DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0028
24
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
del Giocondo, sometimes called La Joconde. On
this last picture he worked at intervals for four
years, but was still unsatisfied. It was purchased
by Francis I. for four thousand golden crowns, and
is now in the Louvre. We find Lionardo also en-
gaged by Caesar Borgia to visit and report on the
fortifications of his territories, and in this office he
was employed for two years. In 1514 he was in-
vited to Rome by Leo X., but more in his character
of philosopher, mechanic, and alchemist, than as a
painter. Here he found Raphael at the height of
his fame, and then engaged in his greatest works—
the frescoes of the Vatican. Two pictures which
Lionardo painted while at Rome—the Madonna of
St. Onofrio, and the Holy Family, painted for Fili-
berta of Savoy, the pope’s sister-in-law (which is
now at St. Petersburg)—show that even this vete-
ran in art felt the irresistible influence of the genius
of his young rival. They are both Raffaellesque
in the subject and treatment.
It appears that Lionardo was ill-satisfied with his
sojourn at Rome. He had long been accustomed
to hold the first rank as an artist wherever he re-
sided ; whereas at Rome he found himself only one
among many who, if they acknowledged his great-
ness, affected to consider his day as past. He was
conscious that many of the improvements in the
arts which were now brought into use, and which
enabled the painters of the day to produce such
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
del Giocondo, sometimes called La Joconde. On
this last picture he worked at intervals for four
years, but was still unsatisfied. It was purchased
by Francis I. for four thousand golden crowns, and
is now in the Louvre. We find Lionardo also en-
gaged by Caesar Borgia to visit and report on the
fortifications of his territories, and in this office he
was employed for two years. In 1514 he was in-
vited to Rome by Leo X., but more in his character
of philosopher, mechanic, and alchemist, than as a
painter. Here he found Raphael at the height of
his fame, and then engaged in his greatest works—
the frescoes of the Vatican. Two pictures which
Lionardo painted while at Rome—the Madonna of
St. Onofrio, and the Holy Family, painted for Fili-
berta of Savoy, the pope’s sister-in-law (which is
now at St. Petersburg)—show that even this vete-
ran in art felt the irresistible influence of the genius
of his young rival. They are both Raffaellesque
in the subject and treatment.
It appears that Lionardo was ill-satisfied with his
sojourn at Rome. He had long been accustomed
to hold the first rank as an artist wherever he re-
sided ; whereas at Rome he found himself only one
among many who, if they acknowledged his great-
ness, affected to consider his day as past. He was
conscious that many of the improvements in the
arts which were now brought into use, and which
enabled the painters of the day to produce such