"His spirit was never at rest, his mind was ever devising new things."
-Antonio Billi.
A biography of Leonardo Da Vinci, with descriptions of his works and life.
THE earliest biography of Leonardo, that in the book of Antonio Billi, ends with the words: His spirit was never at rest, his mind was ever devising new things. They suggest some of the difficul...
IN the taxation return1 made by Antonio da Vinci for the year 1457 his household is stated to consist of his wife, Monna Lucia, aged sixty-four; his son, Ser Piero, aged thirty; another son, Francesco...
M. Miintz holds that Leonardo's picture for the monks of S. Donato was more advanced than the Uffizi cartoon, which is only a sketch in bistre, and the records of the monastery show that ultramarine w...
Sabba da Castiglione (1485?-1554), in his Ricordi, says that Leonardo was at work on the Sforza statue for sixteen years continuously.1 This argues his presence in Milan in 1483, as he had quitted ...
The record of performance in the Duke's service relates to the final clauses of the letter. We may instance his work on the statue, his design for the cupola of the Duomo, the sketches of the pavilion...
His time was spent in study and observation. He speaks in his MSS. of consulting Vitellio's treatise on Mathematics in the Library. He sketched churches, e.g., Santa Maria in Pertica di Pavia. He desc...
THE note of his recommencing the horse in April, 1490, is the earliest dated reference in Leonardo's own MSS. to his work upon the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, by which the political sagacit...
Whereas Taccone only refers to the horse, the lines of Pietro Lazzarone,2 De Nuptiis Imperatorie Maiestatis, state that the statue had the figure of the rider: 1 Uzielli (1896), p. 166. 2 Ibi...
Presumably the knowledge of this statue, which certain of Leonardo's drawings for the Sforza statue presuppose, was acquired by him from drawings seen in Verrocchio's studio, where also studies of ant...
IN Vasari's life of II Cronaca Leonardo is mentioned as one of a commission appointed to consider the plan of construction of the great hall of the Council in the palace of the Signoria. The plan a...
Similarly it is impossible to accept the colossal figure of Mercury or Argus in the Sala del Tesoro as a work by Leonardo. The destruction of the head renders the question of its authorship somewhat c...
Ludovic's connection with Cecilia had already commenced in 1481, when he gave her an estate at Saronno. From her reference to the age at which the portrait was painted, it must have been that Leonardo...
He made a replica of the sketch, and leaving one with the Marchioness, took the other with him to Venice to serve as cartoon for the picture. There it was seen by the maker of musical instruments, Lor...
Caesar Borgia of France, by the Grace of God Duke of Romagna, etc..... To all our lieutenants, castellans, captains, condottieri, officials, soldiers and subjects hereafter cognisant of this decr...
It ranks as the third great commission of his artistic life, the one by which alone he seemed to reveal to contemporary Florence the full measure of his genius. As long as the two existed, says Ben...
The interruption was only temporary; Leonardo was in the service of the Signoria preparing to execute the picture, when, in May, 1506, de Chaumont, who was governor of Milan for the French, sent a req...
Within little more than twenty years from this date the walls of the Sala del Consiglio had been covered with frescoes by Vasari. It would appear that what remained of Leonardo's painting was destroye...
The old indifference to the trend of political events, which had prompted Leonardo's note on Ludovic's fallen fortunes, is seen in his sketches of wreathing smoke and flame-studies of spirals akin to ...
The list of works done at Rome is a meagre one. Vasari refers to the perpetual discord with Michelangelo as in evidence at Rome, but the cause of the lack of commissions lay within himself. The practi...
They saw also his manuscripts, his treatise on anatomy -for which he had dissected more than thirty bodies- his treatise on the nature of water, and others dealing with divers machines and other thing...
WHAT of Vasari's story of how Leonardo painted an angel in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ ? Vasari is naturally, though not always justly, most suspected when most picturesque. Fact may take the hu...
The draperies of the Virgin and Angel are simple and inevitable, with few folds, after the principle in the Trat-tato that drapery should be let fall simply where it is its nature to flow;1 and ...
In only one detail has he given free rein to the luxuriance of creative fancy. The wings of the angel are painted with a very perceptible delight and with care of the minutest. Row on row of feather a...
The studies for the Adoration of the Magi, the cartoon for which, now in the Uffizi, was almost certainly undertaken in fulfilment of a commission from the monks of S. Donato at Scopeto in 1480, exten...
Much of the outline of Leonardo's picture is muffled in the ground colouring. As in the gray light before daybreak, shapes hesitate to take form. Gradually the mass unravels, and the mist which lies a...
In the Louvre picture the head of Christ is not in exact profile, but is a shade nearer to full face. A little bit of the arch of the temple over the far eye is visible ; and certainly more of the for...
It remains to consider the pictures themselves. Less easy to detail are the steps leading up to the conclusions which follow from their study. A visual impression is tested by comparison of deta...
The native painters of Milan never became Florentine in method. It was the greater genius which proved the more assimilative. Leonardo's art had wrested from that of Vincenzo Foppa and Ambrogio Borgog...
For the commission for the monks of S. Francesco I believe the picture in the National Gallery to have been the original picture executed and placed in the Church, where it remained and where Lomazzo ...
The drawing is connected with the painting by M. Muntz and Mr. Berenson. According to the latter it represents the moment when Christ announces that one of the Disciples shall betray Him, and the sket...
With this drawing as index of his power, the contrast pointed out by Dr. Richter with the pastel in the Brera for the head of Christ becomes luminous. The latter in its present state is none of his, w...
The deterioration had, therefore, begun previous to 1556, when Armenino saw it, and in the ten years between the date of his visit and that of Vasari its progress had been considerable. In 1652 the...
The curling auburn hair escaping at either side from the veil, and just brushing the bosom as it falls, has perhaps the most resemblance to the earlier work. The eyes look out at you, gray, devoid ali...
I am disposed to believe from internal evidence that the Academy Cartoon represents the earlier form of the composition, and if this be so, whether produced in Milan or Florence, it must have been in ...
A study of drapery for the lower half of the dress of the Virgin, in the Louvre, has been worked on by a later hand, but the rhythm of the folds may serve to show how the picture, which is in this par...
London. Burlington House (Diploma Gallery) The Virgin and Child, with S. Anne and S. John. Cartoon in chalk. Plate 35. Virgin And Child With S. Anne (cartoon) London. National Gallery ...
The Annunciation. Panel. M. 0.14 x 0.59. (No. 1265.) Plate 2. The Annunciation The Virgin of the Rocks. Panel with arched top. M. 199 x 111. (No. 1599.) Plate 21. The Virgin Of Th...
The Adoration of the Magi. Panel. M. 2.30 x 2.30. Cartoon in ground colouring. Plate 10. The Adoration Of The Magi Milan. S. Maria Delle Grazie (Refectory) The Last Supper. Wall-paintin...
Considerations of space forbid any attempt to detail Leonardo's drawings. For a critical catalogue of those relating to his work as an artist I would refer to Mr. Berenson's book on The Drawings ...
II Libro di Antonio Billi. 1516-1530. [De Fabriczy. Archivio Storico Italiano, series v., torn. 7.] Giovio, Paolo. Leonardi Vincii Vita. I527[Tiraboschi. Storia della Lett. Ital., torn, vii., Part ...
Preface
