VINCI
441
VINCI
studies and the preparatory researches for the famous
equestrian statue of the condottierc CoUeone. He was
also admitted to the celebrated garden of the Medicis,
where they had gathered a collection of antiquities,
then the foremost in the world, and which they had,
moreover, made a museum and a school, or academy,
of fine arts. The young artist nevertheless almost
also great terror because of the smoke. ... (8)
\\'here the use of cannon is impracticable I can replace
them by catapults and engines for casting shafts with
wonderful and hitherto unknown effect; briefly, what-
ever the circumstances I can contrive countless
methods of attack. (9) In the event of a naval battle
I have numerous engines of great power both for
entirely escaped the superstition of antiquity, and attack and defence : vessels which are proof against the
this is a clear proof of his wonderful independence, hottest fire, powder or steam. (10) In times of peace
The artists of the next generation, especiall,y Michel- I believe that I can equal anyone in architecture,
angelo, scarceh' beheld life save through the marble whether for the building of pubhc or private monu-
veil of Graeco-Roman sculpture; Leonardo, on the ments. I sculpture in marble, bronze and terracotta;
other hand, borrowed almost nothing from the past; in painting I can do what another can do, it matters
a few details in a candelabrum in the small " Annun- not who he may be. Moreover I pledge myself to
elation" of the Lou\Te, rare sketches such as the execute a bronze horse to the eternal memory of your
"Dancers" of the Academy of Venice, a warrior's head father and the very illustrious House of Sforza, and if
at London (British Museum), these constitute nearly any of the above things seems impracticable or impos-
the whole of his debt to antiquitj'. In this sense sible I offer to give a test of it in your Excellency's
Leonardo is the first of the "moderns". park or in anj* other place pleasing to your lordship,
We possess very few of the works of his youth, to whom I commend myself in all humility." Apart, from the face of the angel in the "Baptism of Leonardo was at this time thirty years of age and
Christ" spoken of above, we
can ascribe to him with cer-
tainty only the delicate minia-
ture "Annunciation" of the
Louvre, the portrait of a young
woman in the Lichtcnstein Gal-
lery at Vienna, and two small
terra-cottas in the South Ken-
sington Museum, London; a
"Madonna and Child" and a
bust of St. John the Baptist.
Drawings have preserved for ua
the traces of other projects, e.g.,
an "Adoration of the Shep-
herds" (drawing at theLou\Te),
but we have almost no infor-
mation concerning this period.
A landscape drawing dated 157.3
and another study dated l.'JTS
(Uffizi) are the first certain
dates we encounter in his life.
The following note has also
been found: "... bre l.")78
cominciai le due Madonnc " ;
but no one knows what became
of these Madonnas, nor even if
they were ever executed. How
ever, a great many studies,
leaves covered with .sketches, heads
women, children plaj-ing with cats, etc
Leonardo da Vinci
Self-portrait. Uffizi Gallery
very handsome. He was an
accomplished gentleman, and
had a keen mind for the inven-
tion of fables. His contempo-
raries, for example the story-
teller Bandello, relate the
charms of his conversation. He
was a musician, being given to
improvising verses while ac-
companying himself on a lute
of his own invention, shaped
like a bucranium and possessing
wonderful sonorousness. For
the fetes, ballets, amusements,
- ind interludes of which the
Itpnaissance was so fond, Leo- nardo was unequ.aUed. At the time of Louis XII's entry into Milan a mechanical lion crossed the banquet hall, halted before the king, and, kneeling and opening its breast, spread before him a shower of UUes. This machine Leonardo had in- vented. Such was Leonardo when towards the end of 1482 he entered the service of Ludovico il Moro. One of his
of young earUest Milanese works was the dehghtful "Woman
show the with a Marten", which is beheved to be the portrait of
direction of his researches. He had already con- Cecilia Gallerani, Ludovico's mistress, and which is
ceived this type of mother and child in which now at Cracow, in the collection of Count Czartori.sky.
the divine expression results only from human
grace and the poetry of life carried to its highest
degree. This was the formula of the Renaissance, of
the Madonna-s of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, and
which Leonardo himself soon applied in the immortal
masterpieces, the "Virgin of the Rocks" and "St.
Anne and the Blessed Virgin".
^filanese Period. — In 1481 LudoviCO 11 Moro assumed in the name of his nephew, Gian Galeazzo, the regency of the Duchy of ^iilan. He was one of
Unfortunately, the work has been much injured by
restorations, "but it is the first truly modern work of
its kind, wherein feminine grace, subtlety of analysis,
refinement of the moral personalitj', and not merely
resemblance of features, constitute the subject of the
picture. The pretty profile of "Beatrice d'Este" at
the .\mbrosian and the so-called "Lucrezia Crivelli"
(also called "La Belle Ferroniere") of the Louvre
have nothing in common with Leonardo.
At Milan, also, in the early years of his sojourn
the most remarkable princes in that age of tyrants of there, he completed his first large picture, the won-
genius: clever, magnificent, ambitious, and cruel. A
letter of which a copy forms part of the celebrated
"Codex .Vtlanticus" in the Ambro.sian Library, Milan,
has preserved the terms in which Leonardo offered
his services to this formid.able lord; among other terms
we read: "(1) I have a process for constructing very
light, portable bridges, for the pursuit of the enemy;
others more solid, which will resist fire and a.ssault and
may be easily set in place and taken to pieces. I also
derful "Virgin of the Rocks". Besides copies there
are two of these pictures in existence, differing some-
what in details, one at the LotnTC and the other at the
National Gallery. There have been endless discus-
sions with regard to their authenticity. The truth is
that they are both originals, the first in point of time
being that of the Lou^tc, the execution of which,
extremely minute in detail, still shows something of
the somewhat dry methods of Verrocchio's studio.
know ways of burning and destroying those of the The other and somewhat later one repeats the same
enemy. ... (4) I can also construct a very manage- tnntif for the convent of San Francesco, Milan. On
able piece of artillery which projects inflammable the side panels .\mbrogio da Prcdis painted .angelfl
materials, causing great damage to the enemy and playing on musical instruments. These side panels
