When Lodovico Sforza was conquered by the French and his city occupied
by them, Leonardo set out for Mantua and Florence. It may have been in
the spring or summer of 1500 that he began to work on the _Portrait
of Mona Lisa_ (No. 1601, Plate IV.) which officially passes under the
title of _La Joconde_. Vasari says that Leonardo worked on this picture
for four years, and finally left it unfinished. The words of Vasari
must not be taken too literally. We know, in fact, that Leonardo did
not work in Florence for four consecutive years during the period to
which the Louvre’s treasured picture belongs, but in 1502 visited
Orvieto, Pœsaro, and Rimini, acting as engineer to Cesare Borgia.
He probably began it in 1500, resumed work on it in 1503, and did
not complete it until the following year. This would make Vasari’s
statement substantially correct. The subject of this world-famous
portrait was Lisa di Anton Maria di Noldo Gherardini, the third wife
of Francesco di Bartolommeo de Zenobi del Giocondo, whom she married
in 1495. It is from the surname of her husband that she derives the
name of “_La Joconde_” by which her portrait is now officially known.
(The title has nothing to do with any reference to her jocund outlook
on life.) A French critic has shown that Mona Lisa’s child died while
this portrait was being painted. “Whoever shall desire to see how far
Art can imitate Nature,” says Vasari, “may do so to perfection in this
head, wherein every peculiarity that could be depicted by the utmost
subtlety of the pencil has been faithfully reproduced. The eyes have
the lustrous brightness and moisture which is seen in life, and around
them are those pale, red, and slightly livid circles also proper to
Nature. The nose, with its beautiful and delicately roseate nostrils,
might be easily believed to be alive; the mouth, admirable in its
outline, has the lips uniting the rose tints of their colour with
those of the face, in the utmost perfection, and the carnation of the
cheek does not appear to be painted, but truly flesh and blood.” This
eulogistic criticism may seem to-day to be somewhat excessive, but
allowance must be made for the drastic restorations to which the panel
has been subjected from time to time. As early as 1625 it is recorded
to have been in a bad condition. Tradition says that it was purchased
by François I. for 4000 _écus d’or_, equal to-day to about £1800, and
hung in the _Cabinet doré_ at Fontainebleau. Cassiano del Pozzo has
left it on record that the Duke of Buckingham, in 1625, when he was
sent to escort Henrietta Maria to England as the bride of Charles I.,
expressed the hope that he might be permitted to take the picture back
with him as a present from Henri IV. of France, who was with difficulty
prevented by his courtiers from acting on the suggestion. The picture
was at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV.., and appeared in the
Louvre for the first time at the Revolution. In recent years it has
been placed in an excellent frame of the period.
By May 1506 Leonardo had returned to Milan, and there entered the
service of the French king. About 1508-12 he seems to have worked upon
the _Madonna, Infant Christ, and St. Anne_ (No. 1598), which appears
to have been in part executed by an assistant, possibly Salaino. This
large panel was purchased by Cardinal Richelieu in 1629. A sketch by
Leonardo for part of this picture is in the Louvre (Drawing No. 391);
other sketches are in the Venice Academy and in the Royal Library,
Windsor. The name of Andrea Salaino (fl. 1495-1515) has been put
forward as the painter of the mysterious picture entitled _St. John
the Baptist_ (No. 1597), which was evidently painted from a female
model. It is difficult to accept the view put forward by Théophile
Gautier that in this androgynous figure we have “another portrait
of _La Joconde_, more mysterious, more strange, freed from material
likeness, and showing the soul through the veil of the body.” The
picture passed into the collection of Charles I. from Louis XIII.
in exchange for Holbein’s _Portrait of Erasmus_ (No. 2715, Plate
XXIV.) and a now unrecognisable _Holy Family_ by Titian, but on the
dispersal of the English king’s collection was purchased for £140 by
Jabach, from whom it ultimately passed to Louis XIV. It is a Milanese
production, but not, in all probability, from the hand of Leonardo
himself, although officially so regarded. The same criticism applies
to the so-called _Portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli_ (No. 1600). Lucrezia
was a lady-in-waiting to Beatrice d’Este, and in 1496 Lodovico Sforza
became enamoured of her, a historical event which has no bearing on the
identity of this portrait or on its official, although uncertain, claim
to strict authenticity. It has also been described under the misleading
title of _La Belle Ferronnière_, apparently in reference to the wife
of one Ferron, a blacksmith, who had according to tradition been the
mistress of François I., but was already dead when Leonardo passed into
the service of that king and came to France in 1516. The picture’s
pedigree cannot be traced further back than 1645, and the theories put
forward in connection with it are largely conjectural. It is, however,
a Milanese production of the school of Leonardo. _The Profile Portrait
of a Woman_ (No. 1605) was also a century ago loosely described as
the _Portrait of La Belle Ferronnière_; it is catalogued as a school
picture, but is regarded by Mr. Berenson as the work of Bernardino de’
Conti. The same critic is of the opinion that the _Bacchus_ (No. 1602)
is “based no doubt on a drawing by Leonardo,” but the Catalogue accepts
it unhesitatingly. It seems to have been originally intended as a St.
John the Baptist with a staff, and subsequently altered into a Bacchus
with a thyrsus. The _Madonna and Child_ (No. 1603A), an attributed
work, is only an old Flemish copy of a slightly warped panel picture of
the _Madonna with the Carnation_ (No. 1040A) at Munich. The _Madonna
of the Scales_ (No. 1604), which still passes as a school picture, has
long been regarded by responsible critics as being by Cesare da Sesto,
a pupil of Leonardo. _The Holy Family_ (No. 1606), which was formerly
in the His de la Salle collection, is not now exhibited.
In 1516, within three years of his death, the great Florentine left
Italy for the Manor House of Cloux, near Amboise, in Touraine, to enter
the service of the French king. His right hand was paralysed—he was
left-handed and wrote from right to left—and his health was failing
fast. The end of that great life came on May 2, 1519, when every one
lamented the loss of a man and a painter “whose like Nature cannot
produce a second time.”
The _Madonna and Child, St. Julian, and St. Nicholas_ (No. 1263) is
perhaps the masterpiece of Lorenzo di Credi (1456?-1537), who was
another pupil of Verrocchio. He also painted the _Christ appearing to
Mary Magdalene_ (No. 1264). The _Annunciation_ (No. 1602A), which was
formerly assigned to Lorenzo in the Catalogue (No. 1265), is, as has
already been pointed out, an early work by Leonardo da Vinci.