DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0018
14
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
Piero proved the success of his attempt. This produc-
tion, afterwards known as the Rotello del Fico,*
from the material on which it was painted, was sold
by Piero secretly for one hundred ducats, to a mer-
chant, who carried it to Milan, and sold it to the
duke for three hundred. To the poor peasant thus
cheated of his Rotello, Piero gave a wooden shield,
on which was painted a heart transfixed by a dart;
a device better suited to his taste and comprehen-
sion. In the subsequent troubles of Milan, Lion-
ardo’s picture disappeared, and was probably de-
stroyed as an object of horror, by those who did not
understand its value as a work of art.
The anomalous monster represented on the Ro-
tello was wholly different from the Medusa, after-
wards painted by Lionardo, and now existing in the
Florence Gallery. It represents the severed head
of Medusa, seen foreshortened, lying on a fragment
of rock : the features are beautiful and regular;
the hair already metamorphosed into serpents—•
“ which curl and flow,
And their long tangles in each other lock,
And with unending involutions show
Their mailed radiance.”
Those who have once seen this terrible and fasci-
nating picture can never forget it. The ghastly
head seems to expire, and the serpents to crawl into
glittering life, as we look upon it.
B Botello means a shield or buckler; Fico, a fig-tree.
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
Piero proved the success of his attempt. This produc-
tion, afterwards known as the Rotello del Fico,*
from the material on which it was painted, was sold
by Piero secretly for one hundred ducats, to a mer-
chant, who carried it to Milan, and sold it to the
duke for three hundred. To the poor peasant thus
cheated of his Rotello, Piero gave a wooden shield,
on which was painted a heart transfixed by a dart;
a device better suited to his taste and comprehen-
sion. In the subsequent troubles of Milan, Lion-
ardo’s picture disappeared, and was probably de-
stroyed as an object of horror, by those who did not
understand its value as a work of art.
The anomalous monster represented on the Ro-
tello was wholly different from the Medusa, after-
wards painted by Lionardo, and now existing in the
Florence Gallery. It represents the severed head
of Medusa, seen foreshortened, lying on a fragment
of rock : the features are beautiful and regular;
the hair already metamorphosed into serpents—•
“ which curl and flow,
And their long tangles in each other lock,
And with unending involutions show
Their mailed radiance.”
Those who have once seen this terrible and fasci-
nating picture can never forget it. The ghastly
head seems to expire, and the serpents to crawl into
glittering life, as we look upon it.
B Botello means a shield or buckler; Fico, a fig-tree.