DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0290
244
LEONARDO DA VINCI
[1452-
the sublime greatness of art, that he only saw faults
in works which others hailed as marvellous creations.”
As he says himself in a celebrated passage of his
“ Treatise on Painting ”;
“When a work satisfies a man’s judgment, it is a bad
sign, and when a work surpasses his expectation, and he
wonders that he has achieved so much, it is worse. But
when an artist’s aim goes beyond his work, that is a good
sign, and if the man is young, he will no doubt become a
great artist. He will compose but few works, but they will
be such that men will gaze in wonder at their perfection.”
We may regret that. Leonardo painted so few
pictures, and we may deplore still more the singular
fatality which has destroyed his greatest creations,
the ruin which overtook the Sforza monument and
the misfortunes which have left the Last Supper
a mere wreck. But we must remember, on the
other hand, the perfection of the works of art
which he has left behind him, and which, few as
they are in number, have for ever raised the
standard of human attainment.
Leonardo the Florentine, as he commonly called
himself, was born in 1452, at Vinci, a fortified
borgo on the western slopes of Monte Albano, half-
way between Pisa and Florence. He was the
natural son of Ser Piero, a young notary of the
place, and of a girl of good family named Caterina,
who, after giving birth to this son, married a peasant
of Vinci. Piero also married in the same year, and
had four wives and a family of twelve children. He
was a man of remarkable vigour and energy, who
held important offices in Florence, and had a house
LEONARDO DA VINCI
[1452-
the sublime greatness of art, that he only saw faults
in works which others hailed as marvellous creations.”
As he says himself in a celebrated passage of his
“ Treatise on Painting ”;
“When a work satisfies a man’s judgment, it is a bad
sign, and when a work surpasses his expectation, and he
wonders that he has achieved so much, it is worse. But
when an artist’s aim goes beyond his work, that is a good
sign, and if the man is young, he will no doubt become a
great artist. He will compose but few works, but they will
be such that men will gaze in wonder at their perfection.”
We may regret that. Leonardo painted so few
pictures, and we may deplore still more the singular
fatality which has destroyed his greatest creations,
the ruin which overtook the Sforza monument and
the misfortunes which have left the Last Supper
a mere wreck. But we must remember, on the
other hand, the perfection of the works of art
which he has left behind him, and which, few as
they are in number, have for ever raised the
standard of human attainment.
Leonardo the Florentine, as he commonly called
himself, was born in 1452, at Vinci, a fortified
borgo on the western slopes of Monte Albano, half-
way between Pisa and Florence. He was the
natural son of Ser Piero, a young notary of the
place, and of a girl of good family named Caterina,
who, after giving birth to this son, married a peasant
of Vinci. Piero also married in the same year, and
had four wives and a family of twelve children. He
was a man of remarkable vigour and energy, who
held important offices in Florence, and had a house