DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48088#0461
r—— - -.
i
44 LIONARDO DA VINCI.
stant experiments in the use of new pigments or cement, or new preparations of canvas, or
varnish; the non-success of these endeavours is manifested in the ruinous and dilapidated condition
of the few pictures which, to the present day, have resisted the storms of time.
These experiments were another proof of his constant exertions, which never satisfied
himself, and his zealous and occasionally predominating interest in the various technical branches
of his art. The science of his time did not place at his disposal sufficient physical or chemical
knowledge to afford a firm basis for his experiments, or to give him any certain control over
i them, and in his zeal for his important and, as he hoped, successful innovations and improve-
ments, he forgot the fundamental principle which recommends the first trial of experiments in
corpore vile (on a worthless object). Instead of this, he with unjustifiable confidence, applied
it to his own masterpieces, and the result was fatal to his work.
None of his other plastic works are now in existence. It is, however, maintained by con-
temporary writers, that the greater part of a bronze group over the north door of the Baptistery
at Florence, representing the preaching of John the Baptist and bearing the name of Lionardo’s
fellow-student Giovanni Francesco Rustici, was his own work. This supposition shows that
Lionardo was considered the first sculptor of the school of Verocchio, and that therefore any
great work was attributed to him, simply on account of his acknowledged superiority in plastic art.
This group is pervaded by that exalted tone which is especially found in the paintings of
Luca Signorelli.
Other portraits painted during his stay in Milan have disappeared. Yet the portrait in the
Louvre, said to be the “Belle Feronniere,” a mistress of Francis I. of France, but more probably
Lucrezia Crivelli, may be referred to that period, on account of the brown local tint in the
shadows and the yellow brilliancy of the lights. The head, with its close braids of glossy hair
is turned towards the left, and has a very simple yet bewitching expression, a black band with
a diamond clasp encircles the forehead, and a red dress, trimmed across the front with gold lace
and embroidery, enhances the artistic effect. O. Miindler, a reliable and cautious art connoisseur,
includes among the pictures of this date a profile of the before-mentioned Isabella of Arragon,
the wife of Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza, and affirms that it is the only finished painted portrait
by Lionardo,. in Italy. It hangs next to the unfinished and faded likeness of Galeazzo, in the
library of St. Ambrose at Munich; the two portraits were erroneously marked with the names
of Ludovico il Moro and his wife.
Madonna and Child, with St. John the Baptist, at Parma, and the Archangel Michael probably
still belong to the year 1492. A very beautiful Madonna, in the possession of a private person
in London, must also be considered an early work, because it does not present the peculiar type of
Lionardo’s heads. There is much vivacity in the position of the Child, as it gazes upwards at
its mother’s face.—The delicate chiaro-oscuro of the flesh-tints is suggestive of Lionardo’s sub-
sequent style of colouring.
The small Madonna of the Duke of Litta at Milan also presents the boldly-rounded forms,
tne grey-brown flesh-tints and the elaborate softness of execution and correctness of drawing of
this early period. A careful but apparently unconventional study of nature has imparted to this
picture a veracity which is enhanced by the important addition of the back-ground, with its
massive mountain forms, an addition occurring also in the last named picture. This early
introduction of ratural scenery may be attributed “to the impression made upon Lionardo by the
neighbouring Lake of Como with its Alpine surroundings. This picture is yet more important
i
44 LIONARDO DA VINCI.
stant experiments in the use of new pigments or cement, or new preparations of canvas, or
varnish; the non-success of these endeavours is manifested in the ruinous and dilapidated condition
of the few pictures which, to the present day, have resisted the storms of time.
These experiments were another proof of his constant exertions, which never satisfied
himself, and his zealous and occasionally predominating interest in the various technical branches
of his art. The science of his time did not place at his disposal sufficient physical or chemical
knowledge to afford a firm basis for his experiments, or to give him any certain control over
i them, and in his zeal for his important and, as he hoped, successful innovations and improve-
ments, he forgot the fundamental principle which recommends the first trial of experiments in
corpore vile (on a worthless object). Instead of this, he with unjustifiable confidence, applied
it to his own masterpieces, and the result was fatal to his work.
None of his other plastic works are now in existence. It is, however, maintained by con-
temporary writers, that the greater part of a bronze group over the north door of the Baptistery
at Florence, representing the preaching of John the Baptist and bearing the name of Lionardo’s
fellow-student Giovanni Francesco Rustici, was his own work. This supposition shows that
Lionardo was considered the first sculptor of the school of Verocchio, and that therefore any
great work was attributed to him, simply on account of his acknowledged superiority in plastic art.
This group is pervaded by that exalted tone which is especially found in the paintings of
Luca Signorelli.
Other portraits painted during his stay in Milan have disappeared. Yet the portrait in the
Louvre, said to be the “Belle Feronniere,” a mistress of Francis I. of France, but more probably
Lucrezia Crivelli, may be referred to that period, on account of the brown local tint in the
shadows and the yellow brilliancy of the lights. The head, with its close braids of glossy hair
is turned towards the left, and has a very simple yet bewitching expression, a black band with
a diamond clasp encircles the forehead, and a red dress, trimmed across the front with gold lace
and embroidery, enhances the artistic effect. O. Miindler, a reliable and cautious art connoisseur,
includes among the pictures of this date a profile of the before-mentioned Isabella of Arragon,
the wife of Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza, and affirms that it is the only finished painted portrait
by Lionardo,. in Italy. It hangs next to the unfinished and faded likeness of Galeazzo, in the
library of St. Ambrose at Munich; the two portraits were erroneously marked with the names
of Ludovico il Moro and his wife.
Madonna and Child, with St. John the Baptist, at Parma, and the Archangel Michael probably
still belong to the year 1492. A very beautiful Madonna, in the possession of a private person
in London, must also be considered an early work, because it does not present the peculiar type of
Lionardo’s heads. There is much vivacity in the position of the Child, as it gazes upwards at
its mother’s face.—The delicate chiaro-oscuro of the flesh-tints is suggestive of Lionardo’s sub-
sequent style of colouring.
The small Madonna of the Duke of Litta at Milan also presents the boldly-rounded forms,
tne grey-brown flesh-tints and the elaborate softness of execution and correctness of drawing of
this early period. A careful but apparently unconventional study of nature has imparted to this
picture a veracity which is enhanced by the important addition of the back-ground, with its
massive mountain forms, an addition occurring also in the last named picture. This early
introduction of ratural scenery may be attributed “to the impression made upon Lionardo by the
neighbouring Lake of Como with its Alpine surroundings. This picture is yet more important