words he gave unmistakable utterance in plastic expression in the manner of a poet.[1] Solmi judges Leonardo as follows: “But the unrequited desire to understand everything surrounding him, and with cold reflection to discover the deepest secret of everything that is perfect, has condemned Leonardo's works to remain forever unfinished.”[2] In an essay of the Conferenze Fiorentine the utterances of Leonardo are cited, which show his confession of faith and furnish the key to his character.
“Nessuna cosa si può amare nè odiare, se prima no si ha cognition di quella.”[3]
That is: One has no right to love or to hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. And the same is repeated by Leonardo in a passage of the Treaties on the Art of Painting where he seems
- ↑ Merejkowski: The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci, translated by Herbert Trench, G. P. Putnam Sons, New York. It forms the second of the historical Trilogy entitled Christ and Anti-Christ, of which the first volume is Julian Apostata, and the third volume is Peter the Great and Alexei.
- ↑ Solmi l. c. p. 46.
- ↑ Filippo Botazzi, l. c. p. 193.
