OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 13 



Mr. Gary exhibited to the Academy a large photograph 

 which he had lately brought from Milan, taken recently from 

 the celebrated painting of the Last Supper, by Leonardo da 

 Vinci, in the Refectory of the Dominican Convent in that city. 

 He exhibited at the same time the well-known engraving of 

 the same picture by Raphael Morghen, to show, by compari- 

 son of the two, that the engraving is not a close copy of the 

 original, there being marked differences in the features of 

 several of the figures ; and, while the attitudes are similar, the 

 expression in several of them, particularly in the principal 

 figure, is so unlike, as to account for the impression generally 

 received, by those who see the original, of its great superiority 

 to the engraving in dignity and power. It has been said that 

 the drawing was not good from which the engraving was 

 made, and that, in some instances, heads copied from detached 

 sketches left by Leonardo da Vinci were substituted in it for 

 those which he finally adopted as best jsuited to express his 

 own conception. It is to be remembered, however, that the 

 engraving of Morghen has roused a general interest in the 

 subject, that tends strongly to preserve what remains of this 

 extraordinary picture, after its injuries by flood and war, as 

 well as by decay from the lapse of time. 



He likewise exhibited to the Academy a picture of great age 

 and beauty, now in his possession, which has been supposed 

 to be by Leonardo da Vinci, and gave an account of some pe- 

 culiar circumstances under which it was brought to the United 

 States. Early in this century, when the armies of Napoleon 

 were in Spain, on the approach of a large body of troops, some 

 pictures were hastily removed from a church for safety ; and 

 it was afterwards found that, in the confusion, one of them, 

 a painting of great value, had been carried to the coast. A 

 courier was despatched with authority to recover it, but found, 

 on his arrival at the seaport, that it had been offered there for 

 sale, and purchased by an American captain, who had sailed 

 for the United States. A letter was then addressed by a 

 commercial house to Mr. Nelson, a prominent merchant at 



