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facile production, Da Vinci represented the very extreme of probity and scrupulous care. He alone I am not afraid to say it roundly— might, by his sole example, have checked the already visible decline of the Florentine school. That respect for nature, and worship of form, which he professed, was the remedy-and the only efficacious one -for a degeneration of which all too many symptoms were apparent. The Gonfaloniere Pietro Soderini was anxious to do something for the sorely-tried artist.

For a moment there was a question or confiding the famous block of marble out of which Michelangelo ultimately sculptured the David, to Leonardo's chisel (Michelangelo was given this commission in accordance with deliberations held July 2 and August 16, 1501); but the expiration of Soderini's period of powerhe was not appointed Gonfaloniere for life, till September 22, 1502 -paralysed the great official's well meant efforts.

Meanwhile, Leonardo painted his Saint Anne. In the month of April, 1501, he was working upon it eagerly, but he soon put it aside half finished, as he did with so many other pictures. In the following September, he was travelling about, in the character of military engineer to Cæsar Borgia.1

This was the first occasion, probably, on which Leonardo da Vinci was permitted to realise a long-cherished dream: that of giving practical evidence of his skill in the art of war.2 For long this had been his supreme ambition. Had he not boasted in his famous letter to Lodovico il Moro that he would put all that prince's enemies to flight with machines none would be able to withstand? What think you, reader, of this painter, poet, man of science, who aspired to play the part of a man of war? As a matter of curiosity, I may note the presence, in the enemy's camp, of another famous engineer, who was also a very talented architect, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, of Siena. Leonardo had certainly enjoyed opportunities of meeting this eminent master at

1 See Alvisi, Cesare Borgia, Duca di Romagna, p. 203. Imola, 1878.

2 Leonardo's performances as a military engineer have been studied by C. Promis (Trattato di Architettura civile e militare di Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Turin, 1841; vol. iv., pp. 44-52, 203, etc.); by Angelucci, in his Documenti inediti per la Storia delle Armi da fuoco italiane, p. 92, Turin, 1869; and also by Herr Müller-Walde (Leonardo da Vinci, fasc. iii.),

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