HEAD OF AN OLD MAN. (Windsor Library.) SKETCH IN THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." HEAD OF AN OLD MAN. (The Louvre.) (Vatican Library.) SKETCH IN THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) (Vatican Library.) SKETCH IN THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) PAGE 236 237 238 239 240 240 241 241 242 243 243 A SHEET OF SKETCHES. (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) 244 GROTESQUE FIGURE. (Windsor Library.) 245 MODEL OF LETTER COMPOSED BY LEONARDO FOR THE TREATISE "DE DIVINA PROPORTIONE" 248 GROTESQUE HEADS. (Windsor Library.) 249 SKETCH FROM THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) 252 THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN HEAD, DRAWN BY LEONARDO FOR PACIOLI'S TREATISE .. 252 SKETCH FROM THE “TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) 253 253 STUDY OF FLOWERS. (Windsor Library.) 256 THE GENIUS OF LEONARDO-HIS CHILDHOOD HIS FAMILY-SER PIERO-FIRST VOL. I. P. 20, line 27, for "Lippo" read " P. 32, lettering of illustration, for "Musée National " read "Museo Nazionale." Pp. 52 and 161, for "Adoration of the Magi" read "Adoration of the P. 132, lettering of illustration, for "Gain" read "Gian." P. 163, line 1, for "p. 167" read "p. 165." P. 164, line 22, for "p. 171" read "p. 169." P. 169, line 20, for "pp. 165 and 167" read " drawings therefore, we must first call attention. Two periods of human life seem to have specially fixed Leonardo's B SKETCH IN THE “TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) (Vatican Library.) SKETCH IN THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) GROTESQUE FIGURE. (Windsor Library.) . . PROPORTIONE' PAGE 236 237 238 239 240 240 241 241 242 243 243 244 245 LEONARDO FOR GROTESQUE HEADS. (Windsor Library.) 249 SKETCH FROM THE TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) 252 THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN HEAD, DRAWN BY LEONARDO FOR PACIOLI'S 252 SKETCH FROM THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) 253 SKETCH FROM THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA." (Vatican Library.) 253 256 THE GENIUS OF LEONARDO-HIS CHILDHOOD HIS FAMILY-SER PIERO-FIRST TEACHING-HIS MASTER AND PUPIL. LIFE STUDY. I' N Leonardo da Vinci we have the most perfect embodiment of the modern intellect, the highest expression of the marriage of art and science: the thinker, the poet, the wizard whose fascination is unrivalled. Studying his art, in its incomparable variety, we find in his very caprices, to use Edgar Quinet's happy phrase with a slight modifica'the laws of the Italian Renaissance, and the geometry of universal beauty." tion : 66 It is true, unhappily, that setting aside his few completed works-the Virgin of the Rocks, the Last Supper, the Saint Anne, and the Mona Lisa-Leonardo's achievement as painter and sculptor is mainly present to us in marvellous fragments. It is to his drawings we must turn to understand all the tenderness of his heart, all the wealth of his imagination. To his drawings therefore, we must first call attention. (British Museum.) Two periods of human life seem to have specially fixed Leonardo's B attention adolescence, and old age; childhood and maturity had less interest for him. He has left us a whole series of adolescent types, some dreamy, some ardent. In all modern art, I can think of no creations so free, superb, spontaneous, in a word, divine, to oppose to the marvels of antiquity. Thanks to the genius of Leonardo, these figures, winged, diaphanous, yet true in the highest sense, evoke a region of perfection to which it is their mission to transport us. Let us take two heads that make a pair in the Louvre; unless I am mistaken, they illustrate Classic Beauty, and the Beauty of the Renaissance period. The first (No. 384) represents a youth with a profile pure and correct as that of a Greek cameo, his neck bare, his long, artistically curled hair bound with a wreath of laurel. The second (No. 382, Salle des Boites) has the same type, but it is treated in the Italian manner, with greater vigour and animation; the hair is covered by a small cap, set daintily on the head; about the shoulders there are indications of a doublet, buttoned to the throat; the curls fall in natural, untrained locks. Who cannot see in these two heads the contrast between classic art, an art essentially ideal and devoted to form, and modern art, freer, more spontaneous, more living. When he depicts maturity, Leonardo displays vigour, energy, an implacable determination; his ideal is a man like an oak-tree. Such is the person in profile in the Royal Library at Windsor, whose massive features are so firmly modelled. This drawing should be compared with the other of the same head, at an earlier age. Old age in its turn passes before us in all its diverse aspects of majesty or decrepitude. Some faces are reduced to the mere bony substructure; in others we note the deterioration of the features; the hooked nose, the chin drawn up to the mouth, the relaxed muscles, the bald head. Foremost among these types is the master's portrait of himself; a powerful head, with piercing eyes, under puckered eyelids, a mocking mouth, almost bitter in expression, a delicate, well-proportioned nose, long hair, and a long disordered beard; the whole suggestive of the magus, not to say the magician. If we turn to his evocations of the feminine ideal, the same freshness, the same variety delight us here. His women are now candid, |