VINCI
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VINCI
are with the central picture at the National Gallery.
But Leonardo did not finish the picture he had begun,
its Madonna and the landscape are the work of a
pupil and a mediocre pupil. On the other hand the
angel kneeling behind the Infant Jesus, whose attitude
differs from that of the Paris Angel, is one of the
artist's most perfect creations. Both pictures are
poetical. The fantastic Landscape, the dolomite
grotto of prismatic rocks, the ineffable art of the
"pyramidal" grouping, the often copied triangle of
9r . ^^^im^^N^i^lHI
Detail, Two Angels, in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ
The light-haired head is the work of Leonardo da Viuci
which the base is formed by two beautiful children, and the summit of the head of a .smihng virgin; the grace and life of the iimtif, the selection of the moment, the perfection of the model, the depth of the atmos- phere, and even the smallest details of the herbs, the stones, the slight ripples in a surface of transparent water — all this endows the "Virgin of the Rocks" with an imperishable charm, making it one of the works which open a new world to the imagination and fixing eternally the poetry of the subject. Without Leonardo Raphael's "Madonnas", his "Belle Jardi- niere" and "Madonna of the Goldfinch" would not exist and even their charm does not equal that of their sublime model.
Leonardo's most important work at Milan is his "Last Supper" which he painted in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Sta Maria delle Grazie. This masterpiece is now little more than a ruin, the disaster being largely due to the painter's methods. Fresco seemed to him too summary and hurried a process and he painted in oil on the wall. Dampness soon soaked into and ruined the work, and as early as the middle of the sixteenth century the damage was irreparable. Vandalism difl the rest. In 1652 a door was opened in the wall, mutilating the feet of Christ and two Apostles. In 1720 and 1770 daubers wrought a masterpiece of injury with their restorations, and finally in 1797 a French army occu])ied the convent and made a stable of the refectory; even Bonaparte's orders could not prevent the men from mutiliating the "Last Supper"; such was the long martyrdom of the masterpiece. Only in recent years luu-e precautions been taken to preserve the remains; the wall has been separated and the hall dried but this tardy care threat- ens to complete the destruction of the picture. It is to be feared that it will scale and crumble to dust. However there exist memorials and copies of it. Few works have exercised a similar fascination and been as often reproduced from the beginning. Some of these c(ii)ics have been collected in the refectory of Sta Maria delle (irazie; among them the best of all, which was formerly at Castellazzo near Milan, is believed In be l)y Solari. .\n excellent copy is pre- .served at roide Capriasca. .a neighbouring parish of Lugano. The .Vcadeniy of London has one, which wasformerlv at the("ertosaof Pa via and attributed to
Oggionno or to Gianpietrino. There are two at
Paris, one at the Louvre, and the other at St. Germain
I'Auxerrois. All these copies, which are fairly correct
as regards the composition, vary in detail and espe-
cially show great difference of colouring.
Still more valuable are the separate studies of heads, although the most of them may be originals; the most important series are at Strasburg and \A'eimar. The famous head of Christ in crayon at the Brera seems to be a study of Sodoma or of Cesare da Sesto and to have no relation to the "Last Supper". None of these helps to the study of the masterpiece should be neglected, but despite its ruinous condition there are impressions which can only be given by the picture itself, which still preserves the atmosphere, the moving tonality, a peculiar pathos which seems the sorcery or presence of genius. Its extraordinary superiority is apparent when we compare it with all the extant "Last Suppers", with those of Giotto, Castagno, or Ghirlandajo. The old representations become anti- quated and obsolete and a new order of ideas is inau- gurated. With regard to its subject the theme of the "Last Supper" may be divided into two distinct movements: the institution of the Sacrament and the " Unus vestrum". Leonardo has chosen the moment at which Christ declares that there is a traitor in the company. We are shown the effect of a speech on twelve persons, on twelve different temperaments: a single ray and twelve reflections (Burckhardt). The subject has been well analyzed by Goethe. It is clear that in a drama of this class, a kind of "seated" drama, of which the subject is interior disquiet, sur- prise, anguish, it suffices to show the persons at half length; busts, face, and hands suffice to manifest the moral emotion; the table with its damask cloth by almost completely concealing the lower limbs offered the ingenious artist a resource which he knew how to use. The difficulty under thesp conditions was to succeed in constituting a whole with these thirteen figures seated side by side; the greatest weakness of the old painters was composition; each table com- panion seemed isolated from his neighbour.
With an instinct of genius Leonardo divided his actors into two groups, two on each side of Christ, and he linked these groups so as to imbue the general out- line with a certain continuity, animated by a single movement. The whole is Uke the successive undu- lations of a vast wave of emotions. The fatal word uttered by Christ seated at the middle of the table produces a tumult which symmetrically repels and agitates the two nearest groups and which lapses as it is communicated to the two groups farther removed. The intimate composition of each group is no less wonderful. Stupefaction, sorrow, indignation, denial, vengeance, the variety of expression which the painter has gathered together in this picture, the depth of the analysis, the veracity of the types and physiognomies, the power and the accumulation of contrasts are with- out parallel in all previous art; the countless studies made for each piece denote in the author a world of new preoccupations. Each head is t he " monograph " of a human passion, a plate of moral anatomy. It will be readily understood how such a work cost the artist ten years of pre])aration. None ever summa- rized in a single picture a similar total of life. The hands possess incomparable beauty and eloquence. Here for the first time and for the whole future was created the definitive fornuila of historic painting.
On the wall opposite the "Last Supper" Leonardo had painted (14'.1.51,in the great Montorfano Cruci- fixion, portraits of Ludovico il Moro, his wife Beatrice d'Este, and their sons ISlaximilian and Francesco. Only whitish traces and uncertain lineaments of these portraits remain. Finally in 180.3 Professor Miiller Walde discovered in the castle of Milan under a rough east of the hall of thi' Torre delle As.se a whole decora- tion painted by Leonardo in 149S; it is a trellis of
