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diff --git a/7785.txt b/7785.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e25ad1 --- /dev/null +++ b/7785.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1285 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Leonardo da Vinci, by Maurice W. Brockwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Leonardo da Vinci + +Author: Maurice W. Brockwell + +Release Date: March, 2005 [EBook #7785] +Posting Date: August 7, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEONARDO DA VINCI *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and the DP Team + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Plate 1--MONA LISA. Frontispiece + +In the Louvre. No. 1601. 2 ft 6 1/2 ins. By 1 ft. 9 ins. (0.77 x 0.53)] + + + +LEONARDO DA VINCI + + + +By MAURICE W. BROCKWELL + + + +Illustrated With Eight Reproductions in Colour + +[Illustration] + + +"Leonardo," wrote an English critic as far back as 1721, "was a Man +so happy in his genius, so consummate in his Profession, so +accomplished in the Arts, so knowing in the Sciences, and withal, so +much esteemed by the Age wherein he lived, his Works so highly +applauded by the Ages which have succeeded, and his Name and Memory +still preserved with so much Veneration by the present Age--that, if +anything could equal the Merit of the Man, it must be the Success he +met with. Moreover, 'tis not in Painting alone, but in Philosophy, +too, that Leonardo surpassed all his Brethren of the 'Pencil.'" + +This admirable summary of the great Florentine painter's life's work +still holds good to-day. + + + + +CONTENTS + +His Birth +His Early Training +His Early Works +First Visit to Milan +In the East +Back in Milan +The Virgin of the Rocks +The Last Supper +The Court of Milan +Leonardo Leaves Milan +Mona Lisa +Battle of Anghiari +Again in Milan +In Rome +In France +His Death +His Art +His Mind +His Maxims +His Spell +His Descendants + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +Plate +I. Mona Lisa + In the Louvre +II. Annunciation + In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence +III. Virgin of the Rocks + In the National Gallery, London +IV. The Last Supper + In the Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan +V. Copy of the Last Supper + In the Diploma Gallery, Burlington House +VI. Head of Christ + In the Brera Gallery, Milan +VII. Portrait (presumed) of Lucrezia Crivelli + In the Louvre +VIII. Madonna, Infant Christ, and St Anne. + In the Louvre + + + + +HIS BIRTH + +Leonardo Da Vinci, the many-sided genius of the Italian Renaissance, +was born, as his name implies, at the little town of Vinci, which is +about six miles from Empoli and twenty miles west of Florence. Vinci +is still very inaccessible, and the only means of conveyance is the +cart of a general carrier and postman, who sets out on his journey +from Empoli at sunrise and sunset. Outside a house in the middle of +the main street of Vinci to-day a modern and white-washed bust of the +great artist is pointed to with much pride by the inhabitants. +Leonardo's traditional birthplace on the outskirts of the town still +exists, and serves now as the headquarters of a farmer and small wine +exporter. + +Leonardo di Ser Piero d'Antonio di Ser Piero di Ser Guido da +Vinci--for that was his full legal name--was the natural and +first-born son of Ser Piero, a country notary, who, like his father, +grandfather, and great-grandfather, followed that honourable +vocation with distinction and success, and who subsequently--when +Leonardo was a youth--was appointed notary to the Signoria of +Florence. Leonardo's mother was one Caterina, who afterwards married +Accabriga di Piero del Vaccha of Vinci. + +[Illustration: Plate II.--Annunciation + +In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. No. 1288. 3 ft 3 ins. By 6 ft 11 ins. +(0.99 x 2.18) + +Although this panel is included in the Uffizi Catalogue as being by +Leonardo, it is in all probability by his master, Verrocchio.] + +The date of Leonardo's birth is not known with any certainty. His age +is given as five in a taxation return made in 1457 by his grandfather +Antonio, in whose house he was educated; it is therefore concluded +that he was born in 1452. Leonardo's father Ser Piero, who afterwards +married four times, had eleven children by his third and fourth wives. +Is it unreasonable to suggest that Leonardo may have had these numbers +in mind in 1496-1498 when he was painting in his famous "Last Supper" +the figures of eleven Apostles and one outcast? + +However, Ser Piero seems to have legitimised his "love child" who very +early showed promise of extraordinary talent and untiring energy. + + + + +HIS EARLY TRAINING + +Practically nothing is known about Leonardo's boyhood, but Vasari +informs us that Ser Piero, impressed with the remarkable character of +his son's genius, took some of his drawings to Andrea del Verrocchio, +an intimate friend, and begged him earnestly to express an opinion on +them. Verrocchio was so astonished at the power they revealed that he +advised Ser Piero to send Leonardo to study under him. Leonardo thus +entered the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio about 1469-1470. In the +workshop of that great Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and artist he +met other craftsmen, metal workers, and youthful painters, among whom +was Botticelli, at that moment of his development a jovial +_habitue_ of the Poetical Supper Club, who had not yet given any +premonitions of becoming the poet, mystic, and visionary of later +times. There also Leonardo came into contact with that unoriginal +painter Lorenzo di Credi, his junior by seven years. He also, no +doubt, met Perugino, whom Michelangelo called "that blockhead in art." +The genius and versatility of the Vincian painter was, however, in no +way dulled by intercourse with lesser artists than himself; on the +contrary he vied with each in turn, and readily outstripped his fellow +pupils. In 1472, at the age of twenty, he was admitted into the Guild +of Florentine Painters. + +Unfortunately very few of Leonardo's paintings have come down to us. +Indeed there do not exist a sufficient number of finished and +absolutely authentic oil pictures from his own hand to afford +illustrations for this short chronological sketch of his life's work. +The few that do remain, however, are of so exquisite a quality--or +were until they were "comforted" by the uninspired restorer--that we +can unreservedly accept the enthusiastic records of tradition in +respect of all his works. To rightly understand the essential +characteristics of Leonardo's achievements it is necessary to +regard him as a scientist quite as much as an artist, as a philosopher +no less than a painter, and as a draughtsman rather than a colourist. +There is hardly a branch of human learning to which he did not at +one time or another give his eager attention, and he was engrossed in +turn by the study of architecture--the foundation-stone of all true +art--sculpture, mathematics, engineering and music. His versatility +was unbounded, and we are apt to regret that this many-sided genius +did not realise that it is by developing his power within certain +limits that the great master is revealed. Leonardo may be described as +the most Universal Genius of Christian times-perhaps of all time. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.-THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS + +In the National Gallery. No. 1093. 6 ft. 1/2 in. h. by 3 ft 9 1/2 in. w. +(1.83 x 1.15) + +This picture was painted in Milan about 1495 by Ambrogio da Predis +under the supervision and guidance of Leonardo da Vinci, the +essential features of the composition being borrowed from the earlier +"Vierge aux Rochers," now in the Louvre.] + + + + +HIS EARLY WORKS + +To about the year 1472 belongs the small picture of the +"Annunciation," now in the Louvre, which after being the subject of +much contention among European critics has gradually won its way to +general recognition as an early work by Leonardo himself. That it was +painted in the studio of Verrocchio was always admitted, but it was +long catalogued by the Louvre authorities under the name of Lorenzo di +Credi. It is now, however, attributed to Leonardo (No. 1602 A). Such +uncertainties as to attribution were common half a century ago when +scientific art criticism was in its infancy. + +Another painting of the "Annunciation," which is now in the Uffizi +Gallery (No. 1288) is still officially attributed to Leonardo. This +small picture, which has been considerably repainted, and is perhaps +by Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo's master, is the subject of Plate +II. + +To January 1473 belongs Leonardo's earliest dated work, a pen-and-ink +drawing--"A Wide View over a Plain," now in the Uffizi. The +inscription together with the date in the top left-hand corner is +reversed, and proves a remarkable characteristic of Leonardo's +handwriting--viz., that he wrote from right to left; indeed, it has +been suggested that he did this in order to make it difficult for any +one else to read the words, which were frequently committed to paper +by the aid of peculiar abbreviations. + +Leonardo continued to work in his master's studio till about 1477. On +January 1st of the following year, 1478, he was commissioned to paint +an altar-piece for the Chapel of St. Bernardo in the Palazzo Vecchio, +and he was paid twenty-five florins on account. He, however, never +carried out the work, and after waiting five years the Signoria +transferred the commission to Domenico Ghirlandajo, who also failed to +accomplish the task, which was ultimately, some seven years later, +completed by Filippino Lippi. This panel of the "Madonna Enthroned, +St. Victor, St. John Baptist, St. Bernard, and St. Zenobius," which is +dated February 20, 1485, is now in the Uffizi. + +That Leonardo was by this time a facile draughtsman is evidenced by +his vigorous pen-and-ink sketch--now in a private collection in +Paris--of Bernardo Bandini, who in the Pazzi Conspiracy of April 1478 +stabbed Giuliano de' Medici to death in the Cathedral at Florence +during High Mass. The drawing is dated December 29, 1479, the date of +Bandini's public execution in Florence. + +In that year also, no doubt, was painted the early and, as might be +expected, unfinished "St. Jerome in the Desert," now in the Vatican, the +under-painting being in umber and _terraverte_. Its authenticity is +vouched for not only by the internal evidence of the picture itself, but +also by the similarity of treatment seen in a drawing in the Royal +Library at Windsor. Cardinal Fesch, a princely collector in Rome in the +early part of the nineteenth century, found part of the picture--the +torso--being used as a box-cover in a shop in Rome. He long afterwards +discovered in a shoemaker's shop a panel of the head which belonged to +the torso. The jointed panel was eventually purchased by Pope Pius IX., +and added to the Vatican Collection. + +In March 1480 Leonardo was commissioned to paint an altar-piece for +the monks of St. Donato at Scopeto, for which payment in advance was +made to him. That he intended to carry out this contract seems most +probable. He, however, never completed the picture, although it gave +rise to the supremely beautiful cartoon of the "Adoration of the +Magi," now in the Uffizi (No. 1252). As a matter of course it is +unfinished, only the under-painting and the colouring of the figures +in green on a brown ground having been executed. The rhythm of line, +the variety of attitude, the profound feeling for landscape and an +early application of chiaroscuro effect combine to render this one of +his most characteristic productions. + +Vasari tells us that while Verrocchio was painting the "Baptism of +Christ" he allowed Leonardo to paint in one of the attendant angels +holding some vestments. This the pupil did so admirably that his +remarkable genius clearly revealed itself, the angel which Leonardo +painted being much better than the portion executed by his master. +This "Baptism of Christ," which is now in the Accademia in Florence +and is in a bad state of preservation, appears to have been a +comparatively early work by Verrocchio, and to have been painted +in 1480-1482, when Leonardo would be about thirty years of age. + +To about this period belongs the superb drawing of the "Warrior," now +in the Malcolm Collection in the British Museum. This drawing may have +been made while Leonardo still frequented the studio of Andrea del +Verrocchio, who in 1479 was commissioned to execute the equestrian +statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni, which was completed twenty years later +and still adorns the Campo di San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. + + + + +FIRST VISIT TO MILAN + + +About 1482 Leonardo entered the service of Ludovico Sforza, having +first written to his future patron a full statement of his various +abilities in the following terms:-- + +"Having, most illustrious lord, seen and pondered over the experiments +made by those who pass as masters in the art of inventing instruments +of war, and having satisfied myself that they in no way differ from +those in general use, I make so bold as to solicit, without prejudice +to any one, an opportunity of informing your excellency of some of my +own secrets." + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.-THE LAST SUPPER + +Refectory of St. Maria delle Grazie, Milan. About 13 feet +8 ins. h. by 26 ft. 7 ins. w. (4.16 x 8.09)] + +He goes on to say that he can construct light bridges which can be +transported, that he can make pontoons and scaling ladders, that he +can construct cannon and mortars unlike those commonly used, as well +as catapults and other engines of war; or if the fight should take +place at sea that he can build engines which shall be suitable alike +for defence as for attack, while in time of peace he can erect public +and private buildings. Moreover, he urges that he can also execute +sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and, with regard to painting, +"can do as well as any one else, no matter who he may be." In +conclusion, he offers to execute the proposed bronze equestrian statue +of Francesco Sforza "which shall bring glory and never-ending honour +to that illustrious house." + +It was about 1482, the probable date of Leonardo's migration from +Florence to Milan, that he painted the "Vierge aux Rochers," now in +the Louvre (No. 1599). It is an essentially Florentine picture, and +although it has no pedigree earlier than 1625, when it was in the +Royal Collection at Fontainebleau, it is undoubtedly much earlier and +considerably more authentic than the "Virgin of the Rocks," now in the +National Gallery (Plate III.). + +He certainly set to work about this time on the projected statue of +Francesco Sforza, but probably then made very little progress with it. +He may also in that year or the next have painted the lost portrait of +Cecilia Gallerani, one of the mistresses of Ludovico Sforza. It has, +however, been surmised that that lady's features are preserved to us +in the "Lady with a Weasel," by Leonardo's pupil Boltraffio, which is +now in the Czartoryski Collection at Cracow. + + + + +IN THE EAST + +The absence of any record of Leonardo in Milan, or elsewhere in Italy, +between 1483 and 1487 has led critics to the conclusion, based on +documentary evidence of a somewhat complicated nature, that he spent +those years in the service of the Sultan of Egypt, travelling in +Armenia and the East as his engineer. + + + +BACK IN MILAN + + +In 1487 he was again resident in Milan as general artificer--using +that term in its widest sense--to Ludovico. Among his various +activities at this period must be mentioned the designs he made for +the cupola of the cathedral at Milan, and the scenery he constructed +for "Il Paradiso," which was written by Bernardo Bellincioni on the +occasion of the marriage of Gian Galeazzo with Isabella of Aragon. +About 1489-1490 he began his celebrated "Treatise on Painting" and +recommenced work on the colossal equestrian statue of Francesco +Sforza, which was doubtless the greatest of all his achievements as a +sculptor. It was, however, never cast in bronze, and was ruthlessly +destroyed by the French bowmen in April 1500, on their occupation of +Milan after the defeat of Ludovico at the battle of Novara. This is +all the more regrettable as no single authentic piece of sculpture +has come down to us from Leonardo's hand, and we can only judge of his +power in this direction from his drawings, and the enthusiastic +praise of his contemporaries. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--COPY OF THE LAST SUPPER + +In the Diploma Gallery, Burlington House + +This copy is usually ascribed to Marco d'Oggiono, but some critics +claim that it is by Gianpetrino. It is the same size as the original.] + + + +THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS + + +The "Virgin of the Rocks" (Plate III.), now in the National Gallery, +corresponds exactly with a painting by Leonardo which was described by +Lomazzo about 1584 as being in the Chapel of the Conception in the +Church of St. Francesco at Milan. This picture, the only _oeuvre_ +in this gallery with which Leonardo's name can be connected, was +brought to England in 1777 by Gavin Hamilton, and sold by him to the +Marquess of Lansdowne, who subsequently exchanged it for another +picture in the Collection of the Earl of Suffolk at Charlton Park, +Wiltshire, from whom it was eventually purchased by the National +Gallery for L9000. Signor Emilio Motta, some fifteen years ago, +unearthed in the State Archives of Milan a letter or memorial from +Giovanni Ambrogio da Predis and Leonardo da Vinci to the Duke of +Milan, praying him to intervene in a dispute, which had arisen between +the petitioners and the Brotherhood of the Conception, with regard to +the valuation of certain works of art furnished for the chapel of the +Brotherhood in the church of St. Francesco. The only logical deduction +which can be drawn from documentary evidence is that the "Vierge aux +Rochers" in the Louvre is the picture, painted about 1482, which +between 1491 and 1494 gave rise to the dispute, and that, when it was +ultimately sold by the artists for the full price asked to some +unknown buyer, the National Gallery version was executed for a +smaller price mainly by Ambrogio da Predisunder the supervision, and +with the help, of Leonardo to be placed in the Chapel of the +Conception. + +The differences between the earlier, the more authentic, and the more +characteristically Florentine "Vierge aux Rochers," in the Louvre, and +the "Virgin of the Rocks," in the National Gallery, are that in the +latter picture the hand of the angel, seated by the side of the Infant +Christ, is raised and pointed in the direction of the little St. John +the Baptist; that the St John has a reed cross and the three principal +figures have gilt nimbi, which were, however, evidently added much +later. In the National Gallery version the left hand of the Madonna, +the Christ's right hand and arm, and the forehead of St. John the +Baptist are freely restored, while a strip of the foreground right +across the whole picture is ill painted and lacks accent. The head of +the angel is, however, magnificently painted, and by Leonardo; the +panel, taken as a whole, is exceedingly beautiful and full of charm +and tenderness. + + + + +THE LAST SUPPER + +Between 1496 and 1498 Leonardo painted his _chef d'oeuvre_, the +"Last Supper," (Plate IV.) for the end wall of the Refectory of the +Dominican Convent of S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan. It was originally +executed in tempera on a badly prepared stucco ground and began to +deteriorate a very few years after its completion. As early as 1556 it +was half ruined. In 1652 the monks cut away a part of the fresco +including the feet of the Christ to make a doorway. In 1726 one +Michelangelo Belotti, an obscure Milanese painter, received L300 for +the worthless labour he bestowed on restoring it. He seems to have +employed some astringent restorative which revived the colours +temporarily, and then left them in deeper eclipse than before. In 1770 +the fresco was again restored by Mazza. In 1796 Napoleon's cavalry, +contrary to his express orders, turned the refectory into a stable, +and pelted the heads of the figures with dirt. Subsequently the +refectory was used to store hay, and at one time or another it has +been flooded. In 1820 the fresco was again restored, and in 1854 this +restoration was effaced. In October 1908 Professor Cavenaghi completed +the delicate task of again restoring it, and has, in the opinion of +experts, now preserved it from further injury. In addition, the +devices of Ludovico and his Duchess and a considerable amount of +floral decoration by Leonardo himself have been brought to light. + +Leonardo has succeeded in producing the effect of the _coup de +theatre_ at the moment when Jesus said "One of you shall betray +me." Instantly the various apostles realise that there is a traitor +among their number, and show by their different gestures their +different passions, and reveal their different temperaments. On the +left of Christ is St. John who is overcome with grief and is +interrogated by the impetuous Peter, near whom is seated Judas +Iscariot who, while affecting the calm of innocence, is quite unable +to conceal his inner feelings; he instinctively clasps the money-bag +and in so doing upsets the salt-cellar. + +It will be remembered that the Prior of the Convent complained to +Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, that Leonardo was taking too long to +paint the fresco and was causing the Convent considerable +inconvenience. Leonardo had his revenge by threatening to paint the +features of the impatient Prior into the face of Judas Iscariot. The +incident has been quaintly told in the following lines:-- + + "Padre Bandelli, then, complains of me + Because, forsooth, I have not drawn a line + Upon the Saviour's head; perhaps, then, he + Could without trouble paint that head divine. + But think, oh Signor Duca, what should be + The pure perfection of Our Saviour's face-- + What sorrowing majesty, what noble grace, + At that dread moment when He brake the bread, + And those submissive words of pathos said: + + "'By one among you I shall be betrayed,'-- + And say if 'tis an easy task to find + Even among the best that walk this Earth, + The fitting type of that divinest worth, + That has its image solely in the mind. + Vainly my pencil struggles to express + The sorrowing grandeur of such holiness. + In patient thought, in ever-seeking prayer, + I strive to shape that glorious face within, + But the soul's mirror, dulled and dimmed by sin, + Reflects not yet the perfect image there. + Can the hand do before the soul has wrought; + Is not our art the servant of our thought? + + "And Judas too, the basest face I see, + Will not contain his utter infamy; + Among the dregs and offal of mankind + Vainly I seek an utter wretch to find. + He who for thirty silver coins could sell + His Lord, must be the Devil's miracle. + Padre Bandelli thinks it easy is + To find the type of him who with a kiss + Betrayed his Lord. Well, what I can I'll do; + And if it please his reverence and you, + For Judas' face I'm willing to paint his." + + * * * * * + + "... I dare not paint + Till all is ordered and matured within, + Hand-work and head-work have an earthly taint, + But when the soul commands I shall begin; + On themes like these I should not dare to dwell + With our good Prior--they to him would be + Mere nonsense; he must touch and taste and see, + And facts, he says, are never mystical." + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE HEAD OF CHRIST + +In the Brera Gallery, Milan. No. 280. 1 ft. 0-1/2 ins. by +1 ft. 4 ins. (0.32 x 0.40)] + +The copy of the "Last Supper" (Plate V.) by Marco d'Oggiono, now in +the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House, was made shortly after the +original painting was completed. It gives but a faint echo of that +sublime work "in which the ideal and the real were blended in perfect +unity." This copy was long in the possession of the Carthusians in +their Convent at Pavia, and, on the suppression of that Order and +the sale of their effects in 1793, passed into the possession of a +grocer at Milan. It was subsequently purchased for L600 by the Royal +Academy on the advice of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who left no stone +unturned to acquire also the original studies for the heads of the +Apostles. Some of these in red and black chalk are now preserved +in the Royal Library at Windsor, where there are in all 145 drawings +by Leonardo. + +Several other old copies of the fresco exist, notably the one in the +Louvre. Francis I. wished to remove the whole wall of the Refectory to +Paris, but he was persuaded that that would be impossible; the +Constable de Montmorency then had a copy made for the Chapel of the +Chateau d'Ecouen, whence it ultimately passed to the Louvre. + +The singularly beautiful "Head of Christ" (Plate VI.), now in the +Brera Gallery at Milan, is the original study for the head of the +principal figure in the fresco painting of the "Last Supper." In +spite of decay and restoration it expresses "the most elevated +seriousness together with Divine Gentleness, pain on account of +the faithlessness of His disciples, a full presentiment of His own +death, and resignation to the will of His Father." + + + +THE COURT OF MILAN + +Ludovico, to whom Leonardo was now court-painter, had married Beatrice +d'Este, in 1491, when she was only fifteen years of age. The young +Duchess, who at one time owned as many as eighty-four splendid gowns, +refused to wear a certain dress of woven gold, which her husband had +given her, if Cecilia Gallerani, the Sappho of her day, continued to +wear a very similar one, which presumably had been given to her by +Ludovico. Having discarded Cecilia, who, as her tastes did not lie in +the direction of the Convent, was married in 1491 to Count Ludovico +Bergamini, the Duke in 1496 became enamoured of Lucrezia Crivelli, a +lady-in-waiting to the Duchess Beatrice. + +Leonardo, as court painter, perhaps painted a portrait, now lost, of +Lucrezia, whose features are more likely to be preserved to us in the +portrait by Ambrogio da Predis, now in the Collection of the Earl of +Roden, than in the quite unauthenticated portrait (Plate VII.), now in +the Louvre (No. 1600). + +On January 2, 1497, Beatrice spent three hours in prayer in the church +of St. Maria delle Grazie, and the same night gave birth to a +stillborn child. In a few hours she passed away, and from that moment +Ludovico was a changed man. He went daily to see her tomb, and was +quite overcome with grief. + +In April 1498, Isabella d'Este, Beatrice's elder, more beautiful, and +more graceful sister, "at the sound of whose name all the muses rise +and do reverence" wrote to Cecilia Gallerani, or Bergamini, asking her +to lend her the portrait which Leonardo had painted of her some +fifteen years earlier, as she wished to compare it with a picture by +Giovanni Bellini. Cecilia graciously lent the picture--now presumably +lost--adding her regret that it no longer resembled her. + + + +LEONARDO LEAVES MILAN + +Among the last of Leonardo da Vinci's works in Milan towards the end +of 1499 was, probably, the superb cartoon of "The Virgin and Child +with St. Anne and St. John," now at Burlington House. Though little +known to the general public, this large drawing on _carton_, or +stiff paper, is one of the greatest of London's treasures, as it +reveals the sweeping line of Leonardo's powerful draughtsmanship. It +was in the Pompeo Leoni, Arconati, Casnedi, and Udney Collections +before passing to the Royal Academy. + +In 1499 the stormy times in Milan foreboded the end of Ludovico's +reign. In April of that year we read of his giving a vineyard to +Leonardo; in September Ludovico had to leave Milan for the Tyrol to +raise an army, and on the 14th of the same month the city was sold by +Bernardino di Corte to the French, who occupied it from 1500 to 1512. +Ludovico may well have had in mind the figure of the traitor in the +"Last Supper" when he declared that "Since the days of Judas Iscariot +there has never been so black a traitor as Bernardino di Corte." On +October 6th Louis XII. entered the city. Before the end of the year +Leonardo, realising the necessity for his speedy departure, sent six +hundred gold florins by letter of exchange to Florence to be placed +to his credit with the hospital of S. Maria Nuova. + +In the following year, Ludovico having been defeated at Novara, +Leonardo was a homeless wanderer. He left Milan for Mantua, where he +drew a portrait in chalk of Isabella d'Este, which is now in the +Louvre. Leonardo eventually arrived in Florence about Easter 1500. +After apparently working there in 1501 on a second Cartoon, similar in +most respects to the one he had executed in Milan two years earlier, +he travelled in Umbria, visiting Orvieto, Pesaro, Rimini, and other +towns, acting as engineer and architect to Cesare Borgia, for whom he +planned a navigable canal between Cesena and Porto Cese-natico. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.-PORTRAIT (PRESUMED) OF LUCREZIA CRIVELLI + +In the Louvre. No. 1600 [483]. 2 ft by I ft 5 ins. (0.62 x 0.44) + +This picture, although officially attributed to Leonardo, is probably +not by him, and almost certainly does not represent Lucrezia Crivelli. +It was once known as a "Portrait of a Lady" and is still occasionally +miscalled "La Belle Feronniere."] + + + +MONA LISA + +Early in 1503 he was back again in Florence, and set to work in +earnest on the "Portrait of Mona Lisa" (Plate I.), now in the Louvre +(No. 1601). Lisa di Anton Maria di Noldo Gherardini was the daughter +of Antonio Gherardini. In 1495 she married Francesco di Bartolommeo de +Zenobi del Giocondo. It is from the surname of her husband that she +derives the name of "La Joconde," by which her portrait is officially +known in the Louvre. Vasari is probably inaccurate in saying that +Leonardo "loitered over it for four years, and finally left it +unfinished." He may have begun it in the spring of 1501 and, probably +owing to having taken service under Cesare Borgia in the following +year, put it on one side, ultimately completing it after working on +the "Battle of Anghiari" in 1504. Vasari's eulogy of this portrait may +with advantage be quoted: "Whoever shall desire to see how far art can +imitate nature may do so to perfection in this head, wherein every +peculiarity that could be depicted by the utmost subtlety of the +pencil has been faithfully reproduced. The eyes have the lustrous +brightness and moisture which is seen in life, and around them are +those pale, red, and slightly livid circles, also proper to nature. +The nose, with its beautiful and delicately roseate nostrils, might be +easily believed to be alive; the mouth, admirable in its outline, has +the lips uniting the rose-tints of their colour with those of the +face, in the utmost perfection, and the carnation of the cheek does +not appear to be painted, but truly flesh and blood. He who looks +earnestly at the pit of the throat cannot but believe that he sees the +beating of the pulses. Mona Lisa was exceedingly beautiful, and while +Leonardo was painting her portrait, he took the precaution of keeping +some one constantly near her to sing or play on instruments, or to +jest and otherwise amuse her." + +Leonardo painted this picture in the full maturity of his talent, and, +although it is now little more than a monochrome owing to the free and +merciless restoration to which it has been at times subjected, it must +have created a wonderful impression on those who saw it in the early +years of the sixteenth century. It is difficult for the unpractised +eye to-day to form any idea of its original beauty. Leonardo has here +painted this worldly-minded woman--her portrait is much more famous +than she herself ever was--with a marvellous charm and suavity, a +finesse of expression never reached before and hardly ever equalled +since. Contrast the head of the Christ at Milan, Leonardo's conception +of divinity expressed in perfect humanity, with the subtle and +sphinx-like smile of this languorous creature. + +The landscape background, against which Mona Lisa is posed, recalls +the severe, rather than exuberant, landscape and the dim vistas of +mountain ranges seen in the neighbourhood of his own birthplace. The +portrait was bought during the reign of Francis I. for a sum which is +to-day equal to about L1800. Leonardo, by the way, does not seem to +have been really affected by any individual affection for any woman, +and, like Michelangelo and Raphael, never married. + +In January 4, 1504, Leonardo was one of the members of the Committee +of Artists summoned to advise the Signoria as to the most suitable +site for the erection of Michelangelo's statue of "David," which had +recently been completed. + + + + +BATTLE OF ANGHIARI + +In the following May he was commissioned by the Signoria to decorate +one of the walls of the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The +subject he selected was the "Battle of Anghiari." Although he +completed the cartoon, the only part of the composition which he +eventually executed in colour was an incident in the foreground +which dealt with the "Battle of the Standard." One of the many +supposed copies of a study of this mural painting now hangs on the +south-east staircase in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It depicts the +Florentines under Cardinal Ludovico Mezzarota Scarampo fighting +against the Milanese under Niccolo Piccinino, the General of Filippo +Maria Visconti, on June 29, 1440. + + + +AGAIN IN MILAN + +Leonardo was back in Milan in May 1506 in the service of the French +King, for whom he executed, apparently with the help of assistants, +"the Madonna, the Infant Christ, and Saint Anne" (Plate VIII.). The +composition of this oil-painting seems to have been built up on the +second cartoon, which he had made some eight years earlier, and which +was apparently taken to France in 1516 and ultimately lost. + + + +IN ROME + +From 1513-1515 he was in Rome, where Giovanni de' Medici had been +elected Pope under the title of Leo X. He did not, however, work for +the Pope, although he resided in the Vatican, his time being occupied +in studying acoustics, anatomy, optics, geology, minerals, +engineering, and geometry! + + + +IN FRANCE + +At last in 1516, three years before his death, Leonardo left his +native land for France, where he received from Francis I. a princely +income. His powers, however, had already begun to fail, and he +produced very little in the country of his adoption. It is, +nevertheless, only in the Louvre that his achievements as a painter +can to-day be adequately studied. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.-MADONNA, INFANT CHRIST, AND ST. ANNE + +In the Louvre. No. 1508. 5 ft. 7 in. h. by 4 ft. 3 in. w. (1.70 x +1.29) + +Painted between 1509 and 1516 with the help of assistants.] + +On October 10, 1516, when he was resident at the Manor House of Cloux +near Amboise in Touraine with Francesco Melzi, his friend and +assistant, he showed three of his pictures to the Cardinal of Aragon, +but his right hand was now paralysed, and he could "no longer colour +with that sweetness with which he was wont, although still able to +make drawings and to teach others." + +It was no doubt in these closing years of his life that he drew the +"Portrait of Himself" in red chalk, now at Turin, which is probably +the only authentic portrait of him in existence. + + + +HIS DEATH + +On April 23, 1519--Easter Eve--exactly forty-five years before the +birth of Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci made his will, and on May 2 of +the same year he passed away. + +Vasari informs us that Leonardo, "having become old, lay sick for many +months, and finding himself near death and being sustained in the arms +of his servants and friends, devoutly received the Holy Sacrament. He +was then seized with a paroxysm, the forerunner of death, when King +Francis I., who was accustomed frequently and affectionately to visit +him, rose and supported his head to give him such assistance and to do +him such favour as he could in the hope of alleviating his sufferings. +The spirit of Leonardo, which was most divine, conscious that he could +attain to no greater honour, departed in the arms of the monarch, +being at that time in the seventy-fifth year of his age." The not +over-veracious chronicler, however, is here drawing largely upon his +imagination. Leonardo was only sixty-seven years of age, and the King +was in all probability on that date at St. Germain-en Laye! + +Thus died "Mr. Lionard de Vincy, the noble Milanese, painter, +engineer, and architect to the King, State Mechanician" and "former +Professor of Painting to the Duke of Milan." + +"May God Almighty grant him His eternal peace," wrote his friend and +assistant Francesco Melzi. "Every one laments the loss of a man whose +like Nature cannot produce a second time." + + + +HIS ART + +Leonardo, whose birth antedates that of Michelangelo and Raphael by +twenty three and thirty-one years respectively, was thus in the +forefront of the Florentine Renaissance, his life coinciding almost +exactly with the best period of Tuscan painting. + +Leonardo was the first to investigate scientifically and to apply to +art the laws of light and shade, though the preliminary investigations +of Piero della Francesca deserve to be recorded. + +He observed with strict accuracy the subtleties of chiaroscuro--light +and shade apart from colour; but, as one critic has pointed out, his +gift of chiaroscuro cost the colour-life of many a noble picture. +Leonardo was "a tonist, not a colourist," before whom the whole book +of nature lay open. + +It was not instability of character but versatility of mind which +caused him to undertake many things that having commenced he +afterwards abandoned, and the probability is that as soon as he saw +exactly how he could solve any difficulty which presented itself, he +put on one side the merely perfunctory execution of such a task. + +In the Forster collection in the Victoria and Albert museum three of +Leonardo's note-books with sketches are preserved, and it is stated +that it was his practice to carry about with him, attached to his +girdle, a little book for making sketches. They prove that he was +left-handed and wrote from right to left. + + + + +HIS MIND + +We can readily believe the statements of Benvenuto Cellini, the +sixteenth-century Goldsmith, that Francis I. "did not believe +that any other man had come into the world who had attained so great a +knowledge as Leonardo, and that not only as sculptor, painter, and +architect, for beyond that he was a profound philosopher." It was +Cellini also who contended that "Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and +Raphael are the Book of the World." + +Leonardo anticipated many eminent scientists and inventors in the +methods of investigation which they adopted to solve the many problems +with which their names are coupled. Among these may be cited +Copernicus' theory of the earth's movement, Lamarck's classification +of vertebrate and invertebrate animals, the laws of friction, +the laws of combustion and respiration, the elevation of the +continents, the laws of gravitation, the undulatory theory of light +and heat, steam as a motive power in navigation, flying machines, the +invention of the camera obscura, magnetic attraction, the use of the +stone saw, the system of canalisation, breech loading cannon, the +construction of fortifications, the circulation of the blood, the +swimming belt, the wheelbarrow, the composition of explosives, the +invention of paddle wheels, the smoke stack, the mincing machine! It +is, therefore, easy to see why he called "Mechanics the Paradise +of the Sciences." + +Leonardo was a SUPERMAN. + + + + +HIS MAXIMS + + + The eye is the window of the soul. + + Tears come from the heart and not from the brain. + + The natural desire of good men is knowledge. + + A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not. + + Every difficulty can be overcome by effort. + + Time abides long enough for those who make use of it. + + Miserable men, how often do you enslave yourselves + to gain money! + + + + +HIS SPELL + +The influence of Leonardo was strongly felt in Milan, where he spent +so many of the best years of his life and founded a School of +painting. He was a close observer of the gradation and reflex of +light, and was capable of giving to his discoveries a practical and +aesthetic form. His strong personal character and the fascination of +his genius enthralled his followers, who were satisfied to repeat his +types, to perpetuate the "grey-hound eye," and to make use of his +little devices. Among this group of painters may be mentioned +Boltraffio, who perhaps painted the "Presumed Portrait of Lucrezia +Crivelli" (Plate VII.), which is officially attributed in the Louvre +to the great master himself. + + + + +HIS DESCENDANTS + + +Signor Uzielli has shown that one Tommaso da Vinci, a descendant of +Domenico (one of Leonardo's brothers), was a few years ago a peasant +at Bottinacio near Montespertoli, and had then in his possession the +family papers, which now form part of the archives of the Accademia +dei Lincei at Rome. It was proved also that Tommaso had given his +eldest son "the glorious name of Leonardo." + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Leonardo da Vinci, by Maurice W. 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