mêlée of dead and dying, of stamping and rearing horses, and the different expressions on the faces of victors and vanquished, that we realise all that we have lost in Leonardo's Battle of the Standard.
A better fate has attended the portrait of Mona Lisa, the fair Neapolitan wife of the Florentine Prior, Francesco del Giocondo, which he painted about this time. After working at the picture for more than four years, Leonardo took it with him to France, where it was bought by Francis I. for 4000 gold crowns. A document of the last century, which M. Durand Gréville has lately brought to light, confirms the truth of Vasari's well-known description, and proves that before varnish and repainting destroyed the surface of the picture, the sky was of a delicate blue, the lady's complexion of dazzling fairness, and her eyes of liquid and brilliant lustre.
"The smallest details are rendered with exceeding care, the eyes have all the liquid sparkle of nature, the lashes fringing the lids are painted with rare delicacy, the curve of the eyebrows, the vermilion of the lips, are all exactly reproduced. This is not painting, it is real flesh. You can see the pulse beating in the throat, the enchanting smile is more divine than life itself."
The crimson of the lips has faded and the lustre of the eyes is dim, but that wonderful face with the haunting smile, and the everlasting rocks behind, has not yet lost its charm. For us, in her mystic beauty, Mona Lisa remains the symbol of the divine Idea which Leonardo was ever seeking, the secret which lies hidden at the heart of Nature.
