V I T A

V I T A

...after his own master. Of whom one reads that while painting on a panel for the friars of Vallombrosa A religious order; the painting mentioned is "The Baptism of Christ," now in the Uffizi Gallery., who are at San Salvi outside of Florence Original: "Fiorenza," the archaic name for Florence., depicting the story of Saint John baptizing Christ, he wished for Leonardo to help him. He gave him an angel to color, which held some garments in its hands. Leonardo executed it with such mastery, just as Andrea had commissioned, that it far surpassed the rest of the work; and everyone clearly judged that the other parts of the picture were much inferior in beauty to the angel. Verrocchio blushed, and seeing himself surpassed by a youth who was his pupil—incensed against his own brushes—he never again wished to use colors, and said goodbye to painting forever.

Having left the school, Leonardo, being now at an age to govern himself, produced those works in Florence that are mentioned by Vasari Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), the famous biographer of Italian Renaissance artists.. Namely, for the King of Portugal, the cartoon A full-scale preparatory drawing for a painting or tapestry. of Adam and Eve when they sinned in the terrestrial paradise, in which, besides the two figures, he painted in chiaroscuro The technique of using strong contrasts between light and dark to create volume. with incredible patience and diligence the trees and the grasses of the meadows. He also made, at the request of his father Piero for a peasant of his from Vinci, upon a round shield Original: "rotella," a circular wooden buckler. of fig wood, such a composition of various and strange little animals—such as snakes, lizards, green lizards, crickets, and locusts—that from all of them together one creature was formed, so frightening and horrible that, in the manner of Medusa’s head, it rendered anyone who looked at it immobile with shock. But the father, judging that this was not a work to be put into the hands of a rustic, sold it to certain merchants; it was later bought for 300 ducats by the Duke of Milan. In a painting, he made a most rare Madonna, and among other things, he depicted a carafe full of water with some flowers inside, upon which with admirable skill he had imitated the dew on the water; which painting Pope Clement VII later owned. Vasari also makes mention of a drawing made on a sheet for Antonio Segni, his very close friend, in which with rare invention and his usual accuracy he depicted a Neptune in the middle of a stormy sea, with his chariot pulled by sea horses, accompanied by whales, tritons, and other fantastic things that seemed appropriate to him for such a subject.

In this place, we shall observe that although Vinci knew to such a degree what that divine proportion consists of—which is the mother of beauty—that his figures full of grace inspired love in the beholders, he nonetheless took such pleasure in painting bizarre and distorted things. If he encountered some peasant who, with a strange and somewhat extraordinary face, appeared slightly ridiculous, he would be so captivated by the oddity of the object that he would follow him for an entire day, until, having a perfect idea of him, he returned home and drew him as if he had him present. And Paolo Lomazzo A 16th-century painter and art theorist. observes in the sixth book of his work on painting, chapter 32, that in his time Aurelio Luini Original: "Lovino," referring to the son of Bernardino Luini, a follower of Leonardo. had fifty of these drawn by his hand in a book. In this genre is painted that picture which is seen here in Paris among many others preserved in a room of the royal palace of the Tuileries under the care of Monsieur Le Maire, a painter—as everyone knows—of no ordinary worth. In this, two knights are painted in the act of forcibly taking a banner from two others; this group was part of a larger work, namely the cartoon he made for the hall of the palace in Florence, as will be mentioned below, but because of its beauty, it was painted by him in a small size with incredible taste and love. Here, beyond the...