The life of Leonardo da Vinci by John William Brown

Leonardo's beginnings in Milan

Leonardo da Vinci had now reached his thirty-first year, and was most indefatigable in the study of whatever might tend to his improvement or increase his knowledge in the art of painting, to which he almost exclusively devoted himself. One of his first undertakings was the celebrated le Carton," pasteboard or rather thick paper, which he designed, by the orders of the King of Portugal, for a piece of tapestry that was to be worked in Flanders for that monarch. This drawing represented the story of Adam and Eve when first tempted to sin, and surpassed every thing which had been seen of the kind.

One of his first, pictures was a painting of, the Madonna, in which he introduced, among other accessories, a Vase of Flowers, so inimitably executed that the dew seemed glittering on the leaves. This production became afterwards the property of Pope Clement the Seventh, who purchased it at an immense price. For his friend Antonio Segni he formed a design of Neptune drawn in his car by Sea-horses through the ocean, surrounded by Tritons, Mermaids, and all the other attributes of that deity which his fertile imagination could invent. It was some time after presented by Segni's son Fabio to Messer Giovanni Gaddi, with this epigram:

Pinxit Virgilius Neptunum pinxit Homerus
Dum maris undisoni per vada flectit equos:
Mente quidem vates ilium conspexit uterque;
Vincius est oculis, jureque vincit eos.

Da Vinci always took great pleasure in delineating the most grotesque figures and extraordinary faces, so that, if he met a man in the street with any peculiarity of ugliness or deformity of countenance, he would follow him until he had a correct idea of his face, and would then draw the person, on his return home, from memory, as well as if he had been present.

He not only studied to perfect himself in giving the mere beauty or deformity of the likenesses he painted, but he sought to give the very air, manner, and expression of the persons represented. He at all times preferred studying from nature to following rules that were then but imperfectly understood; and he was in the habit of inviting the Contadini, and people of the lower orders to sup with him, telling them the most ridiculous stories, that he might delineate the natural expressions of rude delight undisguised by the refinements of good breeding. He would then show them their own likenesses, which no one could possibly behold without laughter at the ridiculous faces which he had caricatured, but with an much truth that the originals could not be miry- taken.

He was an indefatigable in pursuing the object of his ambition, that he neglected no means of procuring fresh studies for his pencil. He would sometimes put himself to the pain of accompanying criminals to the place of execution, and would remain with them in their last moments, that he might catch the expression of their countenances and delineate the agony of their sufferings. In short, there was no branch of his art which he considered unworthy of his attention, aware that perfection in any thing is only to be attained by unwearied industry and application.

We find from Vasari, that it was about this time that he painted a picture for the Grand Duke Cosimo the First, representing an Angel in strong light and shade, which was plated, by that prince in the collection of the Palazzo Vecchio," from whence it had been missing for upwards of a century. Most probably it was turned out of its place from the oversight or carelessness of the directors, who had condemned it to be put aside with a quantity of rubbish, old furniture and frames, which are occasionally sold by order the Duke's guarda-roba. It was not long since bought by a " rivenditore" for twenty-one quatrini, about three pence, and resold to its present possessor the Signore Fineschi, a drawing- master of Florence, for five pawls, two shillings and six pence.