Among the last of Leonardo da Vinci's works in Milan towards the end
of 1499 was, probably, the superb cartoon of "The Virgin and Child
with St. Anne and St. John," now at Burlington House. Though little
known to the general public, this large drawing on _carton_, or
stiff paper, is one of the greatest of London's treasures, as it
reveals the sweeping line of Leonardo's powerful draughtsmanship. It
was in the Pompeo Leoni, Arconati, Casnedi, and Udney Collections
before passing to the Royal Academy.
In 1499 the stormy times in Milan foreboded the end of Ludovico's
reign. In April of that year we read of his giving a vineyard to
Leonardo; in September Ludovico had to leave Milan for the Tyrol to
raise an army, and on the 14th of the same month the city was sold by
Bernardino di Corte to the French, who occupied it from 1500 to 1512.
Ludovico may well have had in mind the figure of the traitor in the
"Last Supper" when he declared that "Since the days of Judas Iscariot
there has never been so black a traitor as Bernardino di Corte." On
October 6th Louis XII. entered the city. Before the end of the year
Leonardo, realising the necessity for his speedy departure, sent six
hundred gold florins by letter of exchange to Florence to be placed
to his credit with the hospital of S. Maria Nuova.
In the following year, Ludovico having been defeated at Novara,
Leonardo was a homeless wanderer. He left Milan for Mantua, where he
drew a portrait in chalk of Isabella d'Este, which is now in the
Louvre. Leonardo eventually arrived in Florence about Easter 1500.
After apparently working there in 1501 on a second Cartoon, similar in
most respects to the one he had executed in Milan two years earlier,
he travelled in Umbria, visiting Orvieto, Pesaro, Rimini, and other
towns, acting as engineer and architect to Cesare Borgia, for whom he
planned a navigable canal between Cesena and Porto Cese-natico.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.-PORTRAIT (PRESUMED) OF LUCREZIA CRIVELLI