VINCI. 



During his refidence at Milan, Du Frefne fays he com- 

 pofed his very ufeful work " II Trattato della Pittura," for 

 the ufe of the pupils in the academy under his care ; and his 

 ftudies for the equeftrian ftatue doubtlefs gave rife to the 

 curious and learned memoranda of the ftrufture of that 

 animal, as his former ftudies did to thofe concerning the 

 human figure, which are found in the manufcript in the 

 library of Buckingham-Houfe. It appears to have been his 

 cuftomary practice to wrrite his thoughts conftantly, and ac- 

 company the palfages by appropriate illullrations in draw- 

 ing ; and it would have been well for the art, if every emi- 

 nent profeflbr had adopted the fame habit : we (hould then 

 have been in pofleflion of a mafs of information which would 

 much alleviate the neceffities involved in praftice, and enable 

 men to exprefs their thoughts and inventions without en- 

 countering the difficulties which not unfrequently ftifle the 

 moft beautiful and fublime conceptions in their birth. 



The aftivity and exertions of Lionardo, fupported by 

 fuch uncommon talents, had already formed many ikilful 

 artifts, who afterwards became renowned, and who would 

 probably have rendered Milan the rival of Florence as a 

 ichool of art, but for the difailrous ilTue of a contell be- 

 tween the duke and the king of France, in which, in 1500, 

 the former was defeated, captured, and carried into the 

 country of his enemy, where about ten years afterwards 

 he died. 



By this event the progrefs of the arts at Milan was 

 broken up, with its academy for a time, and its illuftrious 

 prefident returned to Florence, where the arts were en- 

 couraged by the houfe of Medici. In this third period of 

 his Ufe, his firft work was a defign for an altar-piece for the 

 chapel of the college of the Annunciate, the fubjeft of 

 which was a group, of our Saviour with the Virgin and St. 

 Anne, which was univerfally approved and admired ; yet it 

 does not appear that the piAure was ever painted, at leaft 

 to remain in Italy. It is faid, that by the defire of 

 Francis I. he made a pifture from it, and certainly one is 

 fhewn in the royal colleftion at Paris, painted from the 

 defign, though in a heavy and low tone of colour. 



He employed himfelf alfo about this time on a portrait 

 of Mona Lifa, known by the name of La Gioconda, a Flo- 

 rentine lady, wife of Francifco del Gioconda, for whom it 

 was painted. This pifture he is faid to have employed 

 himfelf upon during four years, but we mud conceive it 

 to mean only that it remained unfinifhed that length of time. 

 It is in poflcffion of the king of France, and attefts, by its 

 exquifite finifh, the laborious attention of its author. It has 

 a very beautiful expreflion, particularly about the mouth ; 

 but is black and heavy in the {hadows : in faft it is over- 

 laboured, and had probably been far better had it left his 

 fludy fooner. 



In 1503, the council of Florence having determined to 

 decorate their chamber with works of art, Lionardo was 

 appointed ti; execute one fide of it ; and M. Angelo, then 

 only twenty-nine years of age, but whofe gigantic powers 

 were already matured, was felefted, as his competitor, to 

 undertake the other. A moft unfortunate coalition, as the 

 emulation it excited, aided and ftrengthened to bitternefs by 

 the miftaken aifeftion of admiring partifans of either mafter, 

 produced in the end the moft confirmed jealoufy, and even 

 hatred, between thefe two great men, and divided Florence 

 into parties, who embittered their difputes, without being 

 able to reconcile their differences. Lionardo chofe for his 

 fubjeft the battle of Nicolo Picinino againft Attila. He 

 had prepared his cartoon, and proceeded in a certain degree 

 with his piAure in oil colours, when to his great mortifica- 

 tion he found, that owing to fome imperfeiftion in the pre- 



paration of the ground, his colours began to peel from the 

 wall, and he abandoned the work. 



The cartoon, however, of which we have one group pre- 

 ferved to us in the Battle of the Standard, engraved by Ede- 

 linck, had exalted his name highly among artifts and con- 

 noiifeurs, who flocked to Florence to fee it and its rival, 

 which had been prepared by M. Angelo ; and among others 

 Raff^aelle, in 1 504, was drawn there, allured by the defire of 

 improving the tafte he had imbibed in the fchool of Peru- 

 gino ; and there, with the benefit he derived from thefe great 

 works, and the inftruftion of Bartolomeo della Porta, he 

 ftiook off in a great degree the dry and Gothic manner of 

 his mafter, and laid the foundation of his future fame. 



Lionardo appears to have divided his refidence at Flo- 

 rence and at Milan till 1513, during which time he probably 

 painted his own portrait, which is in the gallery at Florence, 

 a head whofe energy leaves all the reft in the room far be- 

 hind, and that perhaps which in many cabinets is called the 

 portrait of Raffaelle. The half figure alfo of a young nua 

 in the palace Nicolini ; Chrift among the dodlors, formerly 

 in the Doria palace ; the fuppofed portrait of queen Gio- 

 vanna, adorned with beautiful architeAure ; that pifture in 

 the Barberini of Vanity and Modefty, the beauty and finifti 

 of which no one has ever been able to convey in a copy ; — 

 thefe appear, with many others, to belong to this period, 

 when, free from other ferious occupations, he was at liberty 

 to attend to painting with increafing power. 



No work, however, of any confequence like his Laft 

 Supper, was entrufted to him after the failure in the Hall 

 at Florence, fo that his great and deferved renown in the 

 art is principally upheld by that work, and the remnant of 

 the cartoon above-mentioned, to which his minor works, 

 though beautifully wrought, are but trifles. 



The eleftion of cardinal Giovanni di Medici to the tiara 

 under the title of Leo X. induced Lionardo to vifit Rome, 

 which he had never feen : and from his previous knowledge 

 of the pontiff, he hoped for honour and employment. He 

 went there with his patron Giuliano di Medici, and was 

 gracioufly received by Leo, who foon after fignified his in- 

 tention of employing his pencil. Upon this Lionardo began 

 to diftil his oils and prepare his varniflies, which the pope fee- 

 ing, and being unacquainted with the neceffities of the painter's 

 ftyle, he exclaimed with furprife, that nothing could be ex- 

 pefted of an artift who thought of finifhing his works before 

 he had begun them. This unlucky bon mot difconcerted the 

 painter, and prevented him from proceeding : and probably 

 he found the ground too firmly occupied by Raflfaelle and 

 M. Angelo, (who as the pope faid produced works while 

 Lionardo gave words, ] to leave room for the expeft ation of 

 honourable employment for himfelf. He therefore accepted 

 an invitation from Francis I., king of France, to vifit his 

 court, and left Rome in 1514 for that purpofe, having fpent 

 his time there principally in the produftion of various fan- 

 taftic and diverting mechanical contrivances, but in nothing 

 of importance. 



This change of circumftances marks the fourth period 

 into which Lanzi divides the life of this moft extraordinary 

 man, and with its commencement terminated his career in 

 art, as he appears to have been fo exhaufted by anxiety and 

 ficknefs on his arrival in France, that he was never more 

 able to ufe the pencil. For the five years that he continued 

 to exift, it was but to ftruggle under an incurable com- 

 plaint, during the continuance of which the king fre- 

 quently vifited him ; and it has been faid, that in one of 

 thefe vifits Lionardo, exerting himfelf beyond his ftrength 

 to ftiew his fenfe of his majefty's condefcenfion, was feized 

 with a fainting fit, and that the king ftooping forwards to 



fupport 



