Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 1 of 3)

CASTILLO’S TRIBUTE TO MURILLO.

Castillo was educated in the school of Zurbaran. After returning to his native city, he flattered himself that he was the first Spanish painter of the day; but subsequently, on a visit to Seville, he was painfully undeceived. The works of Murillo struck him with astonishment, and when he saw the St. Leander and St. Isidore, as well as the St. Anthony of Padua by that master, he exclaimed, “It is all over with Castillo! Is it possible that Murillo can be the author of all this grace and beauty of coloring?” He returned to Cordova, and attempted to imitate and equal Murillo, but felt satisfied that he had failed; and it is said that he died in the following year, from the effects of envy and annoyance.

CORREGGIO.

The name of this great artist was Antonio Allegri, and he was born at Correggio, a small town in the Duchy of Modena, in 1494; hence his acquired name. It was for a long time the fashion to regard the divine creations of Correggio as the mere product of genius and accident; himself as a man born in the lowest grade of society; uneducated in the elements of his art, owing all to the wondrous resources of his own unassisted genius; living and dying in obscurity and poverty; ill paid for his pictures; and at length perishing tragically. It has been proved that there is no foundation for these popular fallacies. Correggio’s own pictures are a sufficient refutation of a part of them; they exhibit not only a classical and cultivated taste, but a profound knowledge of anatomy, and of the sciences of optics, perspective, and chemistry, as far as they were then carried. His exquisite chiaro-scuro and harmonious blending of colors were certainly not the result of mere chance: all his sensibility to these effects of nature would not have enabled him to render them, without the profoundest study of the mechanical means he employed. The great works on which he was employed—his lavish use of the rarest and most expensive colors, and the time and labor he bestowed in analyzing and refining them—the report that he worked on a ground overlaid with gold—all refute the idea of his being either an ignorant or a distressed man. Of the rank he held in the estimation of the princes of his country we have evidence in a curious document discovered in the archives of the city of Correggio—the marriage contract between Ippolito (the son of Giberto, Lord of Correggio, by his wife, the celebrated poetess Vittoria Gambara), and Chiara da Correggio, in which we find the signature of the great painter as one of the witnesses. Correggio was one of that splendid triumvirate of painters who, living at the same time, were working on different principles, and achieving, each in his own department, excellence hitherto unequalled; and if Correggio must be allowed to be inferior to Raffaelle in invention and expression, and to Titian in life-like color, he has united design and color with the illusion of light and shadow in a degree of perfection not then nor since approached by any painter. Hence Annibale Caracci, on seeing one of his great pictures, exclaimed in a transport that he was “the only painter!”

CORREGGIO’S GRAND CUPOLA OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN AT PARMA.

The admiration which the works of Correggio excited, induced the monks of St. John to engage him in ornamenting the grand cupola, and other parts of their church. The original agreement has not been discovered, but various entries have been found in the books of the convent, between 1519 and 1536, which prove, that for adorning the cupola he received, as Tiraboschi asserts, two hundred and seventy-two gold ducats, and two hundred more for other parts of the fabric. The last payment of twenty seven gold ducats was made on the 23d of January, 1524, and the acknowledgment of the painter, under his own signature, is still extant.

The subject is the Ascension of Christ in glory, surrounded by the twelve Apostles, seated on the clouds; and in the lunettes the four Evangelists and four Doctors of the Church. The situation for the picture presented difficulties which none but so great an artist could have overcome; for the cupola has neither sky-light nor windows, and consequently the whole effect of the piece must depend on the light reflected from below. The figures of the Apostles are chiefly naked, gigantic, and in a style of peculiar grandeur.

Besides the cupola, various parts of the same church were adorned by his hand. He decorated the tribune, which was afterwards demolished to enlarge the choir; and it was so highly esteemed, that Cesare Aretusi was employed by the monks to copy it for the new tribune. He painted also in fresco, the two sides of the fifth chapel on the right hand, the first representing the Martyrdom of St. Placido and St. Flavia, and the second a dead Christ, with the Virgin Mary swooning at his feet. Of these paintings Mengs particularly admires the head of St. Placido and the exquisite figure of the Magdalen in the last mentioned picture.

CORREGGIO’S GRAND CUPOLA OF THE CATHEDRAL AT PARMA.

The figures which are depicted in the upper part of the dome, are foreshortened with consummate skill. Mengs, who saw them near, and judged of them as an artist, appears astonished at their boldness, which he calls “sconcia terribile,” particularly that of Christ, which occupies the centre. But the effect, when seen from below, proves that the painter had deeply studied that delicate branch of the art; for nothing can exceed the bold and exquisite management of the light and shade, and the beautiful proportion in which the figures appear to the eye, except the life and spirit with which they are animated, and the general harmony of the whole.

In decorating the lower part of the cupola, Correggio displayed undiminished resources. He figured a species of socle, or cornice, which runs round the whole cupola, yet at such a distance as to afford a space between the windows for the apostles, who appear, some single, some in pairs, surrounded with angels, and delineated in the same grand style as those in the cupola of St. John. Yet, although placed on the very lines of the angles, formed in the dome, they are so artfully disposed and foreshortened, as to appear painted vertically on the cornice. To unite these with the principal figures, he distributed above and on the socle, between the gigantic figures of the apostles, and the light and airy forms of the celestial choir above, groups of angels, of an intermediate size, some with torches, and others bearing vases and censers.

But a striking proof of his taste and skill is manifested in the four lunettes between the arches supporting the cupola. Here he feigned the architecture to form four capacious niches or shells, in which he introduced the patrons of the city, St. John the Baptist, St. Hilary, St. Thomas, and St. Bernard degli Uberti, in magnitude equal to the Apostles, resting on clouds and attended by angels. In depicting the light as transmitted from the groups above, he has thrown it so naturally upon these figures and their angelic suite, that they appear as if detached from the wall, and animated with more than human spirit and grace.

This great work was commenced about 1523, and finished in 1530, as appears from the original agreements and receipts, preserved in the archives of the Chapter, which were published by his biographer Pungileoni, from a copy taken and authenticated by a Notary Public, in 1803. The work seems to have been delayed by the feuds and warfare which agitated Parma at that time, and perhaps by other engagements of the artist. The contract was signed on the 3d of November, 1522. In the plan or estimate which Correggio drew up at the desire of the Chapter, and which is still preserved in his own handwriting, he required twelve hundred gold ducats, and one hundred for gold leaf; the scaffolding, lime, and other requisites to be provided by the Chapter. But in the contract itself, the price was reduced to one thousand ducats, exclusive of the one hundred for gold leaf. For this sum he engaged to paint the choir, and the cupola with its arches and pillars, as far as the altar; also the lateral chapels, in imitation of living subjects, bronze and marble, according to the plan, and in conformity to the nature of the place, comprising in the whole a surface of one hundred and fifty-four square perches (perteche). The Chapter, on their part, were to provide the scaffolding and the lime, and to defray the expense of preparing the walls. Thus Correggio received the sum of one thousand gold ducats (about two thousand dollars) for his work, out of which he had to pay for his colors, and the labors of his assistants. What then becomes of the miserable story generally current, that this was his last work; that when he went to receive payment, that he might take home the price of his labors to his poverty-stricken family, the canons found fault with his picture, and refused to pay him more than half the paltry sum originally promised; that they paid him in copper coin; that he took the heavy burden upon his shoulders, and walked a distance of eight miles to his cottage, under the burning heat of an Italian sun, which together with his despair threw him into a fever, of which he died, on his bed of straw, in three days? It appears from the documents before cited, that Correggio received payment in instalments, as his work progressed.

CORREGGIO’S FATE.

Vasari commiserates the fate of Correggio, whom he represents as of a melancholy turn of mind timid and diffident of his own powers; burthened with a numerous family, which, with all his prodigious talents, he could scarcely support; illy recompensed for his works; and to crown the sad story, we are told that, having received at Parma a payment of sixty crowns in copper money, he caught a fever in the exertion of carrying it home on his shoulders, which occasioned his death.

This picture, however, according to Lanzi, is exaggerated; for although the situation of Correggio was far beneath his merits, yet it was by no means deplorable. His family was highly respectable, and possessed considerable landed property, which is said to have been augmented by his own earnings; and so far from his having died of the fatigue of carrying home copper money, he was usually paid in gold. For the cupola and tribune of the church of St. John, he received four hundred and seventy-two sequins; for that of the Cathedral, three hundred and fifty; payments by no means inconsiderable in those times. For his celebrated Notte he was paid forty sequins, and for the St. Jerome, which cost him six months’ labor, forty-seven. It does not appear probable that he acquired great riches, but there is no doubt that he was equally screened from the evils attendant on penury and affluence.

The researches and discoveries of the learned Tiraboschi, the indomitable Dr. Michele Antonioli, and the zealous and impartial Padre Luigi Pungileoni, have thrown much light upon the life of Correggio. His father, Pellegrino Allegri, was a general merchant in Correggio, esteemed by his fellow-citizens. His circumstances were easy, and he intended Antonio for one of the learned professions, but his passion for painting induced him to allow him to follow the bent of his genius. It is not certainly known under whom he studied painting. Some of the Italian writers say that he was instructed by Francesco Bianchi and Giovanni Murani, called Il Frari; others that he was a pupil of Lionardo da Vinci and Andrea Mantegna; Lanzi is decidedly of the opinion that he formed his style by studying the works of Mantegna, who died in 1506, which does away with the supposition that he could have studied with him. “The manner,” says Lanzi, “in which Correggio could have imbibed so exquisite a taste, has always been considered surprising and unaccountable, prevailing everywhere, as we find in his canvass, in his laying on his colors, in the last touches of his pictures; but let us for a moment suppose him a student of Mantegna’s models, surpassing all others in the same taste, and the wonder will be accounted for. Let us, moreover, consider the grace and vivacity so predominant in the compositions of Correggio, the rainbow as it were of his colors, that accurate care in his foreshortenings, and of those upon ceilings; his abundance of laughing boys and cherubs, of flowers, fruits, and all delightful objects; and let us ask ourselves whether this new style does not appear an exquisite completion of that of Mantegna, as the pictures of Raffaelle and Titian display the progress and perfection of those of Perugino and Giovanni Bellini.” The authentic documents revealed by the three savans before mentioned, show that Correggio was most highly esteemed by his cotemporaries, and that he associated with persons of rank and letters. On two occasions he passed some time at Padua, with the Marchese Manfredo, and the celebrated patroness of arts and letters, Veronica Gambara, relict of Gilberto, Lord of Correggio. That he was cheerful and lively, may be inferred from the expression of a writer concerning him: “La vivacitá e dal brio del nostro Antonio;” yet affectionate and gentle, as is evident from his being sponsor on three occasions to infants of his friends (in 1511, 1516, and 1518), before he had reached his twenty-second year. In 1520 he was admitted by diploma, as a brother of the Congregation Cassinensi, in the monastery of St. John the Evangelist, at Parma—the fraternity to which the illustrious Tasso belonged. In the same year he married Girolama Merlini, a lady of good family, amiable disposition, and great beauty, who was his model for the Zingara, probably after the birth of his first child. By this lady he had one son and three daughters. In 1529, to his great affliction, she died, and was buried by her own request in the church of St. John at Parma. Correggio did not marry again. He died suddenly on the fifth day of March, 1534, aged forty years, and was buried with solemnities worthy of his great endowments, in the church of San Francesco, at the foot of the altar in the chapel of the Arrivabene.

ANNIBALE CARACCI’S OPINION OF CORREGGIO’S GRAND CUPOLA AT PARMA.

“I went,” says Annibale Caracci, in a letter to his cousin Lodovico, “to see the grand cupola, which you have so often commended to me, and am quite astonished. To observe so large a composition, so well contrived; and seen from below with such great exactness; and at the same time, such judgment, such grace, and coloring of real flesh, good God, not Tibaldi, not Nicolini, nor even I may say, Raffaelle himself, can be compared with him. I know not how many paintings I have seen this morning; the Ancona, or altar-piece of St. John, and St. Catharine, and the Madonna della Scodella going to Egypt, and I swear, I would change none of these for the St. Cecilia. To speak of the graces of this St. Catharine, who so gracefully lays her head on the feet of the beautiful little Savior; is she not more lovely than the St. Mary Magdalen? That fine old man St. Jerome, is he not grander, and at the same time more tender than that St. Paul, which first appeared to me a miracle, and now seems like a piece of wood, it is so hard and sharp. However you must have patience even for your own Parmiggiano, because I now acknowledge that I have learnt from this great man, to imitate all his grace, though at a great distance; for the children of Correggio breathe and smile with such a grace and truth, that one cannot refrain from smiling and enjoying one’s self with them.

“I write to my brother that he must come, for he will see things which he could never have believed,—18th April, 1580.

“I have been to the Steccata, and the Zocoli, and have observed what you told me many times, and what I now confess to be true; but I will say that, to my taste, Parmeggiano bears no comparison with Correggio, because the thoughts and conceptions of Correggio were his own, evidently drawn from his own mind, and invented by himself, guided only by the original idea. The others all rest on something not their own; some on models, some on statues or drawings: all the productions of the others are represented as they may be; all of this man as they truly are.

“The opportunities which Agostino wished for, have not occurred; and this appears to me a country, which one never could have believed so totally devoid of good taste and of the delights of a painter, for they do nothing but eat and drink, and make love. I promised to impart to you my sentiments; but I confess I am so confused that it is impossible. I rage and weep, to think of the misfortune of poor Antonio; so great a man, if indeed he were a man, and not an angel in the flesh, to be lost here, in a country where he was unknown, and though worthy of immortality, here to die unhappily. He and Titian will always be my delight: and if I do not see the works of the latter at Venice, I shall not die content.—April 28, 1580.”

CORREGGIO’S ENTHUSIASM.

CORREGGIO’S GRACE.

No one can contemplate the works of Correggio, without being captivated by that peculiar beauty which the Italians have very appropriately distinguished by the epithet Correggiesque, for it was the complexion of the individual mind and temperament of the artist, stamped upon the work of his hand. No one approached him in this respect, if perhaps we except Lionardo da Vinci. Though so often imitated, it remains in fact inimitable; an attempt degenerating into affectation of the most intolerable kind. It consists in the blending of sentiment in expression, with flowing, graceful forms, an exquisite fullness and softness in the tone of color, and an almost illusive chiaro-scuro, all together conveying to the mind of the spectator the most delightful impression of harmony, both spiritual and sensual. He is the painter of beauty par excellence; he is to us what Apelles was to the ancients—the standard of the amiable and the graceful.

CORREGGIO AND THE MONKS.

CORREGGIO’S MULETEER.

It is said that Correggio painted a picture of a muleteer, as a sign to a small public house, which was kept by a man who had frequently obliged him, and who had been a muleteer. This picture was purchased by a person sent to Italy many years ago to collect ancient paintings. It has all the marks in the upper corner, of having been joined to a piece of wood, and used for a sign; it cost five hundred guineas!

DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S CORREGGIO CAPTURED AT VITTORIA.

CORREGGIO’S ANCONA.

Correggio painted for the church of the Conventuali at Correggio, an Ancona, (a small altar-piece in wood,) consisting of three pictures when he was in his twentieth year, as appears, says Lanzi, from the written agreement, which fixes the price at one hundred gold ducats, or one hundred zecchins, and proves the esteem in which his talents were then held. “He here represented St. Bartholomew and St. John, each occupying one side, while in the middle compartment, he drew a Repose of the Holy Family flying into Egypt, to which last was added a figure of St. Francis. Francesco I., Duke of Modena, was so greatly delighted with this picture, that he sent the artist Boulanger to copy it for him, and thus obtaining possession of the original, he contrived dexterously to substitute his own copy in its place.” The Duke satisfied the monks by giving them more lands. It is supposed that it was afterwards presented to the Medicean family, and by them given to the house of Este in exchange for the Sacrifice of Abraham by Andrea del Sarto. It is now in the Florentine gallery.

PORTRAITS OF CORREGGIO.

Another portrait, with the title, Antonius Correggius, and consequently supposed to be painted by himself, was preserved in a villa which belonged to the Queen of Sardinia, near Turin, and engraved by Valperga; but its authenticity seems justly questioned by Lanzi and Pungileoni. A third, which was sent from Genoa to England, bore an inscription signifying that it was the portrait of Maestro Antonio da Correggio, by Dosso Dossi, and was accordingly engraved for the memoirs of Correggio by Ratti, who obtained a copy. Lanzi is inclined to infer, however, that it is the portrait of Antonio Bernieri, the miniature painter, who also bore the name of Antonio da Correggio.

A copy of this portrait is still preserved in the Pinacotheca Bodoniana, at Parma, and has been engraved, first by Asioli, and since as a medallion, by Professor Rocca, of Reggio. Pungileoni, who is inclined to consider it as genuine, has prefixed the medallion to his life of Correggio.

Tiraboschi and Pungileoni mention other supposed portraits and busts, of questionable authenticity; and Pungileoni, in particular, adverts to a portrait still preserved near a door of the cathedral at Parma, which is exhibited as a likeness of Correggio. It is supposed to have been copied in the middle of the seventeenth century, by Lattanzio Gambara, from a more ancient one of this celebrated painter, in another part of the cathedral; but its authenticity is questioned, merely on the ground that it represents a man of more advanced age than Correggio, who only attained his forty-first year.

DID CORREGGIO EVER VISIT ROME?

The question has been long agitated whether Correggio ever visited Rome, and profited by the study of the antique, and the works of Raffaelle and Michael Angelo; on this point, the only historical evidence which has been adduced, is a tradition recorded by Father Resta, and said to have been derived through three generations, from the information of Correggio’s wife. As an authority so light and doubtful could not be seriously advanced, his biographers and admirers have sought in his works for more valid traces of the models to which he recurred. Mengs contends that his paintings exhibit proofs of an acquaintance with the antique, and the works of Raffaelle and Michael Angelo. In the head of the Danaë, he traces a resemblance to that of Venus de Medici; and in the St. Jerome, and Mercury teaching Cupid to read, he recognises imitations of the Farnese Hercules and the Apollo Belvidere; he also discovers a resemblance to one of the children of Niobe, in the young man who endeavors to escape from the soldiers, in the picture representing Christ betrayed in the garden. The countenance of the Magdalen, in the St. Jerome, he considers as an imitation of Raffaelle; and in the cupola of the church of St. John, he perceives a similitude to the grand style of Michael Angelo, in the frescos of the Vatican. In corroboration of this opinion, he adduces the sudden change which is perceived in the style of Correggio at an earlier period, as a proof that he must have seen and studied compositions superior to his own. Ratti, the copyist of Mengs, coincides with him in opinion. Lanzi cautiously adopts the same sentiment; and Tiraboschi, after comparing the testimony on both sides, leaves the question unsettled. We cannot decide with certainty, that Correggio never visited Rome, and yet there is no argument to prove that he ever saw that Capital. Pungileoni, with superior advantage of research, pronounces a contrary decision; and affirms, from the evidence of the continued series of unquestionable documents, in which his presence is mentioned at Parma, Correggio, and other parts of Lombardy, during a number of years, that even if he did visit Rome, his stay must have been limited to a very short period. Finally, this opinion is corroborated in the assertion of Ortensio Landi, who had resided some time at Correggio; and who, in his Sette Libri de Cataloghi, printed at Venice by Giolito, as early as 1552, says of Correggio, “He was a noble production of nature, rather than of any master: he died young, without being able to see Rome.” Were all other evidence wanting, this testimony of a cotemporary, who must have collected his information on the spot, and who published it within eighteen years after the death of Correggio, must be allowed to carry great weight.

SINGULAR FATE OF CORREGGIO’S ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

A few days before the entry of the French into Seville, during the Peninsular war, when the inhabitants in great consternation were packing up their most valuable effects to send them to Cadiz, a masterpiece of Correggio, in one of the convents, representing the Adoration of the Shepherds, painted on wood, was sawn in two, for its more easy carriage to a place of safety, to preserve it from the enemy. By some accident, the two parts were separated on their way to Cadiz; and on their arrival in that city, one part was sold to one connoisseur, with the promise that the part wanting should subsequently be delivered to him; while the other part was sold to another connoisseur under the same engagement. Both the parts arrived in England, and the possessor of each maintained that he was entitled to the other.

It is somewhat remarkable that though the harmony of the picture is somewhat broken by the separation, yet each part forms of itself an admirable picture, and as the rival proprietors are rich and obstinate, the parts are not likely to be united. The whole picture is reckoned to be worth about 4,000 guineas.

CURIOUS HISTORY OF CORREGGIO’S “EDUCATION OF CUPID.”

Correggio’s picture of Mercury teaching Cupid to read, in the presence of Venus, called the Education of Cupid, is one of the most celebrated works of art extant. It now adorns the English National Gallery, and its history is exceedingly interesting. It was painted for Federigo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, the predecessor of him who a hundred years later patronized Rubens. When Charles I. of England, in 1630, purchased the Mantuan collection for £20,000, this picture and three others by Correggio were included in the bargain. On the sale of the king’s effects by order of parliament, it was purchased by the Duke of Alva, and from his family passed into the hands of the famous Godoy, Prince of Peace. When his collection was sold at Madrid during the French invasion, it was bought by Murat, who took it to Naples, where it adorned the royal palace. On his fall from power, it was among the precious effects with which his wife, Caroline Buonaparte, escaped to Rome, and thence to Vienna, where her collection of pictures was bought by the Marquis of Londonderry, the English ambassador, who instantly dispatched the two Correggios—the Education of Cupid and the Ecce Homo—to London. They were purchased of his Lordship by Parliament in 1834, for 10,000 guineas, and now adorn the English National Gallery. Sir Thomas Lawrence was allowed a furtive glance at these pictures, at Rome, in the hope that he would procure a purchaser for them. He says in a letter, “I had them brought down to me, and placed them in all lights, and I know them to be most rare and precious.” By his recommendation, Mr. Angerstein offered £6,500 for the two, which was declined. At the time when the Marquis of Londonderry closed with General M’Donald, who was chamberlain to Madame Murat, then known as Countess Lipona (this was during the Congress of Sovereigns at Verona in 1822), the Emperor of Russia was negociating for them, and supposing that he had a right to them, messengers were despatched after Londonderry’s couriers, but fortunately they were not overtaken, though pursued to the Hague.

MAGDALEN BY CORREGGIO.

The writer can tell an amusing story of a picture that was not by Correggio. It was a small picture of a Holy Family, on copper. It was bought in Naples, for a very large sum, by a gentleman who resides not many miles from New York, who smuggled it out of the country. On his arrival home, wishing to improve the brilliancy of the coloring, which appeared much obscured by the smoke and dust of many years, he sent it to a skillful artist to be cleaned, who, on removing the plentiful coats of varnish, soon discovered that it was nothing but a transfer. The artist gently hinted to the connoisseur that he had been duped. “Zounds, sir, this cannot be; the picture was valued at $5,000 in Naples, and I was offered very large prices for it by some of the best judges in Paris.” The artist, with a little spirits, quickly brought the lines of a print into full view, so that not even a glass was required to see them! It is needless to say that the proprietor was greatly chagrined, and vented his rage in curses loud and deep against foreign impostors. Yet he ordered the coats of varnish to be replaced, and afterwards sold the picture as an original Correggio.

DISCOVERY OF A CORREGGIO.

Among the numerous restorers of old pictures who resided at Rome about 1780, were two friends, an Italian named Lovera, and a German named Hunterspergh. They were both pupils of the Cavaliere Mengs. They frequented the sales of old pictures at the Piazza Nuova, as well to purchase the works of the old masters at a low price, as to supply themselves with old canvass, which they might repaint. On one occasion, having bought a lot of old canvass and divided it between them, Lovera received as a part of his share a very indifferent flower-piece. On taking it home, he found that the ground scaled off, and to his surprise discovered traces of a figure painted in an admirable style. He employed himself with the utmost care in removing the ground which covered the original picture, and thus restored a capital performance, representing Charity, under the emblem of a Woman surrounded by three Children. The report of this happy discovery soon spread; all the artists and amateurs ran to behold it. The best judges, among whom was Mengs, acknowledged the genuine style of Correggio, and valued the performance at £2,000. The Earl of Bristol bought it from Lovera for about £1,500. An engraving has since been made from it. The value was afterwards the subject of a suit at law between Hunterspergh and Lovera.

LIONARDO DA VINCI.

PRECOCITY OF DA VINCI’S GENIUS.

At a very early age, Lionardo da Vinci showed remarkably quick abilities for everything he turned his attention to, but more particularly for arithmetic, music, and drawing. His drawings appeared something wonderful to his father, who showed them to Andrea Verocchio, and that celebrated artist, greatly surprised at seeing productions of such merit from an uninstructed hand, willingly took Lionardo as a pupil. He was soon much more astonished when he perceived the rapid progress his pupil made; he felt his own inferiority, and when Lionardo painted an angel in a picture of the Baptism of Christ, in S. Salvi at Vallombrosa, so much superior to the other figures that it rendered the inferiority of Verocchio apparent to all, he immediately relinquished the pencil for ever. This picture is now in the academy at Florence. The first original work by Lionardo, mentioned by Vasari, was the so-called Rotella del Fico, a round board of a fig-tree, upon which his father requested him to paint something for one of his tenants. Lionardo, wishing to astonish his father, determined to execute something extraordinary, that should produce the effect of the Head of Medusa; and having prepared the rotella, and covered it with plaster, he collected almost every kind of reptile, and composed from them a monster of most horrible appearance; it seemed alive, its eyes flashed fire, and it appeared to breathe destruction from its open mouth. The picture produced the desired effect upon his father, who thought it so wonderful that he carried it immediately to a picture dealer in Florence, sold it for a hundred ducats, and purchased for a trifle an ordinary piece for his tenant.

EXTRAORDINARY TALENTS OF DA VINCI.

DA VINCI’S WORKS AT MILAN.

In 1494, Da Vinci was invited to Milan by the Duke Lodovico Sforza, who appointed him Director of the Academy of Painting and Architecture, which he had recently revived with additional splendor and encouragement. During his residence there, he painted but little, with the exception of his celebrated picture of the Last Supper, a description of which will be found in a subsequent article. As Director of the Academy, he banished all the dry, gothic principles established by his predecessor, Michelino, and introduced the beautiful simplicity and purity of the Grecian and Roman styles. Lanzi says that in this capacity, “he left a degree of refinement at Milan, so productive of illustrious pupils that this period may be ranked as the most glorious era of his life.” The Duke engaged Lionardo in the stupendous project of conducting the waters of the Adda, from Mortesana, through the Valteline, and the valley of the Chiavenna to the walls of Milan, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. Sensible of the greatness of this undertaking, Lionardo applied himself more closely to those branches of philosophy and mathematics which are most adapted to mechanics, and finally accomplished this immense work, greatly to the astonishment and admiration of all Italy. He executed the model for a colossal bronze equestrian statue of the Duke’s father, Francesco Sforza, and would have completed it, but the Duke’s affairs were becoming greatly embarrassed, so that the necessary metal (200,000 lbs.) was not furnished. In 1500, Lodovico Sforza was overthrown in battle by the French, made prisoner, and conducted to France, where he soon after died in the castle of Loches. The Academy was suppressed, the professors dispersed, and Lionardo, after losing all, was obliged to quit the city, and take refuge in Florence.

DA VINCI’S “BATTLE OF THE STANDARD.”

Soon after Lionardo’s return to Florence, in 1503, he was commissioned by the Gonfalonière Soderini to decorate one side of the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, while Michael Angelo was engaged to paint the opposite side. Lionardo selected the battle in which the Milanese general, Niccolo Piccinino, was defeated by the Florentines at Anghiari, near Borgo San Sepolcro. This composition, of which he only made the cartoon of a part, was called the Battle of the Standard; it represents a group of horsemen contending for a standard, with various accessories. Vasari praises the beauty and anatomical correctness of the horses, and the costumes of the soldiers. Lanzi says it was never executed, after his failing in an attempt to paint it in a new method upon the wall, but Lucini afterwards represented it in a painting which is in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, esteemed one of the finest works in that collection. The fame of this contest between the two great artists, caused great excitement, and induced Raffaelle, who had recently quitted the school of Perugino, to visit Florence. The grace and delicacy of Lionardo’s style, compared with the dry and gothic manner of Perugino, excited the admiration of the young painter, and inspired him with a more modern taste.

LIONARDO DA VINCI AND LEO X.

LIONARDO DA VINCI AND FRANCIS I.

Francis I. of France was not only a liberal patron of Lionardo da Vinci, but entertained for him a strong personal friendship. He gave 4000 gold crowns for his celebrated portrait of Mona Lisa, the wife of Francesco Giocondo, which occupied Vinci four years. When Lionardo was advanced in years, and his health declining, he took him into his service, treated him with the greatest kindness, and gave him a pension of 700 crowns annually. The King delighted in the society of Da Vinci, and when his courtiers ventured to express their surprise that he should prefer his company to theirs, he rebuked them by saying, that “he could make as many lords as he chose, but that God alone could make a Lionardo da Vinci.”

DEATH OF DA VINCI.

DA VINCI’S LEARNING.

Lionardo da Vinci was one of the most learned, accomplished, and eminent men of the 15th century. Hallam says of him, “The discoveries which made Galileo and Kepler, Maestlin, Maurolicus, Castelli, and other names illustrious, the system of Copernicus, the very theories of recent geologists, are anticipated by Lionardo da Vinci, within the compass of a very few pages, not perhaps in the most precise language, or on the most conclusive reasoning, but so as to strike us with something like the awe of preternatural knowledge. In an age of so much dogmatism, he first laid down the grand principle of Bacon, that experiment and observation must be the guides to just theory in the investigation of nature.” His scientific knowledge proved the means of conferring incalculable benefits upon the art of painting, one of the most important of which was the invention of the chiaro-scuro. His intimate acquaintance with mathematical studies enabled him to develope greatly the knowledge of optics, and no one was better acquainted with the nature of aërial perspective, which became a distinctive and hereditary characteristic of his school. Lanzi says, “Being extremely well versed in poetry and history, it was through him that the Milanese school became one of the most accurate and observing in regard to antiquity and to costume. Mengs has noticed that no artist could surpass Vinci in the grand effect of his chiaro-scuro. He instructed his pupils to make as cautious a use of light as of a gem, not lavishing it too freely, but reserving it always for the best place. And hence we find in his, and in the best of his disciples’ paintings, that fine relief, owing to which the pictures, and in particular the countenances, seem as if starting from the canvass.”

DA VINCI’S WRITINGS.

Almost of equal value with the pictures of this immortal artist, are his writings, part of which, unfortunately, have been lost, and others have remained in manuscript. His Trattato della Pittura, &c., appeared for the first time in 1651. It was translated into English, and published by John Senex, London, 1721. The most complete edition was published by Manzi, in Italian, in 1817. The learned connoisseur, Count Algarotti, esteemed this work so highly, that he regarded it the only work necessary to be put into the hands of the student. “With a deep insight into nature,” says Fiorillo, “Lionardo has treated in this book, of light, shades, reflections, and particularly of backgrounds. He perfectly understood, and has explained in the best way, that natural bodies being bounded mostly by curved lines, which have a natural softness, it is important to give this softness to the outlines; that this can be done only by means of the ground on which the object is represented; that the inner line of the surrounding ground, and the outer line of the object, are one and the same; nay, that the figure of the object becomes visible only by means of that which surrounds it; that even the colors depend upon the surrounding objects, and mutually weaken and heighten each other; that when objects of the same color are to be represented, one before the other, different degrees of light must be used to separate them from each other, since the mass of air between the eye and the object lessens and softens the color in proportion to the distance.” Among the works of Da Vinci, were Treatises on Hydraulics, Anatomy, Perspective, Light and Shadow, and the Anatomy of the Horse. The Ambrosian Library of Milan originally possessed sixteen volumes of his manuscripts. The French, during their occupancy of Milan, carried off twelve of these, (probably all there were then remaining) but only three of them reached Paris, one of which was published under the title of Fragment d’un Traité sur les Mouvements du corps humain. Only one volume was returned to Milan by the Allies in 1815. What abominable sacrilege! It is said that seven volumes more of his manuscripts were in the collection of the King of Spain.

DA VINCI’S SKETCH BOOKS.

Da Vinci always carried in his pocket a book, in which he was in the habit of sketching every remarkable face, object, and effect of nature that struck his fancy; and these sketches supplied him with abundant materials for his compositions. Caylus published a collection of beautiful sketches and studies by Lionardo, under the title of Recueil de Tetes de Caractères et de Charges, &c., 1730, of which there is also a German edition. Two more were published at Milan in 1784, under the titles of Desseins de Leonardo da Vinci, Gravés par Ch. T. Gerli, and Osservazioni sopra i Disegni di Lionardo dall’ Abbate Amoretti, &c. Besides these appeared in London in 1796, engravings of the numerous sketches of Lionardo in the possession of the King of England, entitled Imitations of Original Designs of Lionardo da Vinci, &c., published by Chamberlaine, folio. See also the Life of Lionardo da Vinci in German, published at Halle in 1819.

THE LAST SUPPER OF LIONARDO DA VINCI.

“His Last Supper has been stated in history as an imperfect production, although at the same time all history is agreed in celebrating it as one of the most beautiful paintings that ever proceeded from the hand of man. It was painted for the Refectory of the Dominican fathers at Milan, and may be pronounced a compendium, not only of all that Lionardo taught in his books, but also of what he embraced in his studies. He here gave expression to the exact point of time best adapted to animate his history, which is the moment when the Redeemer addresses his disciples, saying, ‘One of you will betray me.’ Then each of his innocent followers is seen to start as if struck with a thunderbolt; those at a distance seem to interrogate their companions, as if they think they must have mistaken what he had said; others, according to their natural disposition, appear variously affected; one of them swoons away, one stands lost in astonishment, a third rises in indignation, while the very simplicity and candor depicted upon the countenance of a fourth, seem to place him beyond the reach of suspicion. But Judas instantly draws in his countenance, and while he appears as it were attempting to give it an air of innocence, the eye rests upon him in a moment, as the undoubted traitor. Vinci himself used to observe, that for the space of a whole year he employed his time in meditating how he could best give expression to the features of so bad a heart; and that being accustomed to frequent a place where the worst characters were known to assemble, he there met with a physiognomy to his purpose; to which he also added the features of many others. In his figures of the two saints James, presenting fine forms, most appropriate to the characters, he availed himself of the same plan, and being unable with his utmost diligence to invest that of Christ with a superior air to the rest, he left the head in an unfinished state, as we learn from Vasari, though Armenini pronounced it exquisitely complete. The rest of the picture, the table-cloth with its folds, the whole of the utensils, the table, the architecture, the distribution of the lights, the perspective of the ceiling (which, in the tapestry of S. Pietro, at Rome, is changed almost into a hanging garden), all was conducted with the most exquisite care; all was worthy of the finest pencil in the world. Had Lionardo desired to follow the practice of his age in painting in fresco, the art at this time would have been in possession of this treasure. But being always fond of attempting new methods, he painted this master-piece upon a peculiar ground, formed of distilled oils, which was the reason that it gradually detached itself from the wall. About half a century subsequent to the execution of this wonderful work, when Armenini saw it, it was already half decayed: and Scanelli, who examined it in 1642, declared that it ‘was with difficulty he could discern the history as it had been.’ Nothing now remains except the heads of three apostles, which may be said to be rather sketched than painted.”—Lanzi.

COPIES OF THE LAST SUPPER OF DA VINCI.

The great loss of the original picture is in some measure compensated by several excellent copies, some of which are by Lionardo’s most eminent disciples; the best are, that by Marco Uggione, at the Carthusians of Pavia; another in the Refectory of the Franciscans at Lugano, by Bernardino Luini; and one in La Pace at Milan, by Gio. Paolo Lomazzo. Fuseli, lecturing on the copy by Marco Uggione, says, “the face of the Saviour is an abyss of thought, and broods over the immense revolution in the economy of mankind, which throngs inwardly on his absorbed eye—as the Spirit creative in the beginning over the water’s darksome wave—undisturbed and quiet. It could not be lost in the copy before us; how could its sublime expression escape those who saw the original? It has survived the hand of time in the study which Lionardo made in crayons, exhibited with most of the attendant heads in the British Gallery, and even in the feeble transcripts of Pietro Testa. I am not afraid of being under the necessity of retracting what I am going to advance, that neither during the splendid period immediately subsequent to Lionardo, nor in those which succeeded to our own time, has a face of the Redeemer been produced, which, I will not say equalled, but approached Lionardo’s conception, and in quiet and simple features of humanity, embodied divine, or what is the same, incomprehensible and infinite powers.” In 1825, Prof. Phillips examined the remains of this picture, and says, “Of the heads, there is not one untouched, and many are totally ruined. Fortunately, that of the Saviour is the most pure, being but faintly retouched; and it presents, even yet, a most perfect image of the Divine character. Whence arose the story of its not having been finished, is now difficult to conceive, and the history itself varies among the writers who have mentioned it. But perhaps a man so scrupulous as Lionardo da Vinci, in the definement of character and expression, and so ardent in his pursuit of them, might have expressed himself unsatisfied, where all others could only see perfection.”

DA VINCI’S DISCRIMINATION.

Lionardo da Vinci possessed the rare faculty of being able to ascertain the just medium between hasty and labored work; and though very minute in the finishing of his pictures, yet he painted in a free and unrestrained style. The same master who consumed four years on the portrait of Mona Lisa Giocondo, gave one of the earliest and best lessons to the age, in the great style, in his memorable painting of the Last Supper. This power of attending at the same moment to the minutiæ of detail, and to the grand and leading principles of the art or science in which a person may be employed, shows a species of universality of power that may be reckoned among the highest perfections of the human mind; and it places Da Vinci not merely in the rank of the first of painters, but of the greatest of men.

DA VINCI’S IDEA OF PERFECTION IN ART.

Da Vinci was never satisfied with his works, and Lanzi finds the same fault with him that Apelles did with Protogenes—his not knowing when to take his hand from his work. Phidias himself, says Tully, bore in his mind a more beautiful Minerva and a grander Jove than he was capable of exhibiting with his chisel. It is prudent counsel that teaches us to aspire to the best, but to rest satisfied with attaining what is good. “Vinci,” says Lanzi, “was never satisfied with his labors, if he did not execute them as perfectly as he had conceived them; and being unable to reach the high point proposed with a mortal hand, he sometimes only designed his work, or conducted it only to a certain degree of completion. Sometimes he devoted to it so long a period as almost to renew the example of the ancient who employed seven years over his picture (Protogenes’ Ialysus and his Dog). But as there was no limit to the discovery of fresh beauties in that work, so in the opinion of Lomazzo it happens with the perfections of Vinci’s paintings, including even those which Vasari and others allude to as left imperfect.” Lanzi says it is certain that he left some of his works only half finished. “Such is his Epiphany, in the Ducal Gallery at Florence, and his Holy Family, in the Archbishop’s palace at Milan.” Others he finished in the most exquisite manner. “He was not satisfied with only perfecting the heads, counterfeiting the shining of the eyes, the pores of the skin, the roots of the hair, and even the beating of the arteries; but he likewise portrayed each separate garment, and every accessory, with equal minuteness. Thus in his landscapes, also, there was not a single herb, or leaf of a tree, which he had not taken, like a portrait, from the face of nature; and even to his very leaves he gave a peculiar air, fold, and position best adapted to represent their rustling in the wind. While he bestowed his attention in this manner to minutiæ, he at the same time, as is observed by Mengs, led the way to a more enlarged and dignified style; entered into the most abstruse inquiries as to the source and nature of expression—the most philosophical and elevated branch of the art—and smoothed the way for the appearance of Raffaelle.” Vinci spent four years on his portrait of Mona Lisa Giocondo.

DA VINCI AND THE PRIOR.

The prior of the convent grew impatient at being so long incommoded in that essential branch of monastic discipline which was carried on in the refectory or dining hall, where the picture was being painted, and complained to the Grand Duke, who called on the artist to explain the delay. Da Vinci excused himself by saying that he worked at it two whole hours every day. The pious head of the house renewed his representations with great warmth, and alleged that Lionardo had only one head to finish; and that so far from working two hours a day, he had not been near the place for almost twelve months. Again summoned before the prince, the painter thus defended himself. “It is true I have not entered the convent for a long time; but it is not less true that I have been employed every day at least two hours upon the picture. The head of Judas remains to be executed, and in order to give it a physiognomy suitable to the excessive wickedness of the character, I have for more than a year past been daily frequenting the Borghetto, morning and evening, where the lowest refuse of the capital live; but I have not yet found the features I am in quest of. These once found, the picture shall be finished in a day. If, however,” he added, “I still am unsuccessful in my search, I shall rest satisfied with the face of the Prior himself, which would suit my purpose extremely well; only that I have for a long time been hesitating about taking such a liberty with him in his own convent.” It is hardly necessary to add that the Duke was perfectly satisfied with this apology. The artist soon after met with his Judas, and finished his great work. It is stated by several Italian writers that Da Vinci, out of revenge, did actually take this liberty with the prior.

DA VINCI’S DRAWINGS OF THE HEADS IN HIS CELEBRATED LAST SUPPER.

FRANCIS I. AND THE LAST SUPPER OF VINCI.

Francis I. was so struck with admiration when he first saw the Last Supper of Da Vinci, that he resolved to carry it to France. For this purpose he attempted to saw it from the wall; but finding that he could not detach it without destroying the picture, he abandoned the project.

AUTHENTICATED WORKS OF DA VINCI.

The authenticated works of Da Vinci are exceedingly scarce; he bestowed so much labor upon them that they were never very numerous, and time and casualty has reduced the number. It is said that one of the proprietors of the Orleans collection destroyed some of the most capital works of Da Vinci and Correggio from conscientious scruples! The most celebrated are the Mona Lisa Giocondo, in the Louvre; a lovely picture called La Vierge aux Rochers; a Leda, in the collection of Prince Kaunitz at Vienna; Christ disputing with the Doctors, in the Pamfili palace at Rome; John the Baptist, formerly in the French Museum; the portrait of Lodovico Maria Sforza, in the Dresden gallery. There are a few others in the collections at Florence, Milan, and Rome. There are some in England; but the authenticity of most of these, to say the least, is extremely doubtful. The Christ disputing with the Doctors, in the National gallery, is doubtless a copy by some one of his pupils. The original, as before mentioned, is at Rome. Passavant says, “The numerous copies or repetitions of this picture, now existing, imply the estimation in which the original cartoon was held, and are additional proofs of its being an original work. One of these I saw in the Spada gallery at Rome; two others at Milan—one in the Episcopal palace, and the other in the house of the Consigliere Commendatore Casati.” Most of the pictures claimed to be original by Da Vinci, even in the public galleries of Europe, were executed by his pupils and imitators, several of whom copied and imitated him with great success. Lanzi says that Lorenzo di Credi approached him so closely, that one of his copies of Lionardo could hardly be distinguished from the original. For a list of his imitators, see Spooner’s Dictionary of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects, table of Imitators.