rather than for the great painter. This is also the opinion of Signor Beltrami, the distinguished Milanese architect and archæologist, who has directed the restoration of the Castle with so much taste, and to whom I am indebted for the photograph here reproduced. My friend the Baron de Geymüller, the devout and acute historian of Bramante, fully confirms it, and the author of the catalogue of the exhibition. of Lombard Masters, held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, in 1898, is no less emphatic in his support. THE CASTLE OF MILAN. FROM A SIXTEENTH CENTURY DRAWING. We must not forget the inconsequences of which Herr MüllerWalde is guilty. He attributes the surrounding medallions to Bramante, though he makes Leonardo the author of the Mercury. Is it likely that two masters, each so distinguished in his own line, would have collaborated on a purely decorative piece of work? 1 Another room in the castle, the "Sab etta Negra," is adorned with four couples of winged genii, finely developed in form, and distinguished by great freedom of movement, who are flying or running amidst a decoration of rich festoons. Here again, Herr Müller-Walde sees the hand of Leonardo, or at least, of one of his pupils. Signor Beltrami is more cautious. 2 For 1 It is true that a microscopic drawing in the Codex Atlanticus (fol. 94)—we give Herr Müller-Walde all credit for having noted the fact-represents a man standing in the attitude of Praxiteles' Apollo Sauroctonos, a possible link between the antique marble and the fresco in the Castle at Milan. But can we infer from this that the fresco was painted by Leonardo? We might as well affirm that Leonardo was the sculptor of the David, and not Michelangelo, because there is a sketch of the statue in a drawing by Leonardo in the British Museum. 2 Il Castello di Milano, p. 700-703. |