VINCI. 
VINCENT, Point, a cape on the coast of New Albion, 
in the North Pacific ocean. Lat. 33. 44. N. long. 241.53. E. 
VINCENT D’ARDENTES, a town of France, depart¬ 
ment of the Indre; 7 miles east of Chateauroux. Popula¬ 
tion 1100. 
VINCENTE, Pointk, a conspicuous promontory on the 
coast of New California or New Albion, composed of steep 
barren rocks. It is the southern point of the bay of St. 
Pedro. Lat. 33. 38. N. long. 241.6. E. 
VINCENTE DE LA BARQUERA, St., a sea-port of 
Spain, in the province of Burgos, district La Montana; 
9 miles west-south-west of Santillana. 
VINCHIATURA, an inland town in Naples, province of 
Molise, with 3400 inhabitants. 
VINCI (Lionardo da), the illegitimate son of Piero da 
Vinci, a notary of the signoria of Florence, distinguished 
himself during his life as a man of science and of literature, 
a philosopher, poet, painter, and musician of the most pro¬ 
found study, and the most exalted taste. He was born at 
the castle of Vinci, in the lower vale of the Arno, in 1452. 
From his earliest years he testified a more than ordinary 
share of ingenuity, and particularly exhibited an ardent de¬ 
sire for drawing. This at length became so decided a pre¬ 
ference above all other pursuits, that it determined his father 
to indulge and cultivate it; and for this purpose he placed 
him under the tuition of Andrea Verocchio, a skilful de¬ 
signer. 
Nature had endowed Leonardo with the beauties of body 
and of mind, which he cultivated by useful exercise. His 
person was finely proportioned, and his features beautiful 
and expressive; he was dexterous in feats of arms, the ma¬ 
nagement of the horse, and all the favourite amusements 
of the time. He was admirably skilled in mechanics, was 
an able anatomist, and an architect; was learned in natural 
philosophy, optics, and geometry: in short, he had steadily 
applied himself to acquire a thorough knowledge of the 
operations of nature ; and was besides an excellent poet and 
musician. 
Thus endowed, and constituted to apply these endowments 
with energy to every useful and ornamental purpose, fame 
crowned his portion of human felicity by spreading the re¬ 
nown of his uncommon talents throughout Italy. His va¬ 
rious application of them had, however, one evil attending 
it,—a certain portion of instability: the impetuosity of his 
nature, leading him too rapidly to new projects, often pre¬ 
vented the completion of those already commenced. In 
his youth, Vasari says, he invented mills and engines to go 
by water for various purposes, and contemplated schemes lor 
making the Arno navigable from Pisa to Florence ; he made 
plans for roads, for raising water, &c.: yet amidst these oc¬ 
cupations he cultivated drawing most assiduously from all 
kinds of objects of animated nature, in a style of the most 
laboured and exquisite finishing, as if he never could attain 
too close an imitation of the object he had selected. He 
always strove to make them appear as strongly relieved as 
possible; their defect is, that not having hit upon the true 
nature of relieving objects, such as has been exemplified in 
the Dutch school since his time, he laboured his works to 
blackness; and whilst his principal objects appeared illu¬ 
mined by the light of the day, his shadows partook of the 
blackness of night. 
He delighted in observing those whose character was 
strongly marked, who had any thing extravagant in the 
style of their beards, their hair, or dress, and would follow 
them till he had fixed their form fully in his mind, and then 
go home and draw them. By studies of this nature he be¬ 
came possessed of strong ideas of expression and of cha¬ 
racter, and employed himself actively in the use of them in 
designs; though the finished works of his hand, which con¬ 
jecture places at this period of his life, are not of a kind to 
exhibit much of their application. 
His life, Lanzi observes, “ may be divided into four 
periods, the first of which was, as we have seen, spent in 
prosecuting his studies in art, and occasionally applying 
them to practice in Florence: to this belong not only the 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1644. 
393 
head of Medusa, and the few works mentioned by Vasari, 
but probably all those paintings of his which have less 
energy of shade, less complicated drapery, and heads of 
forms rather delicate than exquisite, seemingly derived from 
the school of Verocchio. Such are the Maddalenas of the 
Pitti palace at Florence, and the Aldobrandini at Rome; 
some Madonnas or holy families in various galleries, as the 
Justiniani and Borghese; some heads of the Saviour and of 
the Baptist; though the multitude of his imitators must 
render all decision on their originality ambiguous. Of a 
different class, however, and without a doubt of his hand, 
is the Bambino, who lies in a little ornamented bed, richly 
dressed and adorned with necklaces, which is in the apart¬ 
ment of the Gonfaloniere at Bologna.” 
After this first period of his life, when he was forty-two, 
viz. in 1494, he was invited to Milan by the duke Ludovico 
Sforza, to whom Lionardo rendered himself more particu¬ 
larly acceptable by playing upon the lyre, and upon one of a 
peculiar form, which he himself had made. To this instru¬ 
ment he sung also admirably, and recited verses extempora¬ 
neously, surpassing all who attempted that species of amuse¬ 
ment. But the more effective cause assigned for his going to 
the duke, was a design entertained by that prince of erecting 
a monument of bronze to the memory of his father. Among 
the manuscripts still existing of Lionardo, is a memorial pre¬ 
sented by him to the duke about 1490. In it he offers his 
services in various military mechanical contrivances, for the 
purpose of aiding in sieges, passing rivers, &c., and also for 
the conducting water-courses, sculpture in bronze or mar. 
ble, and painting; and in conclusion remarks, “ that at the 
same time that these things are going on, the equestrian 
statue to the memory of the duke’s father, need not be ne¬ 
glected.” So that it appears by this, that the modelling and 
erection of this statue were the primary objects for which he 
was carried to Milan ; and it was executed by him in bronze, 
and erected in the city, where it remained till it was demo¬ 
lished on the incursion of the French, after the defeat of 
Ludovico. The duke appointed him director of the aca¬ 
demy of painting and sculpture, which he had recently 
revived with additional splendour; and under his instruc¬ 
tions many pupils arose, who increased the love and renown 
of the arts, as he in great measure banished the remains of 
the Gothic style, and introduced his own new and more 
elevated one in its stead. 
Here, by desire of the duke, he painted a Nativity, which 
was sent by him as a present to the emperor of Germany ; 
but if we except this, the portraits of the duke and duchess, 
and his grandest work in the art, the Last Supper, painted 
on the walls of the refectory of the Dominican convent of 
the Madonna delle Grazie, he does not appear to have occu¬ 
pied much of the time he spent at Milan (which was about 
five years) in painting. Indeed he scarcely could devote 
more time to it, as the duke engaged him as an engineer to 
conduct the waters of the Adda to the walls of Milan: an 
immense operation, in which, after much study and labour, 
he had nearly succeeded, when it was interrupted by the 
French. 
Whilst these various inventions shewed the versatility of 
his powers, the picture above alluded to, the Last Supper, 
gave immortality to the fame of the moment. Of this pic¬ 
ture, one only character is given by all who have written or 
spoken of it,—that of superior excellence in all the most 
admirable and exalted qualities of the art. Unfortunately, 
his knowledge in chemistry was not eqqal to his love of 
novelty, or he would not have painted it with a vehicle and 
a ground totally discordant, which necessarily led to a 
speedy destruction of the surface. 
There was introduced into England, and exhibited in 
1817, a copy as large in length as the original, said to be 
the one painted by M. Uggione, a pupil of Da Vinci, for 
the convent of the Carthusians at Pavia: which, in 1793, 
upon the breaking up of that order, was sold with the other 
effects of the convent. In it there remains sufficient of the 
grandeur of style adopted by its great author to satisfy every 
beholder of the justice fame has done to his talents. The 
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