VINCI. 



fupporl him, he expiii-d in his arms. This cvtnt occurred 

 on the 2d of May, 1J19, at a place called Cloux, near 

 Amboife, and in the 67th year of his age. 



There are fo many imitators of the ftyle of Da Vinci, 

 that it is extremely difficult to know what to regard as his 

 among the numerous minor produftions which arc prefented 

 to us as the product of his eafel. Among thofe imitators, 

 Bernardino Luini holds the firft rank, and his piftures are 

 conftantly impofed upo;i us as thofe of I^ionardo. Lorenzo di 

 Credi is another who copied Lionardo with great exaftnefs. 

 Antonio Sogliani alfo imitated and copied him as well as 

 others ; fo that no wonder there are fo many works brought 

 to fale under the high pretenfion of his name, by which our 

 connoifleurs are duped and our pifture-dealers are enriched. 



The real character of Lionardo da Vinci as a painter is 

 of the higheft quality, as we have before obferved. He is 

 the parent of the chiaro-fcuro, upon which the fame of Cor- 

 reggio principally depends ; and he firft attempted to com- 

 bine high finifh with feletlion of parts and grandeur of ftyle, 

 particularly aiming to give int-elligence to charafter and 

 exprcffion to features ; in fadl, to pourtray the mind : and in 

 this no one has ever furpafTed him, not even Raffaelle, who 

 followed in this refpeft the road opened by Da Vinci. What 

 is commonly called the beau-ideal, was not exaftly the form 

 he appears to have fought ; but he had fo much the feeling 

 which generated it, that he always took from his model the 

 effential and charafteriftic, leaving out the mean and ufelefs. 

 Hence we find in his pifture of the Laft Supper fo great a 

 variety of charatler and of expreffion, which thofe who have 

 attached themfelves to thf antique as their guide have 

 never given ; the imitation having, as we conceive, always 

 fuperfeded the original fpirit of feleftion which diftated 

 the tafte of the ancients. 



Two different manners are obfervable in his painting ; 

 one with dark fliades, ttrongly contrafting with the lights, 

 the other more placid, and coiiduded with more of middle 

 tcint. Grace of defign, expreflion of the mind, and fubtile 

 management of the pencil, triumph in and adorn each ; 

 all is gay in his piftures, but efpecially the heads of his 

 women and children. In thefe he conftantly repeated one 

 idea, giving a fmilc to them which it is impoflible to be- 

 hold without experiencing a fympathetic impulfe. Yet, 

 if one may judge from the labour of his piftures, he 

 rarely readied the point at which he aimed, having an 

 impreflion in his own mind more full and complete than 

 he could render by his pencil ; and, like Protogenes of old 

 with liis Jalyfus, knew not, as Apelles faid of him, when 

 to leave off, nor could be contented with good, when he 

 afpired after the bcft. 



As an author, Lionardo da Vinci has rendered effential 

 fervicc to art, particularly in his Treatife on Painting, which 

 is the only one of his numerous compilations that has been 

 given to the public, and which has been recently (in 1802) 

 tranflated into Englilh by a member of our Royal Academy, 

 J. F. Rigaud, efq. Vcntuii fpeaks of this work as having 

 been compiled from various of his manufcripts, which were 

 doubtlefs the produft of his every-day refleftions, fct down 

 as they occurred, and without attention to order or arrange- 

 ment. It treats of proportion, anatomy, motion and equi- 

 poife of figures, perfpeftive, compofition, expreflion, light 

 and fhade, colouring. Sec. in 365 precepts, feme of which 

 are confufed and not cafily to be unravelled, others are com- 

 mon place, but moft are learned, ingenious, and ufeful. 

 The reft of his mifceUancous works, treating of the anatomy of 

 the horfe and of the human fubjeft, of perfpeftive, optics, 

 hydraulics, botany. Sec. were left by him in his will to his 

 friend and pupil Francifco Melzi, and confiftcd of fourteen 



volumes, large and fmall, which by various means found theu 

 way into the national hbrar^- at Paris, and one is in poffeJIion 

 of our own fovereign. Venturi, who faw thefe at Paris, 

 fays " that they contain fpeculations on thofe branches of 

 natural philofophy nearcft allied to geometry, are extremely 

 mifcellaneous, and entered without regard to method or ar- 

 rangement." Whether the change of events in the pohtical 

 world fince his time has reconveyed thefe remains to the 

 Ambrofian library at Milan, we know not, but moft pro- 

 bably they are again returned there. The one in the library 

 at Buckingham-Houfe was the property of Pompeo Leoni, 

 who obtained it, with two others fince returned, from H. 

 Melzi, and it is probable it was acquired by the earl of 

 Arundel for Charles I. It was found, foon after his prefent 

 majefty's acceffion, in the fame cabinet where queen Caro- 

 line found the portraits of the court of Henry VIII. by H. 

 Holbein. 



ViNXi, Leonardo, an admirable opera compofer of the 

 Neapohtan fchool, is faid to have run away from the con- 

 fervatorio of Gli poveri in Giefu Crifto in that city, where 

 he was the fcholar of Gaetano Greco, on account of a quar- 

 rel with Porpora, a lludent of the fame feminary. He 

 began to diilinguifii liimfelf in the year 1724, when he fet 

 the opera of Farnafe for the Alibcrti theatre at Rome. So 

 great was tiie fucccfs of this drama, that he was called upon 

 to furnifh at leaft one opera every year till 1730, when he 

 compofed two, " Artaferfe," and " Aleffandro nell' Indie," 

 both written by Metaftafio. Thefe, as we were informed at 

 Rome, he fet for half price, to gratify his enmity to Por- 

 pora, who was then his rival, in that city. 



The vocal compofitions of Vinci form an era in dramatic 

 mufic, as he was the firll among his countrymen who, fince 

 the invention of recitative by Jacopo Peri, in 1600, feems 

 to have occafioned any confiderable revolution in the mufical 

 drama. The airs in the firft operas were few and fimple ; 

 but as finging improved, and orcheftras became more 

 crowded, the voice-parts were more laboured, and the ac- 

 companiments more comphcated. In procefs of time, how- 

 ever, poetry feems to have futfcred as much as ever from the 

 pedantry of muficians, who forgetting that the true charac- 

 teriftic of dramatic mufic is clearncfs ; and that found being 

 the vehicle of poetry and colouring of paflioii, the inftant 

 the bufinefs of the drama is forgotten, and the words are 

 unintelligible, mufic is fo totally feparated from poetry, that 

 it becomes merely inilrumcntal ; and the voice-part may as 

 well be performed by a flute or violin, in the orcheftra, ai 

 by one of the charafters of the piece, on the ftage. Vinci 

 feems to have been the firft opera compoler who faw this 

 abfurdlty, and, without degrading his art, rendered it the 

 friend, though not the Have to poetry, by finiplifying and 

 polifliing melody, and calling the attention of the audience 

 chiefly to the voice-part, by difentangliiig it from fugue, 

 complication, and laboured contrivance. 



In 1726, he fct Metaftafio's " Didone Abandonata" for 

 Rome, which cftabliflied his reputation ; for in this exqui- 

 fite drama, not only the airs were greatly applauded, but 

 the recitative, particularly in the laft aft, which being chiefly 

 accompanied, had fuch an cffeft, that, according to count 

 Algaiotti, " Virgil himlelf would have been pUafed to hear 

 a compofition fo animated and fo terrible, in which the 

 heart and foul were at once aC^ai' ' by :'ll the powers of 

 mufic." Saggio fopra I'Opera in ivlufiia. 



V/e ftiall mention the rell of this plcafing and intelligent 

 compofcr's operas, the airs of which long fervcd as models 

 to other maftcrs, and are not yet become cither ungracefid 

 or inelegant. 



In 1727, he compofed " Gifmondo, Re di Polonia ;" in 



1728, 



