The life of Leonardo da Vinci by John William Brown

Leonardo da Vinci loses his patron

Here is another instance of his versatility of talent interfering with his fame as a painter; for had he been entirely ignorant of chemistry, he would necessarily have been obliged to content himself with the ordinary rules of fresco painting, and he might again have left a work that would have immortalised his name.

As these cartoons no longer exist, a description of them may prove interesting. Vasari tells us that Leonardo represented in The Battle of Anghiari a combat of horsemen fighting for a standard, which group was only intended as a part of the historical design just alluded to. It was so wonderfully executed, that the horses themselves seemed agitated with the same fury as their riders, and were fighting as hard with their teeth as their riders with their swords, to obtain possession of the contested flag. "Neither is it possible," continues Vasari, "to describe Leonardo's designs, in the soldiers' dresses so beautifully varied, as well as in the incredible skill he showed in the forms and attitudes of the horses, as no other artist could delineate the muscles and actions of the horse with such uncommon beauty and fidelity ".

Michaelangelo's cartoon represented a troop of soldiers suddenly called to arms when bathing, and the scene of his picture was the Siege of Pisa by the Florentines, and has been so fully described by Mr. Duppa in his "Life of Michelangelo", that it needs not be here repeated. Both these cartoons were shown in the Medici palace until the death of the Duke Giuliano, when they disappeared without any person being able to account for it. Vasari says that Michaelangelo's was torn in pieces, and that in his time there was a small piece remaining in the hands of a dilettante at Mantua.

It may be supposed in what esteem they must have been held, when their fame was sufficient to induce Raphael to come to Florence for the sole purpose of studying them. He was so much surprised and delighted at their freedom of manner and boldness of execution, that from that moment he is said to have resolved to abandon the stiffnes and poverty of his master Pietro Perugino's style. During his stay in Tuscany, Leonardo renewed his former friendship with Giovan Francesco Rustici, who had been his fellow student with Andrea Varocchio when they were both young men. Rustici was a man of good family, and more an artist from inclination than necessity. He had the good taste to listen to Da Vinci's criticism, to whom he was particularly attached; and was also well acquainted with the worth of his observations. He was esteemed a good sculptor and architect by his contemporaries, well as by his friend Leonardo, and the three statues which he cast in bronze for the baptistery at Florence, remain to this day memorials of his fame.