He delighted much in horses and also in all other animals, and
often when passing by the places where they sold birds he would take
them out of their cages, and paying the price that was asked for
them, would let them fly away into the air, restoring to them their
lost liberty.
While, as we have said, he was studying art under Andrea del
Verrocchio, the latter was painting a picture of S. John baptizing
ChristLionardo worked upon an angel who was holding the clothes, and
although he was so young, he managed it so well that Lionardo's
angel was better than Andrea's figures, which was the cause of
Andrea's never touching colours again, being angry that a boy should
know more than he.
There is a story that Ser Piero, being at his country house, was
asked by one of the country people to get a round piece of wood,
which he had cut from a figtree, painted for him in Florence, which
he very willingly undertook to do, as the man was skilled in
catching birds and fishing, and was very serviceable to Ser
Piero in these sports. So having it brought to Florence without
telling Lionardo where it came from, he asked him to paint something
upon it. Lionardo, finding it crooked and rough, straightened it by
means of fire, and gave it to a turner that it might be made smooth
and even. Then having prepared it for painting, he began to think
what he could paint upon it that would frighten every one that saw
it, having the effect of the head of Medusa. So he brought for this
purpose to his room, which no one entered but himself, lizards,
grasshoppers, serpents, butterflies, locusts, bats, and other
strange animals of the kind, and from them all he produced a great
animal so horrible and fearful that it seemed to poison the air with
its fiery breath. This he represented coming out of some dark broken
rocks, with venom issuing from its open jaws, fire from its eyes,
and smoke from its nostrils, a monstrous and horrible thing indeed.
And he suffered much in doing it, for the smell in the room of these
dead animals was very bad, though Lionardo did not feel it from the
love he bore to art. When the work was finished, Lionardo told his
father that he could send for it when he liked. And Ser Piero going
one morning to the room for it, when he knocked at the door,
Lionardo opened it, and telling him to wait a little, turned back
into the room, placed the picture in the light, and arranged the
window so as to darken the room a little, and then brought him in to
see it. Ser Piero at the first sight started back, not perceiving
that the creature that he saw was painted, and was turning to go,
when Lionardo stopped him saying, "The work answers the purpose for
which it was made. Take it then, for that was the effect I wanted to
produce." The thing seemed marvellous to Ser Piero, and he praised
greatly Lionardo's whimsical idea. And secretly buying from a
merchant another circular piece of wood, painted with a heart
pierced with a dart, he gave it to the countryman, who remained
grateful to him as long as he lived. But Lionardo's Ser Piero sold
to some merchants in Florence for a hundred ducats, and it soon came
into the hands of the Duke of Milan, who bought it of them for three
hundred ducats.
Lionardo was so pleased whenever he saw a strange head or beard
or hair of unusual appearance that he would follow such a person a
whole day, and so learn him by heart, that when he reached home he
could draw him as if he were present. There are many of these heads
to be seen, both of men and women, such as the head of Americo
Vespucci, which is the head of an old man most beautifully drawn in
chalk; and also of Scaramuccia, captain of the gipsies. When Giovan
Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, was dead, and Lodovico Sforza became duke
in the year 1494, Lionardo was brought to Milan to play the lute
before him, in which he greatly delighted. Lionardo brought an
instrument which he had made himself, a new and strange thing made
mostly of silver, in the form of a horse's head, that the tube might
be larger and the sound more sonorous, by which he surpassed all the
other musicians who were assembled there. Besides, he was the best
improvisatore of his time. The duke, hearing his marvellous
discourse, became enamoured of his talents to an incredible degree,
and prayed him to paint an altarpiece of the Nativity, which he sent
to the emperor.
He also painted in Milan for the friars of S. Domenic, at S.
Maria delle Grazie, a Last Supyer, a thing most beautiful and
marvellous. He gave to the heads of the apostles great majesty and
beauty, but left that of Christ imperfect, not thinking it possible
to give that celestial divinity which is required for the
representation of Christ. The work, finished after this sort, has
always been held by the Milanese in the greatest veneration, and by
strangers also, because Lionardo imagined, and has succeeded in
expressing, the desire that has entered the minds of the apostles to
know who is betraying their Master. So in the face of each one may
be seen love, fear, indignation, or grief at not being able to
understand the meaning of Christ; and this excites no less
astonishment than the obstinate hatred and treachery to be seen in
Judas. Besides this, every lesser part of the work shows an
incredible diligence; even in the tablecloth the weaver's work is
imitated in a way that could not be better in the thing itself.
It is said that the prior of the place was very importunate in
urging Lionardo to finish the work, it seeming strange to him to see
Lionardo standing half a day lost in thought; and he would have
liked him never to have put down his pencil, as if it were a work
like digging the garden. And this not being enough, he com plained
to the duke, and was so hot about it that he was constrained to send
for Lionardo and urge him to the work. Lionardo, knowing the prince
to be acute and intelligent, was ready to discuss the matter with
him, which he would not do with the prior. He reasoned about art,
and showed him that men of genius may be working when they seem to
be doing the least, working out inventions in their minds, and
forming those perfect ideas which afterwards they express with their
hands. He added that he still had two heads to do; that of Christ,
which he would not seek for in the world, and which he could not
hope that his imagination would be able to conceive of such beauty
and celestial grace as was fit for the incarnate divinity. Besides
this, that of Judas was wanting, which he was considering, not
thinking himself capable of imagining a form to express the face of
him who after receiving so many benefits had a soul so evil that he
was resolved to betray his Lord and the creator of the world; but
this second he was looking for, and if he could find no better there
was always the head of this importunate and foolish prior. This
moved the duke marvellously to laughter, and he said he was a
thousand times right. So the poor prior, quite confused, left off
urging him and left him alone, and Lionardo finished Judas's head,
which is a true portrait of treachery and cruelty. But that of
Christ, as we have said, he left imperfect. The excellence of this
picture, both in composition and incomparable finish of execution,
made the King of France desire to carry it into his kingdom, and he
tried every way to find architects who could bring it safely, not
considering the expense, so much he desired to have it. But as it
was painted on the wall his Majesty could not have his will, and it
with the Milanese. refectory, and while he was working at Supper, he
painted Lodovico with his eldest son, Massimiliano, and on the other
side the Duchess Beatrice with Francesco her other son, both
afterwards Dukes of Milan. While he was employed upon this work he
proposed to the duke that he should make a bronze equestrian statue
of marvellous size to perpetuate the memory of the Duke (Francesco
Sforza). He began it, but made the model of such a size that it
could never be completed. There are some who say that Lionardo began
it so large because he did not mean to finish it, as with many of
his other things. But in truth his mind, being so surpassingly
great, was often brought to a stand because it was too
adventuresome, and the cause of his leaving so many things imperfect
was his search for excellence after excellence, and perfection after
perfection. And those who saw the clay model that Lionarlo made,
said they had never seen anything more beautiful or more superb, and
this was in existence until the French came to Milan with Louis,
King of France, when they broke it to pieces. There was also a small
model in wax, which is lost, which was considered perfect, anl a
book of the anatomy of the horse which he made in his studies.
Afterwards with greater care he gave himself to the study of human
anaton y, aided by, and in his turn aiding, that Messer Marc Antonio
della Torre who was one of the first to shed light upon anatomy,
which up to that time had been lost in the shades of
ignorance. In this he was much helped by Lionardo, who made a book
with drawings in red chalk, outlined with a pen, of the bones and
muscles which he had dissected with his own hand. There are also
some writings of Lionardo written backwarl with the left hand,
treating of painting and methods of drawing and colouring.
In his time the King of France came to Milan, and Lionardo was
entreated to make something strange for his reception, upon which he
constructed a lion, which advanced some steps and then opened his
breast and showed it full of lilies. Having returned to Florence, he
found that the Servite monks had entrusted Filippino with the
work of painting an altarpiece; but when Filippino heard that
Lionardo had said he should have liked such a piece of work,
like the courteous man he was he left off working at it, and the
friars brought Lionardo to their convent that he might paint it,
providing both for himself and his household. For a long time,
however, he did nothing, but at last he made a cartoon of our Lady
with S. Anne and the infant Christ, which not only astonished all
artists, but when it was finished, for two days his room was filled
with men and women, young and old, going as to a solemn festival to
see Lionardo's marvels.
This cartoon afterwards went to France. But he gave up the work
for the friars, who recalled Filippino, but he was surprised by
death before he could finish it.
Lionardo undertook to paint for Francesco del Giocondo a portrait
of Mona Lisa his wife, but having spent four years upon it, left it
unfinished. This work now belongs to King Francis of France, and
whoever wishes to see how art can imitate nature may learn from thiq
head. Mona Lisa being most beautiful, he used, while he was painting
her, to have men to sing and play to her and buffoons to amuse her,
to take away that look of melancholy which is so often seen in
portraits; and in this of Lionardo's there is a peaceful smile more
divine than human. By the excellence of the works of this most
divine of artists his fame was grown so great that all who delighted
in art, and in fact the whole city, desired to have some memorial of
it. And the Gonfalonier and the chief citizens agreed that, the
Great Hall of the Council having been rebuilt, Lionardo should be
charged to paint some great work there. Therefore, accepting the
work, Lionardo began a cartoon representing the story of Nicolo
Piccinino, captain of the Duke Filippo of Milan, in which he drew a
group of cavalry fighting for a standard, representing vividly the
rage and fury both of the men and the horses, two of which, with
their fore feet entangled, are making war no less fiercely with
their teeth than those who ride them. We cannot describe the variety
of the soldiers' garments, with their crests and other ornaments,
and the masterly power he showed in the forms of the horses, whose
muscular strength and beauty of grace he knew better than any other
man. It is said that for drawing this cartoon he erected an
ingenious scaffolding that could be raised and lowered. And desiring
to paint the wall in oil, he made a composition to cover the wall;
but when he began to paint upon it, it proved so unsuccessful that
he shortly abandoned it altogether.
There is a story that having gone to the bank for the sum which
he was accustomed to receive from the Gonfalonier Piero Soderini
every month, the cashier wanted to give him some packets of
farthings, but he refused to take them, saying, "I am no farthing
painter." As some accused him of having cheated Soderini in not
finishing the picture, there arose murmurs against him, upon which
Lionardo, by the help of his friends, collected the money and
restored it to him, but Piero would not accept it.
When Leo was made Pope, Lionardo went to Rome with Duke Giuliano
de' Medici, and knowing the Pope to be fond of philosophy,
especially alchemy, he used to make little animals of a wax paste,
which as he walked along he would fill with wind by blowing into
them, and so make them fly in the air, until the wind being
exhausted, they dropped to the ground. The vinedresser of the
Belvedere having found a very strange lizard, Lionardo made some
wings of the scales of other lizards and fastened them on its back
with a mixture of quicksilver, so that they trembled when it walked;
and having made for it eyes, horns, and a beard, he tamed it and
kept it in a box, but all his friends to whom he showed it used to
run away from fear.
It is said that when the Pope entrusted him with some work for
him he immediately began to distil oil for the varnish, upon which
Pope Leo said, "Oh, this is a man to do nothing, for he thinks of
the end before he begins his work."
