treatise were designed by, nay, that their type was the invention of Leonardo. Inspired, no doubt, by a passage in Vitruvius, which advises that buildings should be given proportions analogous to those of the human body, he chose to divide his letters into ten parts, just as he had done with the human figure.

As early as 1514 Sigismondo Fanti, of Ferrara, made no scruple of appropriating the new system of proportion of Leonardo's letters in his Theorica et Pratica perspicassimi Sigismundi de Fantis Ferrariensis in artem mathematice professoris de modo scribendi fabricandique omnes litterarum species (Venice, 1514, book iv.). The alphabet he publishes offers some variations upon that of Leonardo-the letter E, for instance, is without the circle traced in the inner angle of the base, and the other circles are sensibly different in proportion-but in spite of that, it is based on the master's system.

But to return to the master.

Studies of physiognomy follow those on proportion and anatomy. Here again Leonardo gives himself up to the most miscellaneous investigations. His countless caricatures are simply illustrations of a theory, unhappily never worked out. The system which governed the conception of the Last Supper inspired these researches also. Lomazzo, whose authorities were the intimates (domestici) of Leonardo, tells us that "one day the artist, wishing to introduce some laughing peasants into a picture, made choice of certain individuals whose features appeared suitable for his purpose. Having made their acquaintance, he then invited them and other friends of his to a banquet, where, sitting near them, he related a number of the maddest and most laughable stories he could think of, making them scream with laughter, Léonard Vinci, qui est trespassé à Amboise et estoit très excellent philosophe et admirable painctre et quasi ung autre Archimède. Cedict frère Lucas a faict imprimer ses lettres attiques comme siennes . . . . De vray, elles peuvent bien estre à luy, car il ne les a pas faictes en leur deue proportion. A veult avoir sa jambe droite grosse de la dixiesme partie de sa hauteur . . . . et non pas de la neuvieusme partie, comme dict frère Lucas Paciolus . . . . I'ay entendu que tout ce qu'il en a faict il a prins secrètement de feu Messire Léonard Vinci, qui estoit grant mathématicien, painctre et imageur." (Champfleury, edition of 1529, fols. 13, 35, 41 v°.) The Marchese d'Adda has skilfully defended Pacioli against the accusation of plagiarism. (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1868, vol. ii. p. 134.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

although they could scarcely have told what they were laughing at. Upon him, none of the looks and gestures provoked by his tales were lost; afterwards, when these guests had departed, he retired to his own house, and drew them in such a skilful manner that his

SKETCH FROM THE "TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA.'

drawings made those who saw them laugh as heartily as the stories had made the guests laugh at the banquet. Unfortunately this composition never proceeded farther than the sketch."

This fantastic experiment recalls a picture by one of the primitive Milanese, Michelino da Besozzo, who painted a group of two peasant men and two peasant women convulsed with laughter. About the same period, Bramante ventured on a similar subject: he represented Democritus laughing and Heraclitus weeping.

(Vatican Library.)

Lomazzo also tells us that Leonardo used to be fond of watching the looks and gestures of prisoners going to execution. He made careful notes of their eye-movements, of the contractions of their brows, and of the involuntary quivering of

their muscles.

These studies have been quite erroneously called caricatures. They are fragmentsgreat fragments of a treatise on physiognomy. Leonardo had too lofty an intelligence to be content with making mere frivolous combinations, good for nothing but to provoke a laugh -an impulse, moreover, quite foreign to the Italians of the Renaissance-but he felt a deep and passionate interest in the laws which govern the physical eccentricity as well as the perfection of the human race.

THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN
HEAD, DRAWN BY LEONARDO FOR
PACIOLI'S TREATISE.

Hence we find that, long before Grandville, he had a glimpse of the true relation between certain human deformities and animal