Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



169 



THE PAINTER OF MONA LISA. 



Facis and Fancies auout LtoNARDO da Vinci. 



The Art Journal for January publishes a long 

 article, by M. Salomon Reinach, on Leonardo da Vinci. 

 Leonardo's apprenticeship at Florence in Verrocchio's 

 studio remains shrouded in mystery, and only two 

 drawings of that period seem to be extant. Some 

 critics assert that he painted the angel in profile in 

 Verrocchio's great picture, " The Baptism," in the 

 .\cademy at Florence ; others assert that the whole 

 picture was by Verrocchio, and others that Leonardo's 

 co-operation should be recognised throughout the 

 picture. As it is not yet possible to fix the exact 

 date of the painting it cannot be stated with accuracy 

 whether the work was executed before Leonardo 

 entered Verrocchio's studio. M. Reinach, however, 

 is of opinion that Leonardo painted the angel, but 

 not the rest of the jjicture. The writer also believes 

 that a panel in the National Gallery, " The Virgin 

 adoring the Infant Christ," ascribed to Ghirlandnjo 

 or to Verrocchio, is a work by the young Leonardo. 



WHO painted "the virgin of the rocks"? 

 No picture, continues M. Reinach, has been the 

 object of more controversy than "The Virgin of the 

 Rocks." The I'aris fiicture is stated to be un- 

 doubtedly Leonardo's, but what about the picture in 

 the National Gallery ? As we know some critics 

 believe that it is a free copy of that in the Louvre 

 executed entirely Ijy -Ambrogio da Predis, but M. 

 Reinach thinks it far too good and far too original a 

 picture to be attributed to a copyist. He is of 

 opinion that " The Virgin of the Rocks " in the 

 Louvre was painted by Leonardo in Florence before 

 1483. In this j.ic lure the angel is looking towards us 

 and with extended arm and finger is jjointiiig to the 

 young St. John, «i)0 is praying to Jesus. In the 

 London picture that gesture of the angel does not 

 exist. M. Reinach exjilains that the gesture of the 

 angel in the Louvie picture is an exhortation to the 

 Florentines, who^e patron saint was St. John the 

 Baptist, to follow the Saint's example and pray 

 devoutedly to Jesus. In Milan where the London 

 picture seems to have been painted after 1485 that 

 gesture would iiardly have been understood, therefore 

 Leonardo substituted for it another, which not being 

 significant is rather dull. M. Reinach concludes that 

 Leonardo thus nidilified his first composition, and that 

 if he did not paint the London |)icture entirely, it was 

 executed under his guidance with the assistance of 

 Ambrogio da I'redis. 

 j In the January number of the M011//1 there is 

 ; another article on the same subject. Assuming that 

 !' Leonardo painted only one of the two pictures, Mr. 

 Montgomery Carmichael, the writer, names ten 

 eminent critics who favour the view that the Louvre 

 ])icture was the work of Leonardo, and ten others 

 who attributed the National Gallery picture to him. 

 Mr. Carmichacl draws attention to the various points 

 of diftercncc in the two paintings, but comes to the 



conclusion that Leonardo was the painter of both 

 pictures. 



MONA Lisa's tearful smile. 

 In reference to Mona Lisa, M. Reinach tells us 

 that Vasari was right when he said that Leonardo 

 called in musicians to amuse her while he was 

 painting her portrait, but he missed the reason and 

 point of it. In 1499 Mona Lisa had lost a 

 young daughter, and as she was the third wife of 

 her husband, and he was no longer young, this may 

 have been her only child. Next comes the fact that 

 she wears no diadem, or necklace, or ring, or jewel of 

 any kind. She is clad in dark olive green and a dark 

 veil. The absence of jewels, according to Florentine 

 custom, was characteristic of mourning attire. This, 

 M. Reinach suggests, explains the whole matter. 

 Mona Lisa was a distressed mother, and when 

 Leonardo began to paint her portrait he found she 

 looked dejected, and got musicians to elicit a smile 

 from her. Her smile is not perfidious, or ironical, or 

 coquettish ; it is a forced and superficial smile, a 

 smile of the Ijps and eyes to which the heart fails to 

 respond. 



FREDERICK THE GREAT AS A MUSICIAN. 

 O.x January 24th the two-hundredth anniversary of 

 the birth of Frederick the Great was commemorated 

 in Germany. The January numbers of the Konsena- 

 tive Momitsschrift and of the Aram each publish a 

 series of articles on the great king, and one in the 

 Arena, by Herr Enst li^duard Faubert, deals with him 

 as a musician. As Crown Prince, Frederick chose 

 the flute as his favourite instrument, and under the 

 tuition of Quantz he attained a remarkable degree of 

 proficiency. His father, however, was much opposed 

 to. the Prince's study of music, and it had to be 

 carried on in secret. After he became king he 

 remained faithful to the instrument of his choice, 

 ^Dut in his old age shortness of breath and loss of 

 teeth made it difficult to play it, and.he returned to the 

 clavier. A visit to Dresden which he made with his 

 father in 1728 when he heard an opera for the first 

 time had a decisive influence on his 'relations to 

 music. The impression made by what he then saw 

 and heard was so great that as soon as he came to 

 the throne he set about instituting something of a 

 like nature in Berlin. Orders were given for an 

 opera house to be built, and Karl Heinrich Graun was 

 commissioned to compose an opera. But the King 

 was too impatient to wait till the opera house was 

 completed, and Graun's opera was perlormed in 1741 

 in a temporary theatre fitted up in the palace. It was 

 the first of a long series composed under the auspices 

 of the King. During the years of (leace after the 

 Seven Vears' War concerts were given every evening 

 at Sans Souci, and j)icces composed by Frederick or 

 by (Juantz were regularly jierformed by the King and 

 the musicians established in the palace. Several 

 comtemporaries have written of the King's affecting 

 playing of slow moveme'its on the flute. 



I 



