XIII

Portrait of a Young Princess.

(THE AMBROSIANA, MI AN.)

glance. The costume, a red dress, simple yet elegant, makes an exquisite harmony with the chestnut hair, which is drawn down in bandeaux along the cheek, and fastened under a pearl-embroidered net. The arm-hole of the slashed sleeve is embroidered with an interlaced pattern, finished off on the shoulder by a jewelled ornament of two large cut gems, and a hanging pear-shaped pearl. From a row of large pearls round the throat hangs a similar pendant, attached to a short gold chain. The whole work breathes an air of youth, of grace, and of freshness that only Leonardo could have suggested. Signor Morelli ascribes this picture to Ambrogio de Predis, whereas Dr. Bode, while insisting on Leonardo's authorship, proves that the young woman represented was not, as has been asserted, Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of the Em

peror Maximilian. Fortunately, Dr. Bode's arguments in favour of the authenticity of the work are irrefutable. The learned Director of the Berlin Gallery shows that Ambrogio de Predis certainly painted a portrait of Bianca Maria, which now forms part of the Arconati - Visconti collection in Paris, but that this has nothing in common, either in feature or technique, with the masterpiece in the Ambrosiana.2

1 Die Galerie Borghese, p. 238. Cf. Motta, Archivio storico lombardo, 1893, p. 987.

(The Ambrosiana, Milan.)

2 Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsammlungen, 1889, no. 2.-A bronze statue in the cathedral at Innsprück represents Maximilian's consort standing, one hand on her hip, the other slightly extended. Her costume is gorgeous in the extreme. Strings of pearls are arranged upon her

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From Leonardo's own admissions, as well as from the evidence of his contemporaries, it is evident that, unable to satisfy his own fastidious taste, he painted extremely slowly, correcting incessantly. Did he not himself declare that the painter who has no doubts makes no progress? ? "Quel pittore, che no' dubita, poco acquiesta" (Trattato della Pittura, cap. 62). If he left many works unfinished it was, as Vasari has well said, because he was always striving after a higher excellence. The biographer quotes Petrarch's verse in this connection :

E l'amor di saper che m'ha si acceso,
Che l'opera e retardato dal desio.

"My love of knowledge so enflamed me,

That my work was retarded by my desire."

Fortunately, he has left innumerable drawings to make up for the rarity of his pictures, and these reveal the incomparable mastery, the incredible variety of the draughtsman in the most varied aspects. It is to this manifestation of his genius that I now propose to call attention.

Although the painter too often left his creations mere sketches, the draughtsman tried his hand at every process, and excelled in all. We find him alternately making use of pen and ink, charcoal and silverpoint, with equal mastery, the latter method being perhaps especially to his taste, because of the mysterious quality inherent in it. After his establishment at Milan, he used red chalk, a more expeditious medium, which first appears in his studies for the Last Supper. It is not improbable that his first essay, in fact, was the sketch in the

bodice; from her necklace hangs a diamond or ruby cut to a point, at the end of which is a pearl, as in the drawing in the Accademia at Venice here reproduced (p. 106), and the Arconati-Visconti picture. As in these again, the hair is brought down on either side of the face in bandeaux, hiding the ears, and is gathered into a net at the back of the head. The face, round and full, indeed, a little heavy, resembles the two portraits in question, but has nothing in common with that of the Ambrosiana picture.

Signor Coceva has attempted to show, in the Archivio storico dell' Arte (1889, p. 264), that the latter represents Beatrice d'Este. It has, in fact, certain analogies with her bust. in the Louvre, especially in profile. But we have only to examine the various portraits of Beatrice to see that the unknown in the Ambrosiana is of a very different type. The lines of the mouth are totally dissimilar; the chin especially is of quite a different shape. In the Ambrosiana picture it is attached to the throat by a straight line of supreme distinction. In all Beatrice's authentic portraits, it is round and heavy.