horse in bronze, of a marvellous greatness, in order to place upon
it, as a memorial, the image of the Duke. And on so vast a scale did
he begin it and continue it, that it could never be completed. And
there are those who have been of the opinion (so various and so
often malign out of envy are the judgments of men) that he began it
with no intention of finishing it, because, being of so great a
size, an incredible difficulty was encountered in seeking to cast it
in one piece; and it might also be believed that, from the result,
many may have formed such a judgment, since many of his works have
remained unfinished. But, in truth, one can believe that his vast
and most excellent mind was hampered through being too full of
desire, and that his wish ever to seek out excellence upon
excellence, and perfection upon perfection, was the reason of it.
"Tal che l' opera fosse ritardata dal desio," as our Petrarca has
said. And, indeed, those who saw the great model that Leonardo made
in clay vow that they have never seen a more beautiful thing, or a
more superb; and it was preserved until the French came to Milan
with King Louis of France, and broke it all to pieces. Lost, also,
is a little model of it in wax, which was held to be perfect,
together with a book on the anatomy of the horse made by him by way
of study.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH S. ANNE
(_After the cartoon by =Leonardo da Vinci=. London: Burlington
House_)
_Vasari Society_]
He then applied himself, but with greater care, to the anatomy of
man, assisted by and in turn assisting, in this research, Messer
Marc' Antonio della Torre, an excellent philosopher, who was then
lecturing at Pavia, and who wrote of this matter; and he was one of
the first (as I have heard tell) that began to illustrate the
problems of medicine with the doctrine of Galen, and to throw true
light on anatomy, which up to that time had been wrapped in the
thick and gross darkness of ignorance. And in this he found
marvellous aid in the brain, work, and hand of Leonardo, who made a
book drawn in red chalk, and annotated with the pen, of the bodies
that he dissected with his own hand, and drew with the greatest
diligence; wherein he showed all the frame of the bones; and then
added to them, in order, all the nerves, and covered them with
muscles; the first attached to the bone, the second that hold the
body firm, and the third that move it; and beside them, part by
part, he wrote in letters of an ill-shaped character, which he made
with the left hand, backwards; and whoever is not practised in
reading them cannot understand them, since they are not to be read
save with a mirror. Of these papers on the anatomy of man, a great
part is in the hands of Messer Francesco da Melzo, a gentleman of
Milan, who in the time of Leonardo was a very beautiful boy, and
much beloved by him, and now is a no less beautiful and gentle old
man; and he holds them dear, and keeps such papers together as if
they were relics, in company with the portrait of Leonardo of happy
memory; and to all who read these writings, it seems impossible that
that divine spirit should have discoursed so well of art, and of the
muscles, nerves, and veins, and with such diligence of everything.
So, also, there are in the hands of ----,[11] a painter of Milan,
certain writings of Leonardo, likewise in characters written with
the left hand, backwards, which treat of painting, and of the
methods of drawing and colouring. This man, not long ago, came to
Florence to see me, wishing to print this work, and he took it to
Rome, in order to put it into effect; but I do not know what may
afterwards have become of it.
And to return to the works of Leonardo; there came to Milan, in his
time, the King of France, wherefore Leonardo being asked to devise
some bizarre thing, made a lion which walked several steps and then
opened its breast, and showed it full of lilies.
In Milan he took for his assistant the Milanese Salai, who was most
comely in grace and beauty, having fine locks, curling in ringlets,
in which Leonardo greatly delighted; and he taught him many things
of art; and certain works in Milan, which are said to be by Salai,
were retouched by Leonardo.
He returned to Florence, where he found that the Servite Friars had
entrusted to Filippino the painting of the panel for the high-altar
of the Nunziata; whereupon Leonardo said that he would willingly
have done such a work. Filippino, having heard this, like the
amiable fellow that he was, retired from the undertaking; and the
friars, to the end that Leonardo might paint it, took him into their
house, meeting the expenses both of himself and of all his
household; and thus he kept them in expectation for a long time, but
never began anything. In the end, he made a cartoon containing a
Madonna and a S. Anne, with a Christ, which not only caused all the
craftsmen to marvel, but, when it was finished, men and women, young
and old, continued for two days to flock for a sight of it to the
room where it was, as if to a solemn festival, in order to gaze at
the marvels of Leonardo, which caused all those people to be amazed;
for in the face of that Madonna was seen whatever of the simple and
the beautiful can by simplicity and beauty confer grace on a picture
of the Mother of Christ, since he wished to show that modesty and
that humility which are looked for in an image of the Virgin,
supremely content with gladness at seeing the beauty of her Son,
whom she was holding with tenderness in her lap, while with most
chastened gaze she was looking down at S. John, as a little boy, who
was playing with a lamb; not without a smile from S. Anne, who,
overflowing with joy, was beholding her earthly progeny become
divine--ideas truly worthy of the brain and genius of Leonardo. This
cartoon, as will be told below, afterwards went to France. He made a
portrait of Ginevra d' Amerigo Benci, a very beautiful work; and
abandoned the work for the friars, who restored it to Filippino; but
he, also, failed to finish it, having been overtaken by death.
Leonardo undertook to execute, for Francesco del Giocondo, the
portrait of Monna Lisa, his wife; and after toiling over it for four
years, he left it unfinished; and the work is now in the collection
of King Francis of France, at Fontainebleau. In this head, whoever
wished to see how closely art could imitate nature, was able to
comprehend it with ease; for in it were counterfeited all the
minutenesses that with subtlety are able to be painted, seeing that
the eyes had that lustre and watery sheen which are always seen in
life, and around them were all those rosy and pearly tints, as well
as the lashes, which cannot be represented without the greatest
subtlety. The eyebrows, through his having shown the manner in
which the hairs spring from the flesh, here more close and here more
scanty, and curve according to the pores of the skin, could not be
more natural. The nose, with its beautiful nostrils, rosy and
tender, appeared to be alive. The mouth, with its opening, and with
its ends united by the red of the lips to the flesh-tints of the
face, seemed, in truth, to be not colours but flesh. In the pit of
the throat, if one gazed upon it intently, could be seen the beating
of the pulse. And, indeed, it may be said that it was painted in
such a manner as to make every valiant craftsman, be he who he may,
tremble and lose heart. He made use, also, of this device: Monna
Lisa being very beautiful, he always employed, while he was painting
her portrait, persons to play or sing, and jesters, who might make
her remain merry, in order to take away that melancholy which
painters are often wont to give to the portraits that they paint.
And in this work of Leonardo's there was a smile so pleasing, that
it was a thing more divine than human to behold; and it was held to
be something marvellous, since the reality was not more alive.
By reason, then, of the excellence of the works of this most divine
craftsman, his fame had so increased that all persons who took
delight in art--nay, the whole city of Florence--desired that he
should leave them some memorial, and it was being proposed
everywhere that he should be commissioned to execute some great and
notable work, whereby the commonwealth might be honoured and adorned
by the great genius, grace and judgment that were seen in the works
of Leonardo. And it was decided between the Gonfalonier and the
chief citizens, the Great Council Chamber having been newly
built--the architecture of which had been contrived with the
judgment and counsel of Giuliano da San Gallo, Simone Pollaiuolo,
called Il Cronaca, Michelagnolo Buonarroti, and Baccio d' Agnolo, as
will be related with more detail in the proper places--and having
been finished in great haste, it was ordained by public decree that
Leonardo should be given some beautiful work to paint; and so the
said hall was allotted to him by Piero Soderini, then Gonfalonier of
Justice. Whereupon Leonardo, determining to execute this work, began
a cartoon in the Sala del Papa, an apartment in S. Maria Novella,
representing the story of Niccolò Piccinino, Captain of Duke
Filippo of Milan; wherein he designed a group of horsemen who were
fighting for a standard, a work that was held to be very excellent
and of great mastery, by reason of the marvellous ideas that he had
in composing that battle; seeing that in it rage, fury, and revenge
are perceived as much in the men as in the horses, among which two
with the fore-legs interlocked are fighting no less fiercely with
their teeth than those who are riding them do in fighting for that
standard, which has been grasped by a soldier, who seeks by the
strength of his shoulders, as he spurs his horse to flight, having
turned his body backwards and seized the staff of the standard, to
wrest it by force from the hands of four others, of whom two are
defending it, each with one hand, and, raising their swords in the
other, are trying to sever the staff; while an old soldier in a red
cap, crying out, grips the staff with one hand, and, raising a
scimitar with the other, furiously aims a blow in order to cut off
both the hands of those who, gnashing their teeth in the struggle,
are striving in attitudes of the utmost fierceness to defend their
banner; besides which, on the ground, between the legs of the
horses, there are two figures in foreshortening that are fighting
together, and the one on the ground has over him a soldier who has
raised his arm as high as possible, that thus with greater force he
may plunge a dagger into his throat, in order to end his life; while
the other, struggling with his legs and arms, is doing what he can
to escape death.
It is not possible to describe the invention that Leonardo showed in
the garments of the soldiers, all varied by him in different ways,
and likewise in the helmet-crests and other ornaments; not to
mention the incredible mastery that he displayed in the forms and
lineaments of the horses, which Leonardo, with their fiery spirit,
muscles, and shapely beauty, drew better than any other master. It
is said that, in order to draw that cartoon, he made a most
ingenious stage, which was raised by contracting it and lowered by
expanding. And conceiving the wish to colour on the wall in oils, he
made a composition of so gross an admixture, to act as a binder on
the wall, that, going on to paint in the said hall, it began to peel
off in such a manner that in a short time he abandoned it, seeing it
spoiling.
[Illustration: LEONARDO DA VINCI: MONNA LISA
(_Formerly Paris: The Louvre, 1601. Canvas on Panel_)]
Leonardo had very great spirit, and in his every action was most
generous. It is said that, going to the bank for the allowance that
he used to draw every month from Piero Soderini, the cashier wanted
to give him certain paper-packets of pence; but he would not take
them, saying in answer, "I am no penny-painter." Having been blamed
for cheating Piero Soderini, there began to be murmurings against
him; wherefore Leonardo so wrought upon his friends, that he got the
money together and took it to Piero to repay him; but he would not
accept it.
He went to Rome with Duke Giuliano de' Medici, at the election of
Pope Leo, who spent much of his time on philosophical studies, and
particularly on alchemy; where, forming a paste of a certain kind of
wax, as he walked he shaped animals very thin and full of wind, and,
by blowing into them, made them fly through the air, but when the
wind ceased they fell to the ground. On the back of a most bizarre
lizard, found by the vine-dresser of the Belvedere, he fixed, with a
mixture of quicksilver, wings composed of scales stripped from other
lizards, which, as it walked, quivered with the motion; and having
given it eyes, horns, and beard, taming it, and keeping it in a box,
he made all his friends, to whom he showed it, fly for fear. He used
often to have the guts of a wether completely freed of their fat and
cleaned, and thus made so fine that they could have been held in the
palm of the hand; and having placed a pair of blacksmith's bellows
in another room, he fixed to them one end of these, and, blowing
into them, filled the room, which was very large, so that whoever
was in it was obliged to retreat into a corner; showing how,
transparent and full of wind, from taking up little space at the
beginning they had come to occupy much, and likening them to virtue.
He made an infinite number of such follies, and gave his attention
to mirrors; and he tried the strangest methods in seeking out oils
for painting, and varnish for preserving works when painted.
He made at this time, for Messer Baldassarre Turini da Pescia, who
was Datary to Pope Leo, a little picture of the Madonna with the
Child in her arms, with infinite diligence and art; but whether
through the fault of whoever primed the panel with gesso, or because
of his innumerable and capricious mixtures of grounds and colours,
it is now much spoilt. And in another small picture he made a
portrait of a little boy, which is beautiful and graceful to a
marvel; and both of them are now at Pescia, in the hands of Messer
Giuliano Turini. It is related that, a work having been allotted to
him by the Pope, he straightway began to distil oils and herbs, in
order to make the varnish; at which Pope Leo said: "Alas! this man
will never do anything, for he begins by thinking of the end of the
work, before the beginning."
There was very great disdain between Michelagnolo Buonarroti and
him, on account of which Michelagnolo departed from Florence, with
the excuse of Duke Giuliano, having been summoned by the Pope to the
competition for the façade of S. Lorenzo. Leonardo, understanding
this, departed and went into France, where the King, having had
works by his hand, bore him great affection; and he desired that he
should colour the cartoon of S. Anne, but Leonardo, according to his
custom, put him off for a long time with words.
Finally, having grown old, he remained ill many months, and, feeling
himself near to death, asked to have himself diligently informed of
the teaching of the Catholic faith, and of the good way and holy
Christian religion; and then, with many moans, he confessed and was
penitent; and although he could not raise himself well on his feet,
supporting himself on the arms of his friends and servants, he was
pleased to take devoutly the most holy Sacrament, out of his bed.
The King, who was wont often and lovingly to visit him, then came
into the room; wherefore he, out of reverence, having raised himself
to sit upon the bed, giving him an account of his sickness and the
circumstances of it, showed withal how much he had offended God and
mankind in not having worked at his art as he should have done.
Thereupon he was seized by a paroxysm, the messenger of death; for
which reason the King having risen and having taken his head, in
order to assist him and show him favour, to the end that he might
alleviate his pain, his spirit, which was divine, knowing that it
could not have any greater honour, expired in the arms of the King,
in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
[Illustration: FRAGMENT FROM "THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARD"
(_After the cartoon attributed to_ Leonardo da Vinci. _Oxford:
Ashmolean Museum_)
_Reproduced by permission of the Visitors of the Ashmolean Museum_]
The loss of Leonardo grieved beyond measure all those who had known
him, since there was never any one who did so much honour to
painting. With the splendour of his aspect, which was very
beautiful, he made serene every broken spirit: and with his
words he turned to yea, or nay, every obdurate intention. By his
physical force he could restrain any outburst of rage: and with his
right hand he twisted the iron ring of a door-bell, or a horse-shoe,
as if it were lead. With his liberality he would assemble together
and support his every friend, poor or rich, if only he had intellect
and worth. He adorned and honoured, in every action, no matter what
mean and bare dwelling; wherefore, in truth, Florence received a
very great gift in the birth of Leonardo, and an incalculable loss
in his death. In the art of painting, he added to the manner of
colouring in oils a certain obscurity, whereby the moderns have
given great force and relief to their figures. And in statuary, he
proved his worth in the three figures of bronze that are over the
door of S. Giovanni, on the side towards the north, executed by
Giovan Francesco Rustici, but contrived with the advice of Leonardo;
which are the most beautiful pieces of casting, the best designed,
and the most perfect that have as yet been seen in modern days. By
Leonardo we have the anatomy of the horse, and that of man even more
complete. And so, on account of all his qualities, so many and so
divine, although he worked much more by words than by deeds, his
name and fame can never be extinguished; wherefore it was thus said
in his praise by Messer Giovan Battista Strozzi:
Vince costui pur solo
Tutti altri; e vince Fidia e vince Apelle
E tutto il lor vittorioso stuolo.
[Illustration: MAN AND WOMAN PRAYING
(_After the panel by =Giovan Antonio Boltraffio=. Milan: Brera,
281_)
_Anderson_]
A disciple of Leonardo was Giovan Antonio Boltraffio of Milan, a
person of great skill and understanding, who, in the year 1500,
painted with much diligence, for the Church of the Misericordia,
without Bologna, a panel in oils containing Our Lady with the Child
in her arms, S. John the Baptist, S. Sebastian naked, and the patron
who caused it to be executed, portrayed from the life, on his
knees--a truly beautiful work, on which he wrote his name, calling
himself a disciple of Leonardo. He has made other works, both at
Milan and elsewhere; but it must be enough here to have named this,
which is the best. Another (of his disciples) was Marco Oggioni, who
painted, in S. Maria della Pace, the Passing of Our Lady and the
Marriage of Cana in Galilee.
FOOTNOTE:
[10] Two accurate literal translations of the same original
must often coincide; and in dealing with this beautiful Life, the
translator has had to take the risk either of seeming to copy the
almost perfect rendering of Mr. H. P. Horne, or of introducing
unsatisfactory variants for mere variety's sake. Having rejected the
latter course, he feels doubly bound to record once more his deep
obligation to Mr. Horne's example.
[11] This name is missing in the text.
GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO
LIFE OF GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO
PAINTER OF VENICE
At the same time when Florence was acquiring such fame by reason of
the works of Leonardo, no little adornment was conferred on Venice
by the talent and excellence of one of her citizens, who surpassed
by a great measure not only the Bellini, whom the Venetians held in
such esteem, but also every other master who had painted up to that
time in that city. This was Giorgio, who was born at Castelfranco in
the territory of Treviso, in the year 1478, when the Doge was
Giovanni Mozzenigo, brother of Doge Piero. In time, from the nature
of his person and from the greatness of his mind, Giorgio came to be
called Giorgione; and although he was born from very humble stock,
nevertheless he was not otherwise than gentle and of good breeding
throughout his whole life. He was brought up in Venice, and took
unceasing delight in the joys of love; and the sound of the lute
gave him marvellous pleasure, so that in his day he played and sang
so divinely that he was often employed for that purpose at various
musical assemblies and gatherings of noble persons. He studied
drawing, and found it greatly to his taste; and in this nature
favoured him so highly, that he, having become enamoured of her
beauties, would never represent anything in his works without
copying it from life; and so much was he her slave, imitating her
continuously, that he acquired the name not only of having surpassed
Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, but also of being the rival of the
masters who were working in Tuscany and who were the creators of the
modern manner. Giorgione had seen some things by the hand of
Leonardo with a beautiful gradation of colours, and with
extraordinary relief, effected, as has been related, by means of
dark shadows; and this manner pleased him so much that he was for
ever studying it as long as he lived, and in oil-painting he
imitated it greatly. Taking pleasure in the delights of good work,
he was ever selecting, for putting into his pictures, the greatest
beauty and the greatest variety that he could find. And nature gave
him a spirit so benign, and with this, both in oil-painting and in
fresco, he made certain living forms and other things so soft, so
well harmonized, and so well blended in the shadows, that many of
the excellent masters of his time were forced to confess that he had
been born to infuse spirit into figures and to counterfeit the
freshness of living flesh better than any other painter, not only in
Venice, but throughout the whole world.
[Illustration: GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO: FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE
(_Venice: Prince Giovanelli. Canvas_)]