Benozzo Gozzoli painted with so much spirit on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa. While yet very young, Ser Piero formed a connection with her who, though never his wife, became the mother of his eldest son. This was a certain Catarina, in all probability a simple peasant girl of Vinci or the neighbourhood. (An anonymous writer of the sixteenth century affirms, nevertheless, that Leonardo was "per madre nato di bon sangue.") The liaison was of short duration. Ser Piero married in the year of Leonardo's birth, while Catarina, in her turn, married a man of her own standing, who answered to the not very euphonious name of Chartabrigha or Accartabrigha di Piero del Vaccha, a peasant too, most likely--indeed, what was there to turn to in Vinci for a living, except the soil! Contrary to modern custom and the civil code, the father undertook the rearing of the child. In the beginning, Leonardo's position was, relatively speaking, enviable, his first two stepmothers having no children—a circumstance which has not been taken into account hitherto, and which goes far to explain how they came to adopt the little intruder he usurped no one's birthright. 1 Leonardo was three and twenty when his father-who made up so well for lost time afterwards—was still waiting for legitimate offspring. With the arrival of the first brother, however, the young man's happiness fled, and there was no more peace for him under his father's roof. He realised that nothing remained for him but to seek his fortune elsewhere, and did not wait to be told twice. From this moment, too, his name vanishes from the family list in the official records. On more than one occasion, Leonardo mentions his parents, notably his father, whom he designates by his title of "Ser" Piero, but without one word by which one may judge of his feelings towards them. One might be tempted to tax him with want of heart, if such an absence of sentiment were not a characteristic feature of the times. Both parents and children made a virtue of repressing their 1 A certain Alessandro degli Amatori, a brother of Ser Piero's first wife, alludes to Leonardo as his nephew, although, in reality, there was no legal relationship between them. In 1506 particularly, this person made himself the assiduous interpreter to Leonardo of the wishes of the Marchesa Isabella d'Este. (Yriarte, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1888, vol. i. p. 128-129.) emotions; guarding themselves especially against the slightest manifestation of sentimentality. No period ever exhibited a more marked aversion for the emotional or the pathetic. Only here and there, in letters-for example, in the admirable letters of a Florentine patrician, Alessandra Strozzi, mother of the famous banker,-some irrepressible cry of the heart escapes. This notwithstanding, Leonardo's impassibility exceeds all bounds, and constitutes a veri table psychological problem. The master registers without one word of regret, of anger, or of emotion, the petty thefts of his pupil, the fall of his patron, Lodovico il Moro, the death of his father. And yet we know what a wealth of kindness and affection was stored up in him; how he was indulgent, even to weakness, towards his servants, deferred to their caprices, tended them in sickness, and provided marriage portions for their sisters. Let us forthwith con clude the story of Leonardo's connection with his natural family, which was very far from being his adoptive one. Ser Piero died July 9, 1504, at the age of seventy-seven, and not eighty, as Leonardo reports when registering his death in laconic terms.1 Of "Adi 9 di Luglio 1504, mercoledi a ore 7 mori ser Piero da Vinci, notaio al palazzo del Potestà, mio padre, a ore 7. Era d'età d'anni 80, lasciò 1o figlioli maschi e 2 femmine." (J. P. Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, vol. ii. p. 416. London, 1883. 2 vols. 4to. We have borrowed several plates from this richly illustrated work.) his four stepmothers, the last only, Lucrezia, who was still alive in 1520, is mentioned in terms of praise by a poet-friend of Leonardo, Bellincioni. As to the nine sons and two daughters, all the issue of the two last marriages of his father, they seem to have been rather the adversaries than the friends of their natural brother. After the death of their uncle in 1507, more especially, they raised financial difficulties. By his will of August 12, 1504, Francesco da Vinci had left a few acres to Leonardo-hence a lawsuit. Later, however, a reconciliation was effected. In 1513, during Leonardo's residence in Rome, one of his sisters-in-law charged her husband to remember her to the artist, then at the height of his glory. In his will, Leonardo left his brothers, in token of his regard, the 400 florins he had deposited at the Hospital of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Finally, his beloved disciple, Melzi, in his letter to Leonardo's brothers informing them of the (Windsor Library.) master's death, adds that he has bequeathed them his little property at Fiesole. The will, however, is silent on this point. Besides all this, one of his youthful productions, the cartoon of Adam and Eve, remained in the possession of one of his kinsmen (Vasari says his uncle) who afterwards presented it to Ottavio de' Medici. No other member of the da Vinci family made his mark in history, with the exception of a nephew of Leonardo, Pierino, an able sculptor, who died in Pisa towards the middle of the sixteenth century at the early age of thirty-three. The sole trait which the Vinci seem to have inherited from their common ancestor is a rare vitality. Ser Piero's stock has survived even to our own times. In 1869 Signor Uzielli, a most lucky investigator, discovered a peasant named Tommaso Vinci, near Montespertoli, at a place called Bottinaccio. After due verification, this peasant who had the family papers in his possession1and who, like his ancestor, Ser Piero, was blessed with a numerous progeny, was found to be a descendant of Domenico, one of Leonardo's brothers. A pathetic touch in a family so cruelly fallen from its high estate is the fact that Tommaso da Vinci gave his eldest son the glorious name of Leonardo. On page 15 we give the genealogy of the family of da Vinci as drawn up by Signor Uzielli. Nothing can equal the vital force of Italian families. That of Michelangelo still exists, like that of Leonardo. But how sadly fallen! When, on the occasion of the centenary festivals in 1875, any possibly remaining members of the Buonarroti family were searched for, it came to light that the head of the family, Count Buonarroti, had been condemned to the galleys for forgery; another Buonarroti was a cabdriver in Siena, and yet another a common soldier. Let us hope that in honour of his glorious ancestor he was advanced to the rank of general! If the latest scions of Leonardo's house do not occupy a brilliant position, at least there is no stain upon the honour of their name. Having acquainted ourselves with the family of Leonardo da Vinci, it is time to analyse the qualities of this child of genius, this splendidly endowed nature, this accomplished cavalier, this Proteus, Hermes, Prometheus, appellations which recur every moment under the pens his dazzled contemporaries. "We see how Providence," exclaims one of these, "rains down the most precious gifts on certain men, often 1 These papers now form part of the archives of the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome. 2 Lomazzo, Trattato della Pittura. of with regularity, sometimes in profusion; we see it combine unstintingly in the same being beauty, grace, talent, bringing each of these qualities to such perfection that whichever way the privileged one turns, his every action is divine, and, excelling those of all other men, his qualities appear what, in reality, they are: accorded by God, and not acquired by human industry. Thus it was with Leonardo da Vinci, in whom were united physical beauty beyond all praise, and infinite grace in all his actions; as for his talent, it was such that, no matter what difficulty presented itself, he solved it without effort. In him dexterity was allied to exceeding great strength ; his spirit and his courage showed something kingly and magnanimous. Finally, his reputation assumed such dimensions that, wide-spread as it was during his life-time, it extended still further after his death." Vasari, to whom we owe this eloquent appreciation, concludes with a phrase, untranslatable in its power of rendering the majesty of the person described: "Lo splendor dell' aria sua, che bellissimo era, |