design for the cabinetmaker.

But they wished to show him that

even in such a matter they would not pass him by.1

The master found time to interest himself in the discovery of stone quarries. In 1511 he mentions a quarry of "pietra faldata," at Monbracco, near Saluzzo, which yielded stone as white as Carrara marble. His friend, Master Benedetto, had promised him a sample.2

The Milanese meanwhile had once more changed masters. The Governor, Charles d'Amboise, had died in 1511,3 after an administrative career, which would seem to have been extremely stormy. On Easter Day, 1512, Gaston de Foix, the general of Louis XII. and a spoilt child of victory," died at Ravenna in the midst of his triumphs. A few months afterwards the French had to evacuate Milan, where nothing but the Castle remained in their hands. Scarcely had they made their exit by one gate than Maximilian Sforza, Il Moro's eldest son, made his entry by another. This was on the 29th of December, 1512.

If any one should have felt embarrassment before the son of Lodovico, it was assuredly Leonardo, who had transferred his allegiance so readily to Il Moro's supplanters. Maximilian, who was born in 1491, was twenty-one years old at the time of his triumphal return, so that the memory of his father's wrongs must have been hot in his breast. But, in those days, there was no time to waste upon the gratification of private hatreds.

Several portraits of Maximilian have been appealed to as proofs

1 Costruzione degli stalli del coro, 1510, Lunedi, 21 Ottobre. "Facto verbo de stadiis fiendis in ecclesia majori, ordinatum est quod vocentur infrascripti, videlicet dom. Jacobus Rabia, Marcus Antonius Dugnanus, Franciscus Coyrus, alias ex deputatis præfatæ fabricæ, et super dictis stadiis fiendis electi, nec non magistri Johannes Antonius. Homodeus, Andreas de Fusina, præfatæ fabricæ ingenierii, ac magistri Leonardus Florentinus et Cristophorus Gobbus, quatenus accedant ad cameram præfatæ fabricæ die jovis proxime futuri hora debita consilii." (Annali della Fabrica del duomo di Milano, vol. iii., P. 153.)

2 Richter, vol. ii., p. 245. Is not this the Florentine, Benedetto da Rovezzano (b. 1474; d. after 1552)?

3 A description of his funeral, which took place on the 18th of December, is given by Prato (Archivio storico italiano, vol. iii., p. 283).

* Among Leonardo's notes we find the following: "On the 10th day of December, at 9 o'clock A.M., fire was set to the place." "On the 18th day of December, 1511, at

9 o'clock A.M., this second fire was kindled by the Swiss at Milan, at the place called DCXC." (Richter, vol. ii., p. 235.)

that the artist and the son of his old protector were soon reconciled, but the ascription of these portraits to Leonardo can no longer be accepted.1

Maximilian, moreover, did not long enjoy this return of fortune. In 1513, his subjects revolted on the approach of the French. Although his power seemed to be restored in 1513, after the rout of Louis XII. at Novara, the defeat of Marignano put a final end to his domination two years later. He was obliged to renounce his rights over Milan, and, like so many of Leonardo's friends and protectors-Lodovico Sforza, Trivulzio, the sculptor Rustici-he ended his days in France. His death took place in Paris, in

1530.

Leonardo's destiny was a sad one. Old before his time and prematurely bald, at the age of sixty he had to seek a new protector and a fresh asylum. We shall next find him at Rome, and in the service of Pope Leo X.

A political revolution drove Leonardo from Milan; another, more pacific in character, sent him to seek his fortune in Rome. Julius II., the soldier Pope, who was accustomed to enter towns by the breaches he had battered in their walls, had been succeeded on the 11th March, 1513, by Giovanni de' Medici, son of the great Lorenzo, and inheritor of long-established traditions of luxury and taste, who had taken the name of Leo X. No sooner had the choice of the Conclave become known than, from far and near, all who plumed themselves on their fame in art-architects, sculptors, painters: Fra Bartolommeo, Sodoma, Signorelli, Timoteo Viti, etc.-hastened to the precincts of the Vatican.

Leonardo took for granted that a Sovereign Pontiff with a passionate love of the arts, would give a cordial welcome to a compatriot and former protégé of his father, Lorenzo; and he at once set out for Rome. He may have made the acquaintance of the Cardinal de' Medici, the future Leo X., during his captivity at Milan after the battle of Ravenna.2

1 Amoretti, pp. 63, 103. The drawing published by Gerli (pl. xvii.) is not by Leonardo, but by the painter of the altar-piece in the Brera, in which Lodovico Sforza and his family are introduced. It is a study for one of the figures in this picture.

2 Cf. Prato, Archivio storico italiano, vol. iii., p. 297.

In one of his notes the master lets us know that he left Milan for Rome on the 24th of September, 1513, accompanied by Giovanni, Francesco Melzi, Salai, Lorenzo,1 and Fanfoja.2

On the 27th of September, the procession halted at Sant' Angelo, on the Po.3

At Florence-if I do not misunderstand a passage in Vasari— Leonardo attached himself and his following to Giuliano de' Medici, who was about to leave for Rome, to join his brother, the Pope. It is not impossible that Giuliano, who, if we may believe Vasari, busied himself a good deal with philosophy, and especially with alchemy, was attracted by the air of mystery by which the painter was surrounded. However this may have been, he hastened to attach Leonardo to his own person, assigning him a monthly sum of thirty-three gold ducats (about £66), a magnificent salary when compared with the usual amounts then paid to artists. He assigned, moreover, seven gold ducats a month to Giorgio Tedesco (George the German), Leonardo's pupil. These relations between artist and patron continued until 1515.

During the journey Leonardo amused himself by bewildering his companions with tricks which had more to do with conjuring than with science. He fashioned animals out of light sheets of wax, which floated for a time when inflated with air, etc. (See above, p. 66.)

This, no doubt, was not Leonardo's first visit to Rome. The close relations between Florence and Rome and the ease with which the journey could be accomplished, make it pretty certain that he had travelled between the two cities more than once. A document published by Gaye 5 tends to prove that he made an excursion to Rome about 1505. We there learn that the Florentine government paid eighteen lire, nine soldi, and eight decimi to the Customs as duty upon a "fardello di sue veste fatto venire da Roma."

1 This Lorenzo is referred to in a letter from Leonardo to Giuliano de' Medici (Richter, vol. ii., p. 407-409).

2 The Marchese d'Adda proposes to read Zamboja (Bambaja, the famous sculptor) for Fanfoja in the passage which enumerates the pupils who accompanied da Vinci to Rome (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1876, vol. ii., p. 488).

3 Richter, vol. ii., p. 441.

4 See my Raphael, 2nd edition, p. 421–422.

Carteggio, vol. ii., p. 89.

VOL. II.

C C

When we remember his age and the tendencies to which he had remained faithful for the whole of his life, in spite of the instability of his temper, we may fairly assert that Leonardo saw the wonders of the great pagan and Christian capital with indifference, or at least without enthusiasm. Works of art moved him less than those of nature. So far as the classic master-pieces were concerned, he rather loved them instinctively than studied them with any sort of method.

He found, of course, a certain number of friends and acquaintances on the banks of the Tiber. In the first place there was Atalante del Migliarotti, who had studied with him in the studio of Verrocchio, who had accompanied him to Milan, and who now, fallen somewhat in the world, filled the comparatively humble office of pontifical clerk of the works. Another Florentine, now settled in Rome, was Giuliano da San Gallo, the famous architect. He had lived for a time in Milan, and there, doubtless, had become acquainted with Leonardo. The splendours of Lodovico's court were also, no doubt, recalled to his mind by the presence of Bramante, the great architect, and Caradosso, the medallist, both of whom had earned, by dint of genius and papal favour, the standing of Roman citizens. It also seems to me certain that Leonardo made the acquaintance of Giovannantonio Bazzi, called Il Sodoma, who, without being his pupil, adopted his principles and had an enthusiastic admiration for his work. This Lombardo-Sienese had been attracted to Rome, like so many others, by the election of a Medici to the papal throne. I shall hazard the same conjecture with regard to Raphael. The two princes of painting must have known each other in Florence; and working daily in the Vatican, they must there have resumed their friendship. Unhappily, no allusion to any connection between them is to be found in the letters or sketches

of either. The presence in Rome of Michelangelo, Leonardo's ancient enemy, may have struck a discordant note in the general harmony, but he could not hurt da Vinci's interests, for his own star was for the moment in eclipse.

The Ambrosiana at Milan, so rich in false Leonardo drawings, possesses on the other hand an old man's portrait in red chalk, with energetic features and an expression at once sarcastic and morose. This drawing I ascribe with some confidence to Leonardo, in spite