Practically nothing is known about Leonardo's boyhood, but Vasari
informs us that Ser Piero, impressed with the remarkable character of
his son's genius, took some of his drawings to Andrea del Verrocchio,
an intimate friend, and begged him earnestly to express an opinion on
them. Verrocchio was so astonished at the power they revealed that he
advised Ser Piero to send Leonardo to study under him. Leonardo thus
entered the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio about 1469-1470. In the
workshop of that great Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and artist he
met other craftsmen, metal workers, and youthful painters, among whom
was Botticelli, at that moment of his development a jovial
_habitue_ of the Poetical Supper Club, who had not yet given any
premonitions of becoming the poet, mystic, and visionary of later
times. There also Leonardo came into contact with that unoriginal
painter Lorenzo di Credi, his junior by seven years. He also, no
doubt, met Perugino, whom Michelangelo called "that blockhead in art."
The genius and versatility of the Vincian painter was, however, in no
way dulled by intercourse with lesser artists than himself; on the
contrary he vied with each in turn, and readily outstripped his fellow
pupils. In 1472, at the age of twenty, he was admitted into the Guild
of Florentine Painters.
Unfortunately very few of Leonardo's paintings have come down to us.
Indeed there do not exist a sufficient number of finished and
absolutely authentic oil pictures from his own hand to afford
illustrations for this short chronological sketch of his life's work.
The few that do remain, however, are of so exquisite a quality--or
were until they were "comforted" by the uninspired restorer--that we
can unreservedly accept the enthusiastic records of tradition in
respect of all his works. To rightly understand the essential
characteristics of Leonardo's achievements it is necessary to
regard him as a scientist quite as much as an artist, as a philosopher
no less than a painter, and as a draughtsman rather than a colourist.
There is hardly a branch of human learning to which he did not at
one time or another give his eager attention, and he was engrossed in
turn by the study of architecture--the foundation-stone of all true
art--sculpture, mathematics, engineering and music. His versatility
was unbounded, and we are apt to regret that this many-sided genius
did not realise that it is by developing his power within certain
limits that the great master is revealed. Leonardo may be described as
the most Universal Genius of Christian times-perhaps of all time.
[Illustration: PLATE III.-THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS
In the National Gallery. No. 1093. 6 ft. 1/2 in. h. by 3 ft 9 1/2 in. w.
(1.83 x 1.15)
This picture was painted in Milan about 1495 by Ambrogio da Predis
under the supervision and guidance of Leonardo da Vinci, the
essential features of the composition being borrowed from the earlier
"Vierge aux Rochers," now in the Louvre.]