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

^ This opinion was brought forward for the first time by Dr. Bode : Italietiische
Bildhmter, p. 156. — According to Miiller-Walde {Leofiardo da Vinci, p. 66) the Vienna
portrait dates from about 1472.

CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY WORKS 55

it springs. Among these studies from nature, in which 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 gargoyles of
cathedrals.^

To the years 1472-1473 a biographer assigns a series of drawino^s
— 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 tw^o first, scarcely per-
ceptible traces of archaism : for instance, the rather Iqw 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 Mliller-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 Volterra (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, ample drawing (p. 57),
dates from a much later period in the artist's life.

At this time too, according to Herr Muller-Walde, Leonardo
had begun to work for the Medici. Certain studies of costume in the
Royal Library at Windsor "^ are supposed by him to be connected with

1 A draped figure, standing, seen from behind (Windsor Library ; Richter, vol. i.
pi. xxviii, no. 7, p. 391), recalls the traditions of the Quattrocento, the tyi)es of Perugino
and Pinturicchio. It has none of the freedom and case proper to Leonardo.

2 Muller-Walde, Leonardo da Vinci, fig. 7.

■' Leonardo da Vinci, fig. 36, 37, 38. Cf. p. 74.

S6 LEONARDO DA VINCI

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 (I) to Botti-
celli's Simonetta 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 Trattato della Pittura (chap.
xxxvii) he makes special mention of them — he who so seldom mentions
1 MuUer-Walde, Leonardo da Vinci ^ fig. 13. ^ Ibid. p. 75.

Stttdy for a Head of the Virgin, ascribed to Leonardo.

(UIN'DSOR T.IBRARV.)

CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY WORKS

a name — though only in reference to their technique. His letter 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 Saint
John the 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.

After 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.

PORTRAIT
(Malcolm Collect

\ WAKRIOR.
British Museum.)

58 LEONARDO DA VINCI

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. Tne 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
began the two Virgins," 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^. On January i, 1478, 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, that 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
com nission 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 Miiller-Walde identifies the picture left unfinished by Leonardo
with the Adoration of the Magi in the Uflizi, 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 " Comincio a dipingere una tavola nel detto Palazo, la quale dipoi in sul suo disegno
fu finita per Filippo di Fra Filippo." (Anonymous biography, published by Milanesi,
p. 1 1.)— Miiller-Walde, y<i//r<^?/r// der kg. Preuss Kunstsammlutigen, 1897, p. 126.

DRAWING OF B. BARONCELLI 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
ease, judging from a curious drawing in the collection of M. Leon
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 — anxious 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 mandato male
cio che legli aveva, era involto in ogni sorte di sceleratezza . . . il Bandino fu il primo
che gli passo (Giuliano) el petto con un pugnale.

" Bandini, non si contentando di avere con i suoi amazzato Giuliano, se n'ando alia volta
di Lorenzo, il quale di gia a punto s'era salvato con pochi in sacrestia, ma intanto il
Bandini passb con la spada la vita a Francesco Nori, uomo accorto e che faceva per i
Medici, e I'amazzo." {^La Congiura 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 mise-en-
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, note.

Head of a Young If oman.

(Tin- I rHZI, li.OKKNCE.)

Printed by Drae;er, Paris.

STUDY FOR

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

(Uffizi, Florence.)

CHAPTER III

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI — " THE S. JEROME —DEPARTURE FROM FLORENCE
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-
Hshed that in March, 148 1, 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 Florence. Miiller-
\^?X^Q,Jahrbuch der kg. Freuss. Kunstsammlungen,

(The Louvre.) 1 89 7, p. 121.

2 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 litde 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 Pieta 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 Filippino Lippi, Botticelli^

STUDY FOR 'THE ADORATIC
OF THE MAGI."

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 Uffizi, 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
of 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 next
objection is a weightier one. In June, 148 1, the picture ordered by
the monks of San Donato was so far advanced that the brothers made
a purchase of ultramarine, a precious substance used only 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 Sjipper. This juxtaposition is difficult to explain, if the cartoon

and other 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 Firetize, p. 196. Florence, 1881.)

1 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. At an earlier date, June 25, the brothers had advance^d 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 148 1, 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
Angkiari 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
Adoration 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 M tiller- Walde believes the picture ordered by
the monks of San Donato to have been a Christ bea7'ing the C7'oss}
The German author considers a head of Christ in the Accademia at
Venice a study for 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
gratuitous.

^ Vasari only says that Leonardo began a picture of the Adoration of the 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. Strzygowski, unacquainted with the studies I had published
eight years before in Z' Art (April 15 and August 15, 1887), and in the Revue des deux
Motides (October i, 1887), is of opinion that the Ufifizi cartoon was begun after Leonardo's
sojourn at Milan; that the drawing in the Galichon collection dates from 1480; the
right-hand portion of the cartoon from 1494- 149 5 ; and the Madonna and the rest from
the first years of the sixteenth century. {Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsammlungen, 1895,
pp. 159-175.)

2 See p. 58.

^ Leonardo da Vinci, p. 157.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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, ' BV FILIPPINO LIPPI.

(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. Leon
Bonnat has collected so many mementoes of the great masters, shows

1 The catalogue at the end of the volume describes those drawings not mentioned in
the text.

STUDIES FOR "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI"

that Leonardo's first intention was to paint, not an Adoration of the
Magi, but an Adoration of the Shephe7^ds, or Nativity, a subject we

'4"^

;;«.r , ^mm

•' , > ;j^^ ^ /| ;* ; Iff

STUDY FOR THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

(.The 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

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. Valton. 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 which 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,

STUDIES 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 ofif, leaning on a long staff. Then we have young men, their
hands on their hips, 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 Geymtiller
and Richter drew my attention, and for a photograph of which I
am indebted to Herr 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

LEONARDO DA VINCI

out before him, his head turned over his shoulder. Buskins are
slightly 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 Cologne drawing for
this last figure — 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 Z'^r/, 1887, vol. ii, p. 71), which represents the last stage of
the composition. Another, who kneels on one knee, prostrates himself

\A OF THE ADORATION OF THE

(Fragment from the Cartoon.)

STUDIES FOR " THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI "

on the ground in the Louvre drawing ; but he has risen to his feet
in that of the GaHchon 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 MAGI.

(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.

70 LEONARDO DA VINCI

A fifth drawing, taking them in chronological order, is to be found
in the Uffizi ; 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 Uffizi 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 the
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-scene. 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
Gallchon 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, afflatus, 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 MAGI" 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 Ufiizi 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 expressed 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 StLppei'-, 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 astonishino-
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

LEONARDO DA VINCI

STUDY FOR THE

OF THE 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 Child

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 extremities, 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 (The Louvre >

STUDY FOR THE ADORATION

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI"

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.

TYPES OF VIRGIN AND CHILD. SCHOOL OF LEONARDO.

(Bonnat 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

^ See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 3 1-34.

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 ahnost 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 figures
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 the
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.

2 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
excellent 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 BibHotheque de ITnstitut.

1 Passavant apud Rigollot, Catalogue de PCEuvre de Leonard de Vinci, p. 314.

2 For the progress brought about by Leonardo in the art of modeUing, see Briicke
and Hehiiholtz's Principes Scientifiques des Beaux Arts, p. no— iii. Paris, 1878 (tr.
from the German).

L 2

LEONARDO DA VINCI

pronounced with regard to colour 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. Ixxiv. of the Trattato della Pithira to see with what irony he

rallies the mediocre painters who hide
their incompetence under a blaze 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 examine 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.

for the adoration of the magi
(fragment).
(The Valton Collection.)

LEONARDO'S ARTISTIC METHOD

^J^}

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 Las^ Supper,
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 7'aison d'etre 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 Vasari, 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 Adoration 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 Fina. 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 morbidezza undreamt of
heretofore, especially by Ghirlandajo.

If we turn to Filipplno 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
Servites. 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 5. Jerome at Windsor and the sketch of
^\ Jerome 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 fa9ade as
restored by L. B. Alberti.^

The first thing that strikes us in considering this period of
Leonardo's activity (from 1472, 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 Geymiiller apud Richter, vol. ii. p. 54.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

twelve years. And yet, vast cycles were projected and begun at this
period in Florence and in Rome. How was it that the patrons of
the day neglected the glorious debutant ? 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
AnmLiiciations in the
Louvre and the Uffizi,
the Adoration of the
Magi, 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 "the ADORATION OF THE MAGI

(The Louvre.)

Shidy for the '' Saint Jerome r

(WINDSOR l.IBKAKV.)

Printed by Draeger, Pa

SOCIAL ATMOSPHERE OF FLORENCE

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 Gallery.)

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.i

As far as the journey itself is concerned, there is a certain
probability in the hypothesis, at least at the first blush. Many

1 Zeitschrift fur bild. Kunst, 1881. The Literary Works of Leonardo da
Vinci, vol. ii. p. 385-392. La Chronique des Arts, 188 r, p. 87-88. Cf. Charles
Ravaisson-MoUien, Les Ecrits de Leonard de Vinci, Paris, 188 1. Uzielli, Ricerche, 2nd
edit. vol. i. p. 72 et seq. Govi, Alcuni Frammetiti. Douglas, Proceedings of the Royal
Geographical Society, June, 1884. De Geymiiller, Les demiers Travaux sur Leonard
de Vinci. Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1886. Enlart, Les Monuments gothiques de
C/iypre, 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 wine, Leonardo shows his
familiarity with a characteristic trait of Mussulman manners. There is
yet another presumption, which seems still more conclusive : the
famous Codex Atlanticus 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 ot
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 Kait-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

84 LEONARDO DA VINCI

about forty years later. In 1483 there was a terrible earthquake
in Syria, especially at Aleppo ; and to this Leonardo's words " grande
e stupendo effelto," 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 expression 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 East 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 East 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

^ Archivio storico Lombardo, 1886, p. 866 et seq.

SUPPOSED TRAVELS IN THE EAST 85

of the Portinari's bank at Milan in 1480, had also been in the
East.i

M. Eugene 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 of Phalaris-asiA the 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 Hfe 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

^ De Geymiiller, Les der?iiers Travaux sur Leonard ae Vinci, p. 51.

86 LEONARDO DA VINCI

initiative. The two biographers are agreed as to the episode of the
lute: "Leonardo," says one, "was to play the lute to this prince,
a passionate lover of music. He arrived, carrying an instrument he
had fashioned himself; 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 improvisatore
of his day. Lodovico, charmed by his facile 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 undertaking 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 Miiller-
Walde puts forward the end of 148 1, 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 (Piot, Le Cabi?iet de V 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 kg. 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 camaiezc from Leonardo. Now, Leonardo was much
more occupied with studies of this kind in 1504, after his long
labours on the statue of Sforza, and when he was working at the
Battle of Anghiari, than In 1484. (It is Interesting to note that in his
memorial to Lodovico 11 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 4clat that marked Michelangelo's

88 LEONARDO DA VINCI

beginnings, 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.

(Accademia, Venice.)

MBRO PRIMO DELLA HISTORIA DELLE COSE FACTE DALLO
IN VICTISSIMO DVCA FRANCESCO SFORZA SCRIPTA IN LA
UNO DA GIOVANNI SIMONETTA ETTRADOCTA IN LIN
G VA FIQRENTINA ^^ ^"pjjjqphoRO LANDING FIQRFN

MILANESE MINIATURE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY (FRONTISPIECE OF
THE " ISTORIA DEL DUCA FRANCESCO SFORZA," BY G. SIMONETTa).

CHAPTER

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.

EONARDO'S sojourn in Milan

coincides with Italy's last days

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 01

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, Climent & 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 Istoria d'lialia, 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 host 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 pleasures, 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 IN 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 milieu, 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 daughter of the last Visconti, and established his dominion over
the whole of Milan, pardy by force of arms, pardy 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 anaemic 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 poison.

1 The details I give here may be completed by those in my Renaissa7ice en Italie
e( en France au temps de Charles VIII. (Paris, 1885, p, 209-273.)

N 2

92 LEONxVRDO 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 Vinci among his
servants.

Born at Vigevano on April 3, 145 1, 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
ot 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, Moro)?-

^ '' Fu oltra li altri fratelli dedito alii studii ; el per il bono ingegno suo facilmente
capiva il senso deli autori, di modo che, fra tutti li altri dominarno mai Milano, fu il piu
litterato" (Prato, Archivio storico italiatio, vol. iii. p. 256-257). "Vir ore probo,
moribus humanis, ingeniorum amantissimus, aequi servantissimus, nam et saepe jus
dicebat, lites longas et inextricabiles brevites cognoscendo. Postremo fortunam
adversam habuit " (Raphael Maffei da Volterra, Geographia, Book iv.). See also
Roscoe, Vita e Pontificato di Leone X., ed. Bossi, vol. i. pp. 49, 141, 145, 146 (Milan,
1 81 6). — Like all dogmatic spirits, Rio, the learned, impetuous, and eloquent author of
L'Art Chretien, 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 Inquisition, but
for Lodovico he is full of tenderness.

" Fu questo signer Ludovico Sforza, da la negrezza del colore, cognominato Moro ;
cosi appellato primieramente dal patre Francesco e Bianca matre— ne li primi 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 Gratie di Milano, dove si vede anco il ritratto di Beatrice sua moglia, tutte due
m gmocchioni con gli figU avanti, et un Christo in Croce dall' 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

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. Vacillating 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 XH.'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. Throughout

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

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 Chretien^ vol. iii. p. 67.)

antiqnarie ^fptticbe

•ftomaneCopolkpcr

piofpectinoIDeUncfe

Mpictoie

FRONTISPIECE OF THE ANTIQUAF
PROSPETTICHE."

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 Liguria, 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 Mecaenas 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 to power the reader is referred to
a memoir published in the Archivio storico lovibardo, 1886, p. 737.

2 H. Frangois Delaborde, U Expedition de Charles Vljl. en Italie, p. 217.

Study for the Viroin with the Infant /esits (ascribed to
Leonardo),

(l)kniSH MlSKl'M.)

Printed by Draeger, Paris

LODOVICO SFORZA 95

tists had faith — and a faith that was fully justified — in the effect
produced 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 Visconti who,
under Petrarch's auspices, had formed the admirable library of Pavia,

LEONARDO DA VINCI

now one of the glories of the French Bibliotheque 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 role of the
bibliophile. M. Leopold Delisle found only one manuscript executed
for Lodovico, a Sallust, among those in the Bibliotheque Nationale.^

PORTRAIT 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 Mafiuscrits. See also the work of the Marchese d'Adda, Indagim
.... sulla Libreria del Castello di Pavia, vol. i. p. 60 et seq., 142 et seq., 167; vol. ii.
p. 85 et seq., loi, 124. Also Mazzatinti, Manoscritti italiani delle Biblioteche di
Francia, vol. i. c. xcvii-viii.

TOMB OF CARDINAL ASCANIO SFORZA, BY ANDREA SANSOVINO,

(Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

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 Lombardy. 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)2 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 {Bibliotheca Scriptorum mediolanenstum,
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'Auion, vol. ii. p. 331) speaks of him as having taken refuge in
Mantua in 1503, and as included by Louis XII. in the list of the rebels.

MEN OF LETTERS AT MILAN 99

verse entitled: De Pmdo 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 Antiquaria Prospettiche romane
composte per Prospetlico 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

^ Some of Bramante's sonnets were published a century later in the Raccolta milanese,
and then by Trucchi {Foesie italiane inedite di dugenio Autori ; Prato, 1847, vol. iii.). I
have drawn attention to others in a MS. in the Bibliothe^ue Nationale {Gazette des Beaux-
Arts, 1879, vol. ii. p. 514 etseq). Signor 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 riposo " not to let old age come upon her before
responding to his flame : —

" Dunque, mentre que dura il tempo verde,
Non far come quel fior che'n su la pianta
Senza frutto nessun sue frondi perde.

Che quando il corpo in piii vecchiezza viene,
Pill di sua gioventu si gloria e vanta,
Vedendosi 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 Novelle, 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

PORTRAIT OF THE POET BELLINCIONI, FROII
ENGRAVING OK 1493.

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

^ See my Raphael^ published by Hachette, 2nd ed., p. 298.

" Pelissier, Bulletin /listorique et philologique, 1892, p. 139-140,

ANDREA DA FERRARA

.1 What was Jacopo Andrea's speciality,
know not. One of Leonardo's biographers

JACOPO

Jacopo Andrea da Ferrara
what his philosophy ? We
suggests that he may be
identified with the " Jaco-
bus de Ferraria, ingig-
nerius " who superin-
tended the fortification of
St. Angelo at Rome from
1485 to 1496.2 But this
is a mere conjecture. All
we know for certain is
that Jacopo, implicated in
a conspiracy against Louis
XIL, 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
by Lodovico, were suc-
ceeded by theatrical representations. The prince seems to have

1 "Jacomo Andrea da Ferrare, de I'opere de Victruvio acuratissimo sectatore, caro
quanto fratello," to Leonardo da Vinci {FacioH, ed. Winterberg, p. 33). Leonardo
mentions Jacopo Andiea 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 Messire V. Aliprando ; and the third time merely by name.

- Uzielli, Ricerc/ie, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 382.

3 A report upon the rebels, drawn up in 1503, states that " Jacques-Andrie de Ferraire
was beheaded at Milan, and his goods given to Maistre Teodore Guayner, physician to
the King." {Chroiiicpie de Jea7i d'Auton^ edited by de Maulde, vol. ii. p. 335-)

THE CHRONICLER CORIO, FROM A CONTEMPORARY ENGRAVING.

I02 LEONARDO DA VINCI

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 Litteratura italiaiia, ed. Milan, vol. vi. p. 13 14. — Uzielli,
Ricerche, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 62.

2 Corio, Historia di Milano, p. 962. ^ Ji^ifue ahacienne, 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 fa9ades 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. 157-158. [French translation.]

2 On Vigevano, see Bellincioni, vol. i. pp. 35, 36, 150, 173, 194. — Decembrio, apud
Muratori, Scriptores, vol. xx. col. 998; Cagnola, Archivio storico italiano, vol. iii. p. 188.
Argelati, vol. i. p. ccclxxxi. — Burckhardt, Geschichte der Retiatssance^ 2nd ed., p. 7.
De Geymiiller, Projets primitifs pour Saint Pierre de Rotiie, p. 51 ^/ seq.

X04

LEONARDO DA VINCI

niANCA MARIA SFORZA.

(From a drawing by G. M. Cavalli.)
(Accademia, Venice.)

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 Misericord ia at Vigevano
(now destroyed, )2 The reader may judge

THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN.

(From a drawing by G. M. Caval'
(Accademia, Venice )

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.^

1 Richter, vol. ii. p. 236. D'Adda, Lidagini, vol. i.
p. 156.

^ Archivio storico delV Arte, 1888, p. 57.

2 June, 1497. Orders issued to Marchesino Stanga ;
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 "II Ciobbo " (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, urge Leonardo

the Florentine to finish the work he has begun in the refectory delle Grazie, 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 skilful architects to examine and
make a model for the faQade of S. Maria delle Grazie, having regard to the height 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. . . . (Cantii, Archivio storico lombardo, 1874, p. 183-184.)

THE COURT OF LODOVICO SFORZA

105

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 delight 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 speaking, 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 ''eatr.ce d'este: from the monument by ckistoforo solar..

(Certosa, Pavia.)

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,

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

1 Belgrano, Delia Vita privata del Genovesi, 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
lojjibardo, 1874, p. 485.)

In 1 48 1 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 et seq.).

2 On music at Milan, see Tiraboschi, Storia della Litteratura italiana, 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.i

Lodovico sometimes chose Bramante,^ sometimes Leonardo, as
impresario for the more important of these festivals. In 1489, on the
occasion of the marriage of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the latter collaborated
with the poet Bellincioni, in the construction of a theatrical machine,
which they christened "II 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, Lodovlco'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
Vicomle Fr. Delaborde.

2 De Geymiiller, Les Projets primitifs pour la Basilique de Sauit Pierre de Pofne, p. 48.

^ " Festa ossia rappresentazione chiamata Paradiso, che fece fare il Signore Ludovico
in laude della duchessa 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 lode della prefata duchessa Isabella."
(Bellincioni, Le Rime, vol. ii. p. 20 et seq. — Dulcinio, Niiptice ill. duds Mediolani quinti
Joh. Galeaz Vicecomitis Sfortice. 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

SIGN FOE CANDELABRA.

{Codex Atlanticus.)

to figure in a comedy, a " design for a carnival costume," etc. He
also proposes to have snow brought from the tops of mountains in
summer and scattered in public places during festivities.^

The most gorgeous of these pageants was that held on the occasion
of the marriage of Bianca Maria Sforza" with the Emperor Maximilian

(November 30, 1493). From one end of
the 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 with 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

^ Richter, vol. i. p. 361. Directions for a handsome carnival costume may be found
in Manuscript i. (fol. 49, v°) in the Institut.

2 These candelabra recall those which Leonardo drew on one of the pages of the
Codex Atlanticus (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 power 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 Majesty ; 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
families of Europe !)— " and still less on the side of the Sforzi, of whom the Duke Fran-
cisque de Millan was born." (Petri Lazarone, Epithalamiumn in nuptiis BlanccB Marice
Sfortice cum Maximiliano Romanorum Reo-e, Milan, 1494. Argelati, vol. i. p. dxcvi.- See
also F. Calvi, Bianca Maria Sforza Visconti, Milan, 1888.)

LODOVICO AT VIGEVANO 109

that defy description by the pen of the poet or the brush of the
painter.

A natural flexibihty enabled Lodovico, the fastidious aesthete for
whom nothing was too sumptuous, and who might have given points
to any Byzantine Emperor, to transform himself into a simple 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 subtle 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 Vigevano 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 I'LAQUE
ASCRIBED TO CARADOSSO.

no LEONARDO DA VINCI

SO well suited for industry, seeing 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 park, are stands loaded with hay, besides the other
goods 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 Lodo vice'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 Fainiglie celebri d' Italia by Litta, and of the Archivio
storico lombardo (1874, p. 486-487), the data furnished by Uzielli in his Leonardo da
Vinci e ire Gentildotine milartesi del secolo XV, (Pignerol, 1890). See also Zes Amies de
Ludovic le More, by M. Pdlissier, from the Hevue historique of 1890.

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
148 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.

1 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 Filoteaiico^
May-June, 1887.)

2 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'Auton, ed.
de Maulde, vol. ii, p. 335.)

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Adopting the profession of arms, he signaHsed 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
the hapless Gian Galeazzo Sforza's imprison-
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.

BRAMANTE (AFTER A MEDAL
CARADOSSO).

OF S. SEBASTIAN, BY VINCENZO

('Ihe Brera, 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 day, 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 archiepiscopal 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 Furioso (canto xlvi.,
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 con
Ludovico e Beatrice Sforza. Milan 1890.

CARDINAL ASCANIO SFORZA 115

affliction. 1 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 Moro, 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 Florentius 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 Pavla.
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, to 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 e 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 baton 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 della 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
1524.3

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 Predis
(Visconti-Arconati Collection, Paris), and possibly also by Leonardo da Vinci (see Dr.
Bode's article in Xhz Jahrbuch der kg. Pr. Ktmstsamtnlimgejt, 1889.)

2 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.

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 his
enemy had fallen. He commissioned Leonardo to make designs 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, the 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

^ Paravicini, L Architecture de la Renaissance en Lombardie, p. 4. — According to
Miiller-Walde {Jahrbuch der kg. Fr. Kunsfsammlungen, 1897, pp. 1 09-1 10), the portrait
in the Ambrosiana represents Galeazzo.

■2 See the Raccolta Milanese of 1756 (last page). — Burchard, Diarium, ed. Thuasne,
vol. ii. p. 499.

3 See Richter, vol. li. 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 Brantome,
CEuvres, ed. Lalanne, vol. ii. p. 221-226.

LODOVICO AS A PATRON OF ART T19

idiosyncrasy on his interpreters. Let us liear 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. Simonetta (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
striking 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 Expedition de Charles VIII. en
Italic.

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 crucifixion, ' BY MONTORFANO.

(Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.)

of the duke's weakness for the 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 any important resolution without consulting his favourite
astrologer, Ambrogio da Rosate. He had also in his service the Jewish astrologer,
Leone Giudeo, and the astrologer, Calcerando. (Uzielli, Leonardo da Vinci e tre
Gentildo7ine milanesi, pp. 6, 41. See also the Archivio storico lombardo, 1874, p. 486.)

LEONARDO'S RELATIONS WITH IL MORO

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 II
Moro's intimates. To
begin with, where did he
lodge ? In the castle ?
I 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 Povertk in figura spaventevole corra clietro a un giovinetto, e'l Moro lo copra
col lembo dellaveste, e colla verga dorata minacia cotale mostro." (Amoretti, pp. 50-51.
Richter, vol. i. p. 350.)

STUDY OF A YOUNG WOM

(Windsor Library.)

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 mot 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 15,000 lire on works
connected with the equestrian statue of Duke Francesco Sforza, &c,^
Two other protdg^s 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, reflections 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

^ Amoretti, p. 75.

2 Rime, Bolognese ed., vol. ii, pp. 14, 19, 20, 39, 53-54, 79, 80, 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

^ Leonardo, Vasari 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
Stiidien. See also Dr. Bode's article in the Jahrhuch der kg. Frtuss. Kunstsainmhtnge7i,
1886, p. 238 et seq.., and my Histoire de /'Art pendant la Renaissance, vol. ii, j). 787 et. seq.

TUSCAN ARTISTS AT MILAN

^25

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 F"ancelli, 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
morbidezza.

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

^ Bertollotti, Arc/utetti, Ingegneri e Matematici in relazione cot Gonzaga^ p. 18,
Genoa, 1889.

2 See my Histoire de T Art pendant la jRettaissance, vol. ii., pp. 360, 394.
2 Richter, Nos. 1414, 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 Disegno, ed. Frizzoni. — Semper, in Kunst und Kiinstler,
by Dohme, p. 23-24.

128

LEONARDO DA VINCI

school attains plenitude and freedom of form, as one may judge by
the effigies 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 "II Caradosso"
(born about 1452, died
in 1526 or 1527), unites
a charming 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. 2 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 Predis and Bernardino

1 See my Hisioire de V Art pejidant la Renaissance, vol. ii. p. 516-518. — Venturi,
Archivio storico deWArte, 1888, p. 55. — Bertolotti, Figuli, pp. 71, 89-90.

2 See Passavant, Kunstblatt, 1838. — Seidlitz, Gesammelie Studien zur Kunstgeschichte.
Eine Festgabe fiir An/on Springer, Leipzig, 1885. — Hisioire de V Art pendatit la
Reiiaissance, vol. ii. p. 786 et seq.

STUDIES OF HORSES.

(Windsor Library. From a photograph given by M. Rouveyre.)

EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS

129

dei Conti, endowed them with a series of works obviously not their

To MoreUi, however, belongs the credit of having determined the
geographical 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 with laughter — of Vincenzo Foppa (settled in Milan as early
as 1455), of Bernardo Zenale, of Buttinone, and of Ambrogio

STUDIES OF HORSES.

(Library of the Institut de France ; from M. Ravaisson-Mollien's
Leonardo da Vinci.)

1 Kunstkritische Studicn ilber italienische Malerei. Die Gahrien Borghese und Doria
Pamfili hi Rom. Die Galerien zu Mimchen und Dresden. Die Galerie zu Berlin.
Leipzig, 3 vols. 1 890-1 893.

2 Die Qalerie zu Berlin, p. 121,

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
" Borgognone." 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 1517,^ he executed 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

^ 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 fro7n the Book of Hours of Bona Sforza^ Duchess of Milan, in the
British Museum. London, 1894. — Venturi, V Arte, 1898.)

2 Perate, La Grande Encyclopedie. — Beltrami, Archivio storico delV 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 Predis, 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 1498, 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-

^ The author of the Catalogue of Pictures by Masters of the Milanese and allied
Schools of Lombardy (BurUngton Fine Arts Club, 1898), endeavours to compile a list
of Zenale's pictures, ascribing to him, among other things, the Circumcision, in the Louvre,
dated 1491, and attributed to Bramantino.

2 See my Histoire de la Tapisserie en Italic, p. 45.

^ Motta : Archivio storico loinbardo, 1893, p. 972-996.

S 2

[32

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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

PORTRAIT OF GAIN GALEAZZO SFORZA, BY V. FOPPA.

(Wallace Museum, London.)

young woman in the Ambrosiana in favour of this conscientious, but
uninspired master !

Sensibly inferior to Ambrogio is his contemporary, Bernardino
del Conti, who worked, approximately, from 1499 to 1522. He
has been credited, among other things, with The Family of

1 Lately acquired for the National Gallery. — Ed.

2 A pen and ink sketch after these two portraits, by the goldsmith and medallist,
Gian Marco Cavalli, is in the Accademia at Venice, where it long figured under the name
of Leonardo da Vinci. See Herr v. Schneider's article in the Jahrbuch der kais.
Kunstsammhingen, 1893, p. 187 et seq. See also Dr. Bode's article in \h& Jahrbuch der
kg. Pr. Kunstsamvihmgen, 1889, ii-> and that by Miss Ffoulkes in the Archivio storico
deir Arte, 1894, p. 250.

EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS

133

Lodovico il 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 in 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, peculiar to and savouring of its native soil, sprang up
in Lombardy from the union of Tuscan and Paduan traditions.
Mantegna had Milanese disciples who took back with them the

STUDY OF 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 Vh^gin 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, enveloppi \ 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 pictures 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 pupils."
{Catalogue, p. 225).

2 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 Mantegna.

EARLY MILANESE PAINTERS 135

Florence. He painted the Last Shipper 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
Supper, the Cintcifixion, 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 wringing 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
Virgin, 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

z(>

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Leonardo ; and yet, like certain vulgar natures, it enjoys rude health
where the man of genius languishes and dies. The Last Supper is
a ruin ; the Crucifixion 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 upon 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

IPC

AN ALLKGORY OF ENVY.

(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 Cmcifixion {Les projets
primitifs pour la basilique de Sahit-Pierre 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 type, 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 weigh
less heavily in the
balance. At Milan,
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

(Windsor Library.)

r3§ LEONARDO DA VINCI

of Florence devoted themselves to artificial research, and were
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 Pavlan 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 genius was brought 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, famse 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 piii con Borrea ignudo.

E se poi per te sudo
El mio sudor verra dela 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, INTatteo Bandello, the author of the
Novelle, and Lomazzo, the painter and writer, author of the Trattato
della Pittura and of the Idea del Tempio della 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 Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1879, ^^^' ^^- P- 5^4 ^^ ^^1- Cf, Beltrami, Bramante poeta.

I40 LEONARDO DA VINCI

educated population, a phalanx of capable artists who asked for
nothing better than to follow the lead of a master-mind from
that Florence whence light has been shed for so long over
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 BY CARADOSSO.

Church of San Satiro, Milan.)

CHAPTER V

LEONARDO S DEBUT 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

EN Leonardo resolved to try

his fortunes at the court of

the Sforzi, he was already

known there by the famous shield

acquired by Duke 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 regent 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-

1 This manuscript, preserved in the Ambrosiana, is written irom left to right, and not,
hke the rest of Leonardo's manuscripts, from right to left. M. Charles Ravaisson-Mollien
has pronounced against its authenticity (Zes Ecrits de Leonard de Vinci, p. 34). —
Richter {The literary Works of Leonardo da Viftci, vol. ii. pp. 34, 395 — 398) and Uzielli
{JRicerche, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 85 — 89), on the other hand, consider it to be a genuine
production of Leonardo's. This is also my opinion.

STUDY FOR THE ADORATION OF
THE MAGI."

(Valton 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 enqmy 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. [sic) 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.^

^ It is interesting to note here, that by a decree of May 16, 1483, Lodovico ordered
the construction of a canal between the Adda and Milan.

2 The history of this equestrian statue has been traced, though with too evident a bias,
by M. Louis Courajod in \\\% Leonard de Vinci et la Statue de Fra?i^ois Sforza (1879), by
M. Bonnaffe in his Sabba da Castiglione (1884, p. 12 — 14) and more recently by Herr
Miiller-Walde in the Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsammlimgen (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 Miiller-Walde's labours had not yet been given to the
public when the present volume went to press.

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
Florentine 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) ; Baroncelli at
Ferrara (the equestrian statue of Niccolo d'Este), Verrocchio, at
Venice (the equestrian statue of Colleone), and lastly, Leonardo
at Milan.

■RIAN ilAS-KKLllK Dl- ANMI'.ALE UENTIVOCLIO
BY NICCOLO DELI,' ARCA.

(Church of San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna.)

Sfiidies of Horses.

Printed by Draeger, P;

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 House 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
F rancesco S forza,
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
Francesco 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" (Vasari). 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

EQUESTRIAN BAS-RELIEF BY LEONARDO DA PRATO (iSIl).

(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 ensemble 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 the Magi, 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 Miiller-Walde is of opinion that PoUajuolo's drawing was made in 1489 — immediately
after the letter to Lorenzo the Magnificent, complaining of Leonardo's incompetence
{Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsammlungen, 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 PoUajuolo offered to erect to Gentile Virginio Orsini in
1494 {Repertorimn fiir Kunstwissenschaft, 1892, p. 250). M. de Geymiiller goes still
further — he does not consider the Munich drawing to be worthy even of PoUajuolo
{^Les derniers Travaux sur Leonard de Vinci, p. 42).

A picture by Bacchiacca in the Uffizi (reproduced in my Histoire de f 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 composition.
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
Meeti?ig between S. Leo and Attila, and The Victory of Constantitie : also 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 intoxicated him. To him we owe the proto-
type of the war-horse, of the epic charger, as it has come down to
us through 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 1488, 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

.48

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
archaic creations, such
as Niccolo dell' Area's
equestrian bas-relief at

\XESCO SFORZA.

STUDIES FOR THF. EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF

(Windsor Library, reproduced from Dr. Richter's book.)

Bologna.
There
however,

a ponit,
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 the 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., Ixvi.)

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

EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF GATTAMELATA, BY DONATELLO, AT PADUA.

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 are, 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 his eloquent pen. " While 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 Quercia's equestrian statue of

^ M.SxWtx-'SNsiXd.t, Jahrbuch der Kg. Kunsisanunlungen, 1897, p. 155.

This important document runs as follows : July 22, 1489. " 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
Milano, by Beltrami (p. 180 — 182).

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 experi-
ments 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 11 Moro —

1 De Cardina/aiu, i. p. 50. — Cf. Miiller-Walde, Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsaininlu7igen,
1897, p. 105 — 107.

2 In his work De Divina Froportione (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
words 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.

^ Richter, vol. ii. p. 15,400. — Uzielli, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 179. — MiWler-YJ aide, /a/irl'uc/i
der kg. Pr. Kmistsammlungen 1897, p. 94 et seq.

- Milanesi — Documenti inedite, p. 11. Vasari says that on this point Leonardo
consulted his skilled compatriot, Giuliano da San Gallo, when the latter visited Milan.

^ Beltrami, IlCodice di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca del Principe Trivuhio, fol. 47.

STUDIES OF HORSES.

(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 XIL has perhaps been taken too literally. ^

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. Bonnaffe'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

^ " So much is certain," says this writer in his Memoirs (pubHshed 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.

2 See the Correspondence pubHshed 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 Leoni.^ 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.
Andre 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 delta 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

^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 with 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 FOR THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA.

(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 negotiations 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 probabihty, suggests the date
1499, ^t 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 bearing
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

^ Richter, vol. ii., p. 15 et seq.

STUDY FOR THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA.

(Windsor Library. Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.)

158 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 I 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, Disco^^d, in the South
Kensington Museum, which M. Muller 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

1 Revue deV Art ancien et i/toderne, 1897, vol. ii., p. 421 et seq., 1898, vol. i., p. 74,
The horse has been restored by M. Fre'miet. (See Charles Blanc, Collection d'Objets
d'Art de M. Thiers, leguee au Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1884, p. 22.)

2 Trattato delta Pittura, chap. 38. Cf chaps. 35, 36.

3 Courajod, Conjectures a propos d'un Buste en Marbre de Beatrix d'Este au Musee du
Louvre, Paris, 1877, Gazette des Beaux- Arts.

* Venturi, Archivio storico dell' Arte, 1890.

^ See the article in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February, 1897.

V
Bust of Scipio. School of Leonardo.

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

1 Dr. Bode ascribes the Discord to Verrocchio : Archivio siorico delP Arte, 1893,
p. 11 et seq.

2 Rio, D Art Chretien, vol. iii. p. 78.

^ Venturi, Essai sur les Ouvrages physica-mathhnaliques de Leonard de Vinci, p. 46.

* LArt Chretien, 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, Archivio storico delV 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 filr 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 Rustic!
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.

STUDY FOR THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA.

(Windsor Library. Reproduced from Dr. Richter's work.)

STUDY OF HORSES.
(Windsor Library.)

CHAPTER VI

THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS " — OTHER MADONNAS OF THE MILANESE PERIOD

THERE 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.
I 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

1 See M. Charles Ravaisson-Mollien's Maimscrits de Leonard de Vinci, vol. v. p. i.

■IGUKE FOR "THE ADOKATI
OF THE MAGI."

(Bonnat Collection, Paris.)

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 the 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 Virgin 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.

2 Liibke, Geschichte der italietiischeji Malerei, vol. ii. — A. Gruyer, Voyage autour du
Salon carre 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 1482 and 1490, rather than from between 1490
and 1500.

3 Motta, Archivio storico lombardo, 1893, vol. xx., 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-piece (" una ancona ") for them, to consist of
gilded figures in relief, an oil painting 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 100. 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 Madontta with
his own hand.

First Idea for " 77/^- Virgin of the Rocks

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 tracing 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.)

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 finally adopted. But that this head was a
study for the Virgin of the 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 M tiller- Walde (Fig. 8), I consider the head of a young woman
on green paper, in the Ufifizi, closely akin to the head of the Virgin in

^ This connection has escaped Herr Miiller-Walde, who assigns the date 1472-1473 to
the Christ 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 Rocks, and that in execution it shows an absolute
identity with other drawings by Leonardo. It is not improbable that the head of a
woman in the Borghese Gallery (Miiller-Walde, Fig. 7) may also have been a study for
the picture, if indeed this drawing is really by Leonardo.

;

1 I'-A ■ ■ i

/ ■' J

VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS

(Royal Library, Turin.)

STUDY FOR THE ANGEL IN THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS.'

(Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris.)

i66 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 Loavre owns three, in silver-point heightened with Chinese
white, on that greenish paper Leonardo seems to have specially
affected 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 the 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 Mtiller-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 period
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. xlx.).

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 novv^ 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

1 I only know the grisaille 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).

2 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 Hotel 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-Lachenee, are studies for the little S. John
and the Infant Jesus. A long interval, however, perhaps several
years, seems to have divided these studies from the finished work.
As his habit was, the 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. Anne, 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

^ Quite recently, M. Strzygowski pronounced the Virgin of the Rocks, in the Louvre, a
bad copy ! {Jahrbuch der kgl. Kimstsajfwilungett, 1895, p. 165.) See also Sir E. Poynter's
article in the Art Journal, 1894, p. 229-232. But cf. Signor Frizzoni {Gazette des Beaux
Arts, 1884, vol. i., p. 235), Herr Koopmann {Repertoriuin fiir Kunstzvissenschaft, 1891,
p. 353-360), Dr. Richter {Art Journal, 1894, pp. 166-170, 300-301), and various other
foreign critics, who all uphold the Louvre picture.

THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS.

(National Gallery, London.)

THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS," NATIONAL GALLERY

.69

Italy in 1796 by the collector, Gavin Hamilton, for 30 ducats. 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, 1898) 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
Predis.

An absolutely deci-
sive argument 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^ Supper at
Milan ; there is the same gesture, the same bending back of the hand.
1 Tratiaio della Fititira, book ii., chap. xvii.

STUDY FOR THE "VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS.

(Christ Church Library, Oxford.)

I70 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 Virghi of the Rocks.

It is a group of four figures, three kneeling, the fourth seated at

1 I entirely endorse M. Anatole Gruyer's judgment on this head: "The London
picture is fresh in colour, well preserved, 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.
{Voyage autoiir dii Salon carre, p. 31.)

2 Testimony of Cassiano del Pozzo, published in the Memoires de la Societe de
r Histoire de Paris, 1886. — Pere Dan, in his Tresor des Merveilles de la Maison royale
de Fotitainebleau, p. 135, mentions "Our Lady, with an Infant Jesus supported by an
angel, in a very graceful landscape."

\II

' The Vu'gin of the Rocks^

(THK I.nrMCK.)

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, biit 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 Supper 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. Theresas, in particular, something
slightly^archaic in the Virgin's type. (The painter seems to have
lagged behind the draughfsman, 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 miantle, 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 Ecole 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. Tn 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
litde 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

172

LEONARDO DA VINCI

falls full on the 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 profound 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 pla^
directing his education — and treats it with as much charm, if not wjth
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

FOK THE INFANT

JOHN THE BAPTIST.
(Mancc! Gallery, Caen.)

LEONARDO'S IDEA OF COLOUR

173

the Dominicans, would never have fallen, a heresy which orthodox
painters abjured once more after the Council of Trent. But 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 and Perus^ino, 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 Virgin of the
Rocks, as in all his later works, determined to win colour from shades
apparently the most neutral, greens verging on grays, with silvery
reflections, bitumen, dull yellow. Nothing could be more strongly
opposed to the scale
adopted by the Primi-
tives. All high, frank
tones are banished from
his palette ; he renounces
gold, rich stuffs, and bril-
liant carnations. It was
indeed, with a sort of
cavtaieu that he achieved
his marvels of chiaroscuro,
and the incomparable
warm and amber harmony
of his Mona Lisa. No
artist before him had
made so severe a demand
on the possibilities of pure
painting.

The ease of the composition and the richness of 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

(Mancel Gallery, Caen.)

174 LEONARDO DA VINCI

have disappeared, giving place to the most harmonious Hnes ; 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, we 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 large 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 the Head of the fiifaiit Jesus in " The Viroin
of the Rocks."

.(l-HK I.OIVKlO

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 Midszunmer
Nighis 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

1 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, The Meeting of
the youthful Saviour and S. John Baptist, contains dolomite rocks like those of
Leonardo's backgrounds.

2 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

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Aldobi^andini Madonna and his Madonna della Scdia. She gazes
tenderly at the Babe, offering him 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 Ma-
donna Litta. 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 Harck for the no less inevitable Ambrogio de
Predis [Repertorhun, 1896, p. /;22). I will only say that it approaclies
very closely to the master himself

^ Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1879, vol. i., p. 343.

2 This attribution was demolished by M. Somoff in the last edition (1891) of the
Catalogue of Pictures in the Hermitage.

STUDY FOR THE INFANT

JOHN THE

(The Louvre.)

CHILD I'LAYING WITH A CAT.
(Windsor Library.)

Studies for the Head of the Infant fesns in " The Virgin
of the Rocks."

FIKST IDEA FOR 'THE LAST SUl'PEK.
(Windsor Library.)

CHAPTER VI

" THE LAST SUPPER "

IDEA FOK

LAST SUrPtK

(Tire Louvre )

N the present chapter
I propose to show
how the painter of
the Moiia Lisa, the Virgin
of the Rocks, and the Saint
Anne 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.

178 LEONARDO DA VINCI

The word " Cenacolo " has a certain breadth of appHcation in Italian.
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 impulse 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 Supper in Santa Maria delle Grazie
is buried in obscurity. We 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

^ 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. 484.)— Cf. Miiller-Walde,
Jahrbuch der kg. Kufisisammlungen, 1898, p. 11 4-1 15. — Leonardo's friend, Luca Pacioli,
speaks of the Last Supper as completely finished in his Divina Proportioned concluded in
December, 1497.

"THE LAST SUPPER" 179

finds himself suddenly before the masterpiece ot 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 Suppers 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

[8o

LEONARDO DA VINCI

is, in fact, its true prototype in many respects, is the Last Supper
painted by the harsh and gloomy Andrea del Castagno in the refec-
tory of the convent of Sant' Apollonia at Florence. 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

ilORO GRANTING A CHARTER TO THE PRIOR OF SANTA MARIA DF.I.LE GRAZIE.

iNTiiiiature from the collection of the 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,
while 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-

i82 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, who 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."

(kKI-KCIOUV ok SANTA MA1;1A DKI.LI' GKAZIF, MII-AN.

"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 Magi, the John the Baptist, astonish and charm
us beyond measure ; but they hardly tend to edify us in the same
degree. In his Last Stipper, 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 night ; he
rigorously applied this maxim of the Trattato delta Pittura (cap.
xvii.) : " It is useful to go over in one's mind at night the things 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 Novelle, 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 Supper, on which the excellent

1 84

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Florentine painter, Leonardo da Vinci, was then working. The
artist took pleasure in hearing each 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

^^^^'-^^¥^^W^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THE LAST SUPPEU, liY ANDREA DEL CASTAGN

(Convent of S. ApoUonia at 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 upon his own experience in a passage of the Trattato della
Pitiura (cap. Ivi.) in which 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 them from seeing or hearing the
friends and relatives they meet." ... Is there not a striking analogy between this
passage and Bandello's anecdote ?

"THE LAST SUPPER"

185

" Cardinal de Giirck was lodged at the Monastery delle 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 SUITER.

(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
greatest munificence. The cardinal said it was a great 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 visited Milan in January, 1497, and lodged at the monastery.
Signor Uzielli infers that the Last Supper was finished by then. {Leonardo da Vbici e fre
Gentildo7i7ie milanesi del Secolo xv., p. 5.)

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
Study for the Head of an Apostle.

(WINDSOR LIBRARY )

Printed by Draeger, Pari;

STUDIES FOR THE "LAST SUPPER" 187

delle Grazie." " The master finished the Virgin (this is a sHp of
Vasari's, for there is no Virgin in the Last Supper) and Judas, a
perfect type of treachery and cruelty. 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 Cenacolo 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. 1

The drawings for the Last S2tpper 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 four
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 unHinchingly ; a fifth mounts on the table as
if to protest.

In a drawing 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 Timanthes, who, despairing of rendering the
grief of Agamemnon at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, veiled his face ?

li B 2

LEONARDO DA VINCI

unremarkable. A little lower down is a study of Christ seated, his
left hand outstretched, the first finger 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 Sii-pper, 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 drawings 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 turning 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."

T"^. ~,

; %

w^^^^^ *^-M^^mKMM

: '^ » 1

STUDY FOR THE HEAD OF JUDAS.

(Windsor Library.)

STUDIES FOR "THE LAST SUPPER"

189

Comparing this project with the painting, we see that, as at first
conceived, the Last Supper contained a number of reahstic motives,
perhaps rather over-famiHar 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.

f Jpj|r ^^H^H

'i^wA

m>.

STUDY FOR THE ARM OF S. PETER.

(Windsor Library.)

only one appears in the painting, in the hand of S. Peter. There
is no apostle shading his eyes with his hand, 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.

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 ilkis-
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 often 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. 9), 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. 10) 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.

•{the I'.KIKA, Alii AN.)

Pnnlcd b^. WiUrnann Pans (Fr,

"THE LAST SUPPER" 191

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.2

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 oi 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.

2 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 Ponte Capriasco.

192

LEONARDO DA VINCI

head facing three quarters to the front, reHeved against a head in

profile — are too daring to have been successfully attempted by means

of mere draughtsmanship or linear perspective.

The way was opened at last ; Raphael was not slow to follow in

the footsteps of Leonardo the pioneer, whose worthy rival he proved

himself, first in the
Dispute 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 Stippcr. 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

STUDY FOR Till.; HEAD f)F S. MATTHEW.

(Windsor Library. 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.

THE LAST SUPPER"

193

conviction. They indicate free and upright natures, men who have a
perfect consciousness of their feehngs, and are ready to accept the
responsibiHty 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

STUDY FOR THE HEAD OF S.

(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. Johi. An Early Copy fro7n " The Last
Supper.'

(WEIMAR MUSKUM.)

Printed by Wlttmann Par.s (France)

BLENDING OF IDEALISM AND REALISM i95

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-scene 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

^ In the Trattato della Fittura, 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 vs'ho
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 see 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 SUPPER.

(in its present 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 Supper
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." right side, (in its present state.)

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

198 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 Siippei^ 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 Shipper 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 cut
away to make a door ! In 1726, the work was restored, or'rather 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 F/«« (Milan, 1810), and Stendhal's jQ^/^/^/r^ de la
Peinture en Ltalie, ed. 1868, p. 1 50-1 51.

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 Visconti had

" THE LAST SUPPER." LEFT SIDE. (iN ITS PHESENT STATE.)

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,

Study for '* The Madonna Litta.

(the louvre.)

^"■■^

V.-^ V

bj V/,un.arn Par

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 fa9ade, 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 {Vuende edilizie del
Castello di Milano, Milan, 1876) and by Signor Beltrami (// Castello di Milano, Milan,
1894. — Resoconto dei Lavori di restauro 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 Ferrini,
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, 150 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 fiow, 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 M tiller- 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 tht; 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 gutters, with their
pilasters, 12 hre each; I reckon the outlay for enamel, blue, and other colours at \\ lire ;
I 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 camdieu (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, cioe,
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 Mercury or Argus,
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,
Pervigil anguigerae servet ut arcis opes.
Adulterinae 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 Magi, in the UfBzi. A second
medallion shows Mercury looking at the corpse of Argus. The figure
of the god, says Herr M tiller- 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. — Miiller-WaJde :
Jahrbuch der kg Kunstsammlungen, i897;p. 111-117.

2 A very useless discussion, if the fresco is not by Leonardo, has been raised as to
whether the central figure represented Mercury or Argus. {Jahrbuch der kg. Ktmstsamm-
/ungen, 1897, p. 146 et setj. — Novato : La Perseveranza, 24 January, 1898. — Salomon;
Reinach, La Chronique des Arts, 1898, p. 47. — D. Sant' Ambrogio : Lega lombarda, 4-5 ;
February, 1898.)

204

LEONARDO DA VINCI

rather than for the great painter. This is also the opinion of Signor
Beltrami, the distinguished Milanese architect and archaeologist, 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 Geymiiller, 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 Herr 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 OF MILA>

SIXTEENTH CENTURY DRAWIN

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

^ It is true that a microscopic drawing in the Codex Atlafiticus (fol. 94) — we give
Herr M tiller- Walde 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 Milam, p. 700-703.

XII
The Madonna Litta:

(the HERMH ACK. S, I'KTKR'ilU i«;.)

by Geny-Gros Paris (F

PORTRAITS BY LEONARDO

205

DESIGN FOR A LIGHTHOUSE, NETKODUCEU FKOM DR. RICHTEl

(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, [ ^|i[ij^^£-:^y"^y

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 ddbut 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

' W\dXi.Q.%\, Documenti inediti riguardanti Leonardo da Vinci, ^. 11.

kP^

PLAN OF A FAVILION 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 becan^e 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 Signer Frisiani 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
UzielU to refer, not to Cecilia Gallerani, but to some unknown namesake of hers.

2 " 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 impute 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 eta 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 portrait 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, 1498. From your Excellency's
servant, Scicilia Visconta Bergamina." (Luzio, Archivio storico delV Arte, 1888, p. 181.)

3 Uzielli, Leonardo da Vinci e tre Gentiidonne 7nilanesi.—A\-noxeii\ 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 FERRONlfeRE" 207

But all 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 Ferroniere. 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 ol
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 expression 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.

^ The Codex Atlariticus 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
background. There is a
slight smile on the lips,
the corners of which are

MERCURY

ARGUS. A FRESCU UV 1
(The Castle of Milan.)

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 Ctcet'Ofie (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. Signor MoreUi 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 Borghese, p. 235.) I confess that my connoisseurship does
not go so far.

XIII
Portrait of a Vomii^ Princess.

(thk \mbro';iana, mii.an.)

ird by Odny-Gros Pans (I r^i.c

FEMALE PORTRAIT IN THE AMBROSIANA 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 Predis,^ 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 Predis 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 Borghese, p.

o r^C A/r ii yl 7 • - , • PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN MAN.

238. — Cf. Motta, Archivio storico

7 J J o o (The Ambrosiana, Milan.)

lofubardo, 1893, p. 987.

2 Jahrbuch der kg. Kimst-
sanimlungen, 1889, no. 2. — A bronze statue in the cathedral at Innspriick represents
Maximilian's consort standing, one hand on her hip, the other slightly extended. Her
costume is gorgeous in the extreme. Strings of pearls are arranged upon her

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 " {Trattato
della Pittura, 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 I'opera 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 SiLpper. 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. lofi), and the Arconati-Visconti picture. As in these again, the hair is brought
down on either side of the face in bandeaux, hiding 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 Archivio storico delV 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 DRAWINCxS 211

Accademia at Venice, which is certainly one of the earliest studies for
the composition. 1 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 seven 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 v/ith 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."^

^ 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.

2 " 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 fixed 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. Atine in the Louvre, his right hand undertook the task."
{Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1867, vol. ii., p. 536.)

^ Les derniers Travaux sur Leonard de Vinci, p. 55.

* Trattato, cap. 291.

E E 2

LEONARDO 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 chiei
triumph of painting lay
in chiaroscuro and fore-
shortening : " II chiaro e
lo scuro insieme co li
scorti e 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

1 Lettere, Milanesi's ed., p. 522.

STUDY FOR A STANDING FIGURE.

(Library of the Iiistitut de France.),

LEONARDO'S TREATMENT OF FORM

213

STUDY OF

(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, M tiller - Walde,
has attempted it. For
my own part, I think
we may place a rung in

STUDY FOR THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FR. SFORZA. I'll

,..,. ^ ... , the chronological adder

(Windsor Library.) O

Head of an Old Man.

(BRITISH MUSEUM.)

■intcd by Drnogcr, Pa

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 obeys 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 cretins, goitred, toothless,

^ 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.

2l6

LEONARDO DA VINCI

USE (?). FROM AN ENGRAVING ASCHIBED TO LEONARl

(British Museum.)

hare - 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 examples, the nose is flattened, while the upper lip
protrudes like those of the felidae : in others, the nose is hooked and
prominent as a parrot's
beak.^

1 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
Champfleury, " was of the race
of those who have sought to
demonstrate the 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 primal
organisms. He incHned per-
haps to the ideas of the

STUDY OF AN OLD MAN.

(Trivulzi Library.)

DRAWINGS AND CARICATURES

217

But here again we may ask, was Leonardo a realist, or did he
distort nature by dwelhng 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 jeu d'esprit akin to those of Bacon, when he amused
himself by turning rhetorician, and arguing the pros and mis of a question." {Gazette
des Beaux-Arts, 1879, vol. i., p. 201.)

F F

HEAD OF A WOMAN. FROM AN ENGRAVING ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO.

(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, full 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 girl with her hair gathered in a knot. A head with the
brown hair dressed." ^

Did Leonardo make any essays in engraving ? We may affirm at
1 Richter, 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 della
Divina Proportione , Leonardo's friend Pacioli certainly declares that
he asked the latter to engrave the "schemata" for the treatise.
" Schemata .... Vincii 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 sixty, 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 Venice 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.)

^ Saggio, 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

LEONARDO DA VINCI

On the other hand, there are several engravings trom copperplates
which pass for the works of Leonardo da Vinci J

In the British Museum, to begin with, there is a Yo2ing Woman in
Profile, 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 flexibility

so characteristic of La
Gioconda, and the fea-
tures have a curiously
bewildered expression.

A second example
is also in the British
Museum, a Voting
Woman in Profile
turned to the right,
crowned with ivy, with
the inscription AG HA
LE. VI. The type
here has more distinc-
tion, and the handling-
more flexibility.

A third, the only

known example of

which belongs to the

same collection, The

Four Horsemen, is certainly from a drawing by Leonardo, though

it is impossible to say whether the plate was actually engraved

by him. 2

of the second), the Marchese d'Adda points out that these were borrowed from a work by
Piero della Francesca, Pacioh's master and fellow citizen.

^ D'Adda, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1868, vol. ii., p. 139 et seq. — Passavant, Le Peiiitre-
Graveur, vol. v., p. 181.— Delaborde, La Gravure en Italie avant Marc Antonie, p. 183.
—A drawing in the Vallardi Collection (no. i), a woman in profile to the right, has much
m common with the two engravings. There is the same high chin, the same continuity
of line m 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 Pehitre-Graveur, vol. v., p. 180.

ENGRAVING AFTER LEONARL

ENGRAVINGS ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO "i

Six engravings are connected with the so-called "Academy of
Leonardo." They bear the inscription Academia Leonardi Vinci in
the midst of interlaced ornaments, cunningly composed, and forming
a sort of labyrinth."^

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. 1

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-
ahst, a philosopher, and
finally, his labours as a
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-

FOR THE STATUE OF FRANXESCO SFORZA
ASCRIBED TO LEONARDO.

(British Museum.)

ENGRAVING

teacher in the Academy to which he gave

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. Ixxvii., 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 " tiburlum." 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

^ 1487. "Addi 8 agosto Magistro Leonardo Florentino, qui habet onus faciendi
modellum unum tuboril ecclesise majoris, juxta ordinationem factam in Consilio fabricae,
super ratione faciendi dictum modellum." L. 56 {Annali della Fabbrica del Duomo di
Milano, vol. iii., p. 38. Cf. Boito, // Duomo di Milano, pp. 227-228.)

2 Richter, vol. ii., pi. C. — Trivulzi MS., pi. xxxvii.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS 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 Geymuller, 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 design would have sufficed to rank Leonardo among 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 city, 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
Geymliller's calculations, of an artificial mountain, 600 metres in dia-
meter at the base, and of a circular temple, the pavement of which was

^ M. de Geymiiller's study is incorporated in Dr. Richter's work.
2 Ch. Ravaisson-MoUien, vol. ii., fol. 67 v".

224

LEONARDO DA 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.
{Riarche, ist ed. vol. ii , p. 215-216.) G. Milanesi, however, gives 1506 as the date of
this consultation. (Vasari, vol. iv.)

1 mP ^'11

r#^jK||^^

^^Q

Wi' jImL'i- ^ 'iiij-lin

^^S

^^Jt^-U

-'^m

ffli

^--^

if^

^ \

DESIGN FOR A CHURCH WITH A CENTRAL CUI'OLA.
(Library of the Institut de France.)

IMOUELS OF WEAPONS, OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE.

(Valton Collection, Paris.)

CHAPTER VIII

LEONARDOS ACADEMY — HIS WRITINGS ON ART THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING — FRA

LUCA PACIOLI AND HIS TREATISE ON PROPORTION — LEONARDO'S " ATELIER " AND
HIS TEACHING.

STUDY FOR 'the ADORATION OF THE M/

(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 Leonardi Vinci " ^ in an interlaced ornament, and the

1 Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain 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 — "gruppi di cordi'" — in a pattern : one of these, a very
beautiful and intricate example, was engraved. Modern writers have suggested that these

G G

226 LEONARDO DA VINCi

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 genesis 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 a f Esthetiqiie scientifique, Paris, 1885, 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
{Codex Atlatiticus, fol. 548 — Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. vi. MS., no. 2038 of the
Bibliotheque 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 Mllano, 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 " vincoU " (bonds). Pacioli, however, plays on the
word " Vinci," i.e.^ who has vanquished, who can vanquish. Winterberg's ed.,

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 {Divma Proportione. Cf. Miiller-
Walde ; Jahrbuch, 1897, p. 11 5-1 18). — Another 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 " re'unions "
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.

LEONARDO'S 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 official 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. ^^ was faithful to it to the end

Q Q Z

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 secrets. He was in the habit, for
instance, of writing certain words in the form of anagrams, "Amor"
for " Roma," " Ilopan " for " Napoli." ^

From the palceographic standpoint, the writing of Leonardo is still
fifteenth century in its character, and in its smallness, its rigidity, and
the shortness of its strokes above and below the line, differs essentially

from 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 ^^^
1478, and those which
belong to his maturity

JRAVING OF INTERLACED ORNAMENT INSCRIBED ACADEMIA LEONARDI

or old age. M. Charles
(The Ambrosiana, Milan.) Ravalssou 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

1 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 Montelupo,
who wrote "all' ebraica " (Gaye, Carteggio, vol. iii., p. 582-3).

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 century,
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 Ver-
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 formulae,
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. v., p. i.

EXCRAVING INTERLACED OKNAMENT INSCRIBED ACADEMIA
LEONARDI VINCI."

(The Ambrosiana, Milan.)

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 della Pitttira
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

Llatl JACLtA

\L\ (7| £p

SKETCH IN THE " TRATTATO DELLA FITTU

(Vatican Library.)

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

^ 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 pupils, from the same originals ought
to be decisive. (Pawlowski, in Pierre-Paul Rubens, p. 227-233, Librairie de I'Art ;
De Geymiiller, Les derniers Travaux sur Leonard 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 copy
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 Chennevieres-Pointel, Recherches sur la Vie et les
Ouvrages de quelques Peititres provinciaux, vol. iii., p. 166.)

SKETCH IN THE

" TRATTATO DELLA

PITTURA."

(Vatican Library.)

232

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Vatican codex, are 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 encylopsedia 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, 2i).2 But Leonardo pushes his comparison too far

1 There is, unhappily, no French translation in which artists and amateurs might note
the numerous and important additions to the Trattato contained in the autographs and
in the Vatican codex. In France we have still perforce to content ourselves with Gault
de Saint-Germain's very incomplete version. This reproach, is, I am glad to hear, m the
way of being shortly removed by M. Rouveyre, who has done so much for students of
Leonardo.

- In Lodovico Dolce's Aretino, Pietro Aretino reminds us that certain men of talent
have called the painter a mute poet, and the poet a talking painter.

ENGRAVING OF INTERLACED ORNAMENT, INSCRIBED ACADEMIA
LETNAKDl VINCI."

(The Arabrosiana, 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 painting 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 dog
of the original took
it for his master and
displayed every sign
of delight ; I have
also seen dogs 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 "
(cap. 14).

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 excite compassion, again he is sovereign and divine (" n'
e signore e dio ") ; he can create countries teeming with population,
or deserts, places dark and shady with trees, or blazing with the
sun, &c.

HEAD OF AN OLD MAN CROWNED WITH LAUREL.

(Windsor Library.)

234

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
f -^y/^y^ .1.^^^^ a century, at least, before Leonardo, Leone

— yf^^ i V\Lt>w-^ 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 Qziale sia piu nob-
ile artey la Scultura 0 la Pittura, was discussed.
Michelangelo wrote him a letter in which 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 Pittura.) — 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 also
C. Brun's paper in the Repertoriiivi fiir Kimsiwissenscha/t, 1892, p. 267.

SKETCH IN THE " TRAT-
TATO DELLA PITTURA."

(Vatican Library).

THE " TREATISE ON PAINTING '

235

Other there is the same difference as between the sun and the

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
setded 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; ^ " adkuc sub judice lis est!'

SKETCH IN THE •■TRATTATO DELLA

PITTURA.

(Vatican Library.)

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
your knowledge 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

^ Letfere, Milanesi's edition, p. 522. ^ ggg p_ Gauthiez, L'Aretin, p. 261.

^ / Trattati deir Oreficeria, Milanesi's edition, p. xx.-xxxiv., 229, 233, 321, 331.
^ See Frangois Benoit : Quas opi?iiones et qiias controversias Falconet de arte habuerif,
Paris, 1897, p. 11-12.

SKETCH IN THE

" TRATTATO DELLA

riTTURA."

(Vatican Library.)

236

LEONARDO DA VINCI

tell you that you should always have beside you a flat 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 miore 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
pretty 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. For we can see clearly that even a man who is not

Ijr-^,

m . ^

Ib^

^ »,

#— '

^^^n^

EAU OF AN OLD MAN.

(Windsor Library.)

A Study of Draperies.

(the louvre.)

ri'i.Tted by Dr;cg

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 " role." 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

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
SKETCH IN THE "TRATTATo Hkenesses are the least effectual when the com-

DELLA PITTURA."

(Vatican Library.) positlott of 3. historical picturc is in question"

(cap. 58).

The painter of the Lasl Stipper 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, i8o).

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 pa§si<5ns. 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

IE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA.

(Vatican Library.)

240

LEONARDO DA VINCI

HIEASUKEIMENTS OF THE HUMAN HEAI
(Library of the Institut de France.)

movements of the limbs, the joints, and the trunk, the movements
of men and women require to be studied as a whole, and then we

should, with the help of
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
formulae, 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

(Vatican Library.)

Portrait of an Old Man.

(BRITISH ML'Sl-.UM.)

Printed by Draeger, Pa

THE "TREATISE ON PAINTING"

241

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
formulae which occupy so large a space in the Mount
Athos Treatise on Paintmg, 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

MEASUREMENTS OF THE HUMAN

(Accademia, Venice.)

SKETCH IN THE ''TRAT-
TATO DELLA TITTURA."

(Vatican Library.)

242

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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 only, 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

Stipper of our Lord with a dignity,
breadth, and eloquence, which 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 Trattato del/a Pitlura,
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 aesthetics, we find
practical advice, technical recipes, and those secrets of practice which
are discovered with so much labour and so easily lost. Here Leonardo

SKETCH IN THE 'TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA.

(Vatican Library.)

^ See below, the chapters on Leonardo and the aniique, and on Leonardo and
the occult sciences. Also cf. my Histoire de V Art pendant la Renaissance, vol. ii , p. 124.

2 A drawing in the Uffizi (Braun, no. 451) represents a dragon springing on a lion;
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

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 if 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. Felix 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 fiirst 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

^ Revue politique et litteraire, 1887, p. 628.

I I 2

(Vatican Library,)

244

LEONARDO DA VINCI

parts, and must not go on to the second until you are master, both in
mind and hand, of the first. If you do otherwise you lose your
time, or at least, you prolong your period of study. Accuracy must
be learnt before rapidity."

As Leonardo, in the Tratlato, never wearies of asserting that
the painter should be universal (cap. 52, 60, 61, y^)^ 7^. 79)> ^^^

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.

(Bonnat 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." ^
Long before Albert
Diirer, to whom the in-
vention of the camera
lucida is usually ascribed,
the Florentine master
contrived an easy way
of drawing figures in
perspective with the help
of a sheet of glass. He
describes the process in
the Codex Atlanticus,
and in the Trattato.'^

GROTESQUE FIGURE.

(Windsor Library.)

^ 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
Sculpturd, von Pomponius Gauricics^ 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 Supper, the
Vierge aux Rockers, the Belle Ferroniere, 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 "role" 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 Corregglo 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 Trattato 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 gia 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.

^ Manuscript G, folio 19.

2 Leonardo commenced the book entitled De Figura umana on April 2, 1489
(Richter, vol. ii., p. 415). — Zeising gives a very short resume of Leonardo's theory of
proportions in his Neue Lehre von den Proporliotien des menschliche7i Korpers (Leipzig,
1854, p. 5°)-

^ One might be tempted to believe that the engravings of FraGiocondo {M. Vitruvius
per Jomndum, 151 1), and of Cesare Cesariano {Di Lucio Vitruvio Pollione de Architectura
Libri decent; 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 inevitably from the text of Vitruvius.

248

LEONARDO DA VINCI

A few words, before going farther, on this very common-place
satellite of the great Leonardo.

Luca Pacioli 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 Tradatus de qiiinque Corporibus} Entering the

Franciscan order, he
lived sometimes in
Rome, where he enjoyed
the hospitality of L. B.
Albert!, sometimes at
Perugia, where from
1477 to 1480, and from
1487 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.^
His Sujnma de Arith-
metica 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 estabUshed by Hubert Janitschek in the
Kunstchronik of 1878 (no. 42), and by Jordan in the Jahrhich for 1880, vol. i.,
p. 1 1 2-1 18. See also Winterberg and Uzielli (second edition, vol. i., p. 45')- ^e must
not forget, however, that Pacioli, far from concealing his indebtedness to Piero, proclaims
it with enthusiasm : " E anco con quelle prometto 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 gia 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 et seq.

3 See Narducci, Intorno a due Ediziorii della Sianma de Arithmetka di Fra Luca
Pacioli, Rome, 1863.

4 His last biographer, M. Uzielli, nevertheless credits him with having popularised
the highest branches of mathematics.

MODEL OF LETTER COMPOSED BY LEONARDO FOR THE TREATISE DE
DIVINA I'ROPORTIONE."

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 De Divina
Proportioned' 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 ef seq. In one of those
now incomprehensible memoranda with which he filled his notebooks, Leonardo writes,
"Learn the multiplication of roots from Maestro Luca." Richter, vol. ii., p. 433.

2 Finished in December, 1497. The dedication is dated February, 1498. The work
was not published until 1509. The Divina Proportione itself is followed by " Libellus in
tres partiales tractatus divisus quinque corporum regularium et dependentium, activse
perscrutationis, D. Petro Soderino principi perpetuo populi florentini, a M. Luca Paciolo
Burgense Minoritano particularitur dicatus. Feliciter incipit." (27 folios.) Next 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 Venice.
In 1510 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 M. 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 ; next 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.

^ De Architectural ed. Winterberg, p. 144. — Mariotti, Lettere pittoriche perugifie,
p. 127.

2 Fabroni, Historia Academice. Fisancp., 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 KunstwisseJischaft, 1881, p. 269-279. — " Frere Lucas PacioU de
Bourg sainct Sepulchre, de I'ordre des freres mineurs et ihe'ologien, qui a faict en vulgar
italien un libre intitule Divina Proportione, et qui a volu figurer lesdictes lettres
Attiques, n'en a point aussi parle ne bailie raison : et je ne m'en ebahis point, car j'ay
entendu par aulcuns Italiens qu'il a desrobe sesdictes lettres, et prinses de feu messire

Head of a Young IVoJuaii.

Printed by Draeg^

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 et Pratica perspicassimi Sigismimdi de Fantis Ferrariensis
in artein mathematice professoris de modo scribendi fabricandiqiie omnes
litterarum 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 inspired these researches also. Lomazzo,
whose authorities were the intimates {domestici) 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,

Leonard Vinci, qui est trespasse' a Amboise et estoit tres excellent philosophe et admirable
painctre et quasi ung autre Archimede. Cedict frere Lucas a faict imprimer ses lettres
attiques comme siennes . . . . De vray, elles peuvent bien estre a 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 frere Lucas
Paciolus . . .• . I'ay entendu que tout ce qii'il en a faict il a prins secretement de feu
Messire Leonard Vinci, qui estoit grant mathe'maticien, 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 riTTURA
(Valican Library.)

although they could scarcely have told what they were laughuig
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

drawings 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

THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN
HEAD, DRAWN BY LEONARDO FOR
PACIOLI'S TREATISE.

THE SO-CALLED CARICATURES

253

SKETCH FROM THE"tRATTATO 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 exists 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 della PitttLra 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-

SKETCH FROM THE

" TRATTATO DELLA

PITTURA."

(Vatican Library.)

1 In 1586, the Neapolitan G. B. Porta published his De Humana Physiognomonia
Libri iv., in which he establishes relations between the features of certain men and
animals. He quotes Aristotle, Pliny, e tiitti quanti.

2 A. Lemoine, De la Physmiomie et de la Parole, Paris, 1865, p. 29.

3 Piderit, La Mvniqiie et la Physionoiiiie, pp. 26, 99, 152. [French tr.]

254 LEONARDO DA VINCI

made formulae. 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.

We 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. " Glacomo 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. Next day I supped with Glacomo Andrea and the said Glacomo;
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 IMarco'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. Item: 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, Glacomo 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. Ite7n : IV^sser Agostino da Pavia having given me, in the
said house, a Tur^sh skin to make a pair of shoes, this Glacomo stole
it before the rrionth 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." (Richter, vol. ii., p. 440.)

Portrait of Leonardo da Unci, by Himself.

(kOVAI. LIBIJAKV. TIRIN.)

RUH^KPH^H^S^

Studies in P7^op07'tion.

(WI.N'DSOK LIBRARY.)

Printed by Draeger, Paris.

LEONARDO'S PUPILS 255

and, as he himself confessed to me, bought sweetmeats with the
money. Lire, 2. Item : 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'Oggiono 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 (1494), 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-MoUien, Les Manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci, vol. iii., fol. 15. —
Cf. Richter, vol. ii., p. 438-439.

2 Richter, Leonardo, p. 50; and The Literary Works, vol. ii. p. 438-439.

2 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 Manieres des Maitres
Graveurs au xv' Siecle, p. 51-54. Montpellier, 1853. — Duplessis : De quelques Estampes
de Vancienne Ecole milanaise, in the Revue Universelle des Arts, vol. xv. p. 145-164. —
Galichon : Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1865, vol. i. — D'Adda : Gazette des Beaux Arts,
Oct. 1863; November, 1864; August, 1868. — Comte Delaborde : La Gravure en Ltalie
avanf Marc Antoi7ie, p. 184-188.

256 LEONARDO DA VINCI

and they are by anonymous hands. The Madonnas, the 5". John, the
Battle of Angkiari, and the portraits, first engaged the attention of
engravers at a comparatively late period.

The Trattato (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 Ivconardo
surrounded Mona Lisa with musicians as he worked upon her portrait.

STUDY OF FLOWERS.

(Windsor Library.^

END OF VOL. I.

3 1197 00434 7354

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