LIFE

So many rare qualities, and such a great acquisition of the sciences, spread Leonardo’s name throughout all Italy, and induced Ludovico Sforza, called "the Moor" Original: "il Moro," a nickname likely referring to his dark complexion or the mulberry tree on his coat of arms., who favored the virtuous and was liberal toward almost everyone, to call him to Milan, assigning him an annual salary of five hundred scudi. The first thing that prince did was to form an academy for architecture, into which he introduced Leonardo, who, casting aside the Gothic styles of the first school—already established in that same city a hundred years earlier under Michelino—opened the way to restore that art to its first and ancient purity. He was then employed by the same prince to conduct the waters of the Adda as far as Milan, and to form that navigable canal, commonly called the Martesana Canal The Naviglio della Martesana, one of the great engineering feats of the Renaissance., with the addition of more than two hundred miles of navigable river reaching the valleys of Chiavenna and Valtellina. The undertaking was difficult and important, and worthy of Leonardo's fine intellect because of the noble competition with the "Great Canal" The Naviglio Grande. which had been made two hundred years earlier in the times of the Milanese Republic on the other side of the city, by which the waters of the Ticino river are diverted for navigation and for the irrigation of the countryside as far as Milan. But he overcame all the difficulties that were encountered, and with multiplied locks: or "sostegni," water-control structures used to change the level of a canal, or as we might say, sluices, he made the ships travel through mountains and valleys with great ease and safety.

The prince, not content that Leonardo should illustrate his state only as an architect and engineer, also wished for him to adorn it with some signal work of painting. He therefore ordered him to paint the Last Supper of Christ with the Apostles in the refectory The communal dining hall of a monastery. of the Dominican fathers of Santa Maria delle Grazie: which was executed by Leonardo with such mastery that the work was afterwards esteemed by everyone as a miracle of painting. And truly, all the refinements of art were displayed there with such pomp that everyone writes—and it is the common voice—that in design, in expression, in diligence, and in coloring, nothing superior to this was ever seen. The grace and majesty he gave to the heads of the apostles were extraordinary, and especially to those of the two Jameses; so much so that when he came to finish the head of Christ, being unable to reach a more eminent degree of beauty, he left it imperfect out of despair.

And because, while working on the painting, it seemed to the prior of the convent that the work was lasting too long, he often complained importunately to Leonardo, and even carried his grievances to the ears of the Duke. When the Duke discussed this once with Leonardo, he learned from him that nothing remained to be done except the two heads of Christ and Judas. He explained that as he could not imagine the infinite beauty of the Son of God, he knew even less how he could express it with brushes. But as for the ugliness of Judas, son of hell, which was occupying his thoughts, he would not lack the snout of that ungrateful friar, who with an intolerable and insolent tediousness had made himself beyond measure troublesome to them both.

He succeeded marvelously, as Vasari writes, in expressing that suspicion which had entered the apostles, wanting to know who was betraying their master. And Lomazzo recounts (who, having made a large copy of it in San Barnaba in Milan, had that work strongly impressed upon his soul) that in each one could be seen admiration, terror, grief, suspicion, love, and similar passions and affections in which everyone was then found, and finally