The Great Masters
in Painting and Sculpture
Editedby G. C.Williamson
LEONARDO DA VINCI
THE GREAT MASTERS IN PAINTING
AND SCULPTURE.
Edited by G. C. WILLIAMSON, LITT.D.
LIST OF THE SERIES.
BOTTICELLI. By A. STREETER.
BRUNELLESCHI. By LEADER SCOTT.
CORREGGIO. By SELWYN BRINTON, M.A.
CRIVELLI. By G. McNsiL RUSHFORTH, M.A.
DELLA ROBBIA. By the MARCHESA BURLAMACCHI.
ANDREA DEL SARTO. By H. GUINNESS.
DONATELLO. By HOPE REA.
GERARD DOU. By W. MARTIN, Ph.D.
GAUDENZIO FERRARI. By ETHEL HALSEY.
FRANCIA. By GEORGE C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
GIORGIONE. By HERBERT COOK, M.A.
GIOTTO. By F. MASON PERKINS.
FRANS HALS. By GERALD S. DAVIES, M.A.
LUINI. By GEORGE C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
MANTEGNA. By MAUD CRUTTWELL.
MEMLINC. By W. H. JAMES WEALE.
MICHAEL ANGELO. By LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER, F.S.A.
PERUGINO. By GEORGE C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA. By W. G. WATERS, M.A.
PINTORICCHIO. By EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS.
RAPHAEL. By H. STRACHEY.
REMBRANDT. By MALCOLM BELL.
RUBENS. By HOPE REA.
SIGNORELLI. By MAUD CRUTTWELL.
SODOMA. By the CONTESSA LORENZO PRIULI-BON.
TINTORETTO. By J. B. STOUGHTON HOLBORN, M.A.
VAN DYCK. By LIONEL CUST, M.V.O., F.S.A.
VELASQUEZ. By R. A. M. STEVENSON.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. By EDWARD McCuRDY, M.A.
WATTEAU. By EDGCUMBE STALEY, B.A.
WILKIE. By LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER, F.S.A.
Others to follow.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.
LEONARDO
DA VINCI
BY
EDWARD McCURDY, M.A.
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1908,
./,
HISTORIC
First Published, 1904.
Cheap Reissue, 1907.
Reprinted, 1908.
PREFACE
earliest biography of Leonardo, that in the
JL book of Antonio Billi, ends with the words : " His
spirit was never at rest, his mind was ever devising new
things."
They suggest some of the difficulties attendant upon
the attempt to write about him.
He was the most versatile genius of the age of the
Renaissance, and the more genius approaches the uni-
versal, the less can it be seen save in section.
If Leonardo had never either painted or worked in
sculpture, his achievements in the more mechanical arts,
his inventions, his projects, and the plans he carried out
in canalization and engineering, would have received
notice more befitting their magnitude.
Were these also taken away from the sum of his acti-
vities, his researches in various branches of science, in
anatomy, physiology, geology, botany, astronomy, optics,
mechanics would still suffice to show to how high a
place he is entitled in the history of human culture.
His study of science was in inception a part of the
artist's fuller equipment that he might thereby know
the structure of what he represented and the laws of its
formation.
It was continued independently of the artistic pur-.
257005
vi PREFACE
pose and ultimately superseded it. The work in art 01
his later years was either undertaken as illustrating
some principle, or as a compromise with necessity,
which parted him perforce from the study of natural
phenomena and primary causes.
As containing the relation of the two stages self-re-
vealed, his own manuscripts form the best record of his
life. They consist of notes of his studies, fragments of
letters, personal memoranda, extracts from books, notes
of compositions, fragments of treatises, maxims and re-
flections.
To these I have referred where they directly concern
his artistic work or where dated records form landmarks
in the chronology.
His life as an artist is a field well trodden. In my
state of all-indebtedness to the researches of specialists
I can only acknowledge my debt where it is heaviest,
viz., to Dr. Richter's " Literary Works of Leonardo da
Vinci," to Dr. Mtiller-Walde's articles in the Jahrbuch,
to Professor Uzielli's " Ricerche," to the monograph by
Dr. Solmi, and to Mr. Berenson's "Drawings of the
Florentine Painters."
E. McC.
December^ 1903.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PREFACE v
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
BIBLIOGRAPHY . xi
PART I
I. THE RECORDS UP TO 1493 i
II. THE SCULPTURE 20
III. THE RECORDS, 1494-1519 ... 34
PART II
THE PICTURES 73
CATALOGUE OF THE PICTURES 129
THE DRAWINGS I3 1
THE MANUSCRIPTS . 133
INDEX 135
vn
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece Portrait of Madonna Lisa del Giocondo
The Louvre
1. The Angels in the " Baptism of Christ "
Accademia, Florence 4
2. The Annunciation Louvre, Paris 8
3. Landscape (dated 1473) . . . Uffizi Gallery r , Florence 12
4. Study of heads (dated 1478) . Uffizi Gallery, Florence 16
5. Study for a Virgin and Child with Cat
Uffizi Gallery ', Florence 18
6. S. Jerome Vatican Gallery, Rome 22
7. Head of a Warrior British Museum 24
8. Study for the " Adoration of the Magi" Louvre, Paris 28
9. Study for background of the " Adoration of the Magi "
Uffizi Gallery, Florence 30
10. The Adoration of the Magi . Uffizi Gallery, Florence 36
11. The Adoration of the Magi. (Detail)
Uffizi Gallery, Florence 38
12. The Adoration of the Magi. (Detail.)
Uffizi Gallery, Florence 40
13. Study of hands Royal Library, Windsor 44
14. Head of Christ, crowned with thorns Accademia, Venice 46
15. Studies for the Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza
Royal Library, Windsor 50
16. Study for the Trivulzio Monument
Royal Library, Windsor 52
17. Study of a head Royal Library, Windsor 54
1 8. Study for the angel in the " Virgin of the Rocks "
Royal Library, Turin 60
19. Study for the Infant Christ in the " Virgin of the Rocks "
Royal Library, Windsor 62
ix
x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE
PAGE
20. Study of drapery for kneeling figure
Royal Library, Windsor 64
21. The Virgin of the Rocks (facing each \ Louvre, Paris
22. The Virgin of the Rocks \ other J National Gal-
lery, London 68
23. Study for "The Last Supper" . . Accademia, Venice 74
24. Study for head of S. Philip . Royal Library, Windsor 76
25. Study for head of Judas . . Royal Library, Windso' 78
26. Study for head of S. James and architectural drawing
Royal Library, Windsor 80
27. The head of Christ Brera Gallery^ Milan 82
28. The Last Supper (from the engraving \
,_.,,_, x , I facing each
by Raphael Morghen V J
29. The Last Supper J
Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan 84
30. The Last Supper. (Detail.)
Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan 88
31. Neptune Royal Library, Windsor 92
32. Studies for " The Battle of Anghiari " Accademia, Venice 96
33. Study of heads for combatants in "The Battle of Anghiari"
Museum, Buda-Pesth 98
34. The Fight for the Standard. From "The Battle of
Anghiari " Ujfizi Gallery, Florence 100
35. Virgin and Child with S. Anne
Burlington House, London 106
36. Study for the " Virgin and Child with S. Anne "
Accademia, Venice 108
37. Virgin and Child with S. Anne . . . Louvre, Paris 1 10
38. Study of a head crowned with laurel
Royal Library, Turin 114
39. Studies for the head of Leda . Royal Library, Windsor 118
40. Study of heads Uffizi Gallery, Florence 122
41. S. John the Baptist Louvre, Paris 124
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
IL LIBRO DI ANTONIO BILLI. 1516-1530.
[De Fabriczy. Archivio Storico Italiano, series v., torn. 7.]
GIOVIO, PAOLO. Leonard! Vincii Vita. 1527.
[Tiraboschi. Storia della Lett. Ital., torn, vii., Part 4,
p. 2494. Classici Italiani, vol. 314.]
ANONIMO FIORENTINO (GADDIANO). 1542-1548.
[De Fabriczy. Archivio Storico Italiano, series v, torn. 12.]
D'ADDA, MARCHESE G. Leonardo e la sua libreria.
Milan, 1873.
ALVISI, E. Cesare Borgia. 1878.
AMORETTI, C. Memorie Storiche su la vita di L. da V.
Milan, 1804.
ARCHIVIO STORICO DELL' ARTE. (Various volumes.)
ART JOURNAL FOR 1894. "The Madonna of the Rocks."
Dr. Richter and Sir E. Poynter.
BELLINCIONI, B. Rime. Milan, 1493.
BELTRAMI, L. II Castello di Milano. Milan, 1894.
BELTRAMI, L. L. da V. e la Sala delle "Asse." Milan, 1902.
BERENSON, B. Florentine Painters of the Renaissance.
London, 1895.
BERENSON, B. The Drawings of the Florentine Painters.
London, 1903.
BODE, W. Italienische Bildhauer der Renaissance. 1887.
BOITO, C. L. da V., Michelangelo, Palladio. Milan, 1883.
Bossi, G. Del Cenacolo di L. da V. Milan, 1810.
xi
xii A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
CALVI, G. L. Notizie del principal! professori di belle arti . . .
Part III. Milan, 1869.
CAMPORI, G. Nuovi documenti per la vita di L. da V.
Modena, 1865.
CARTWRIGHT, JULIA. Beatrice d'Este. London, 1899.
CARTWRIGHT, JULIA. Isabella d'Este. London, 1903.
COOK, H. F. Catalogue of Pictures by Milanese Masters.
Burlington Fine Arts Club. 1899.
COOK, T. A. The Spiral in Nature and Art. London, 1902.
COURAJOD, L. L. de V. et la statue de Francesco Sforza.
Paris, 1879.
DAN, LE PERE. Le Tresor . . . . de Fontainebleau. 1642.
FRESHFIELD, DOUGLAS. Vide Proceedings of Royal Geo-
graphical Society for 1884.
FRIZZONI, G. Arte Italiana nel Rinascimento. Milan, 1891.
FRIZZONI, G. L. da V. und die weiblichen Bildnisse zu Louvre
und Ambrosiana.
Zeitschrift zur Bild. Kunst., N. F. Jahr. V., 1894.
GAVE, J. Carteggio d'Artisti. 1839-1840.
DE GEYMULLER, H. Derniers Travaux sur L. da V.
Gazette des B. A. for 1886.
Govi, G. Intorno a un opuscolo rarissimo. Rome, 1876.
Govi, G. Alcuni frammenti di L. da V.
(Atti della R. Ace. dei Lincei, vol. v., series 3.) 1881.
GRONAU, G. Leonardo da Vinci. London, 1902.
GRUYER, A. L. de V. au Louvre. Gazette des B. A. for 1887.
HEATON, MRS. Life of L. da V. London, 1874.
HORNE, H. P. Vasari's Life, with commentary.
London, 1903.
HOUSSAYE, A. Histoire de L. de V. Paris, 1876.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. Treatise on Painting, trans.
London, 1892.
LOMAZZO, G. P. Trattato dell' arte della Pittura, Scultura ed
Architettura. Milan, 1584-1585, and Rome, 1844.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY xiii
LOMAZZO, G. P. Idea del tempio della pittura. Milan, 1591.
LOMAZZO, G. P. Rime. Milan, 1587.
LUDWIG, H. L. da V. Das Buch von der Malerei.
Vienna, 1882.
Luzio, A. I Precettori d'Isabella d'Este. Ancona, 1887.
MARKS, A. The S. Anne of L. da V. 1882.
MICHEL, E. Le Dessin chez L. de V.
Revue des D. M., Jan. 15, 1901.
MILANESI, G. Document! inediti risguardanti L. da V.
Arch. Stor. Ital., Series III., vol. 16.
MORELLI, G. Italian Painters. London, 1892.
MORELLI, G. Die Gallerie zu Berlin. Leipzig, 1893.
MOTTA, E. Ambrogio Preda e L. da V.
Arch. Stor. Lomb. XX., 1893.
MULLER-WALDE, P. L. da V. Lebenskizze und Forschungen.
Munich, 1889-90
MULLER-WALDE, P. Beitrage zur Kenntnis des L. da V.
Jahrbuch des Klg. Preuss. Kunst, 1897-1899.
MUNTZ, E. Leonardo da Vinci. 2 vols. London, 1898.
Pozzo, CASSIANO DEL. Diarium. (Miintz et Molinier.)
Mem. de la Soc. de PHistoire de Paris, XII., 1886.
v RICHTER, J. P. Leonardo da Vinci. London, 1880.
RICHTER, J. P. The Literary Works of L. da V. 2 vols.
London, 1883.
RIDOLFI, E. Giovanna Tornabuoni e Ginevra de' Benci.
Arch. Stor. Ital., series 5, vol. 6. 1890.
ROSENBERG, A. Leonardo da Vinci. Leipzig, 1898.
SABBA DA CASTIGLIONE. Ricordi. Venice, 1555 and 1561.
SCOGNAMIGLIO, N. S. Ricerche e Doc. sulla Giovinezza di L.
da V. Naples, 1 900.
S&AILLES, G. L. de V., PArtiste et le Savant. Paris, 1892.
SOLMI, E. L. da V. Frammenti Letterari e Filosofici.
Florence, 1899.
SOLMI, E. Leonardo. Florence, 1900
xiv A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
UZIELLI, G. Ricerche intorno a L. da V., series 1-2.
Florence, 1872. Rome, 1884.
UZIELLI, G. Ricerche intorno a L. da V., series i, revised.
Turin, 1896.
VASARI, G. Le Vite. 1550 and 1568.
VASARI, G. Le Vite. (Edit. Milanesi). Florence, 1878-1885.
WOLFF, J. L. da V. als Asthetiker. Strassburg, 1901.
YRIARTE, C. Cesar Borgia. Paris, 1889.
LEONARDO DA VIN^I
PART I
CHAPTER I
THE RECORDS UP TO 1493
IN the taxation return 1 made by Antonio da Vinci for
the year 1457 his household is stated to consist of his
wife, Monna Lucia, aged sixty-four; his son, Ser Piero,.
aged thirty; another son, Francesco, aged twenty-two;
Albiera, the wife of Ser Piero, aged twenty-one; and
Lionardo, illegitimate son of the said Ser Piero, aged five,
whose mother was Chateria (Caterina), who at the time
of the taxation return was the wife of Chartabriga di
Piero del Vaccha, of Vinci.
This is the source of the accepted belief that Leonardo
was born in 1452. It is confirmed by a taxation return
for I469 a in which his age is given as seventeen. The
" Anonimo Fiorentino " says his mother was of gentle
blood. There are several references in Leonardo's MSS.
to Caterina, his housekeeper, and a detailed statement of
the costs of her interment, but there is nothing to suggest
that this Caterina was his mother.
1 Gaye, " Carteggio," i. 223. 2 Uzielli (1872), Doc. III.
B
2 ' LEONARDO DA VINCI
His father, Ser Piero da Vinci, notary to the Signoria
of Florence in 1469 and 1483, represented the fifth con-
secutive generation of his ancestors who had followed the
vocation of notary at Florence, Vinci or Anchiano.
In the year of Leonardo's birth he married Albiera di
Giovanni Amadori, one of a family of the Florentine
nobility. The " Anonimo's " statement as to the status of
Leonardo's mother may be a confusion of this fact.
Ser Piero was married four times, and had eleven
children by his third and fourth wives, the eldest being
born in 1476.
Paolo Giovio says, i" Leonardus^e Vincio ignobili
Etruriae vico."
The village of Vinci lies on the western slope of Monte
Albano, about six miles from Empoli. Tradition fixes
Leonardo's birth at Anchiano, in a low, red-tiled, two-
storied house with yellow plastered rubble walls, which
stands about a mile and a half above Vinci on a spur of
the hills. In a vineyard about twenty yards away from
this house are the foundations of the walls of a smaller
house, pointed out to me as that in which, according to
the Sindaco of Vinci, the birth actually took place. The
position of Vinci, which commands the valley of the Arno,
was of strategic importance in the wars between Florence
and the neighbouring republics. The castle was unsuc-
cessfully besieged by Sir John Hawkwood in 1361, but
after this it appears no more in history. At Vinci, at his
grandfather's house, Leonardo passed the years of his
childhood and youth. Ser Antonio died before 1469,
when the family occupied another house at Vinci and
part of a house at Florence on the site of what is now
the Palazzo Gondi in the Piazza di S. Firenze.
THE RECORDS UP TO 1493 3
At about this date M. Ravaisson-Mollien says con-
jecturally in 1470 Leonardo entered the bottega of
Andrea Verrocchio, where Lorenzo di Credi became his
fellow-pupil, and where he became acquainted with
Botticelli and Perugino. In the beginning of July, 1472,
his name appears in the Red Book of the Debtors and
Creditors of the Company of Painters of Florence as being
then admitted to membership. 1
A pen drawing in the Uffizi of a valley between two
ranges of hills, that on the left crowned by a fortified
town, is inscribed " the day of S. Mary of the Snow, the
5th day of August, 1473." It is the earliest of Leonardo's
dated work. His method of writing is already from right
to left. The festival of " S. Mary of the Snow " was a
customary one in Italy, where are many churches with
this dedication. We may instance that in Siena, built by
Francesco di Giorgio. Professor Uzielli says the scene
recalls the valley of the Arno under Montelupo, with
Monte Albano and the Pisan hills. The resemblance
though not exact is considerable ; the landscape is, at
any rate, Tuscan in character.
He is mentioned in two documents dated I476, 2 and
was then still living with Verrocchio.
To the following year M. Ravaisson-Mollien would
assign the date of his leaving Verrocchio's bottega and
the commencement of his period of service under Lorenzo
de' Medici, of which the " Anonimo Fiorentino " speaks.
On the ist of January, 1478,' he received a commission -
for an altarpiece for the chapel of S. Bernard in the
1 Uzielli (1872), Doc. V.
8 Scognamiglio, Doc. XVI., XVII.
* "Arch. Stor. Ital.," Series III. vol. xvi.
4 LEONARDO DA VINCI
Palazzo Vecchio. On the i6th of March he was paid
twenty-five florins on account of this work. Only eight
days before giving the commission to Leonardo, the
Signoria had bestowed it upon Piero del Pollaiuolo. The
suddenness of the change in their decision suggests that
the influence of Lorenzo de' Medici had been exerted on
behalf of his protege. But the work was never executed,
and the Signoria, after waiting five years, gave the com-
mission to Domenico Ghirlandaio, and finally to Filippino
Lippi, who completed it in 1485.
In March, 1480^ Leonardo was commissioned by the
monks of S. Donato at Scopeto, outside the Porta Romana,
to paint the altarpiece for the high altar. The time allowed
for the work was twenty-four or at most thirty months.
In case he failed to complete it within this time the monks
reserved power to terminate the contract without com-
pensation. His remuneration was fixed as a third of a
small property in the Val d'Elsa, or at the discretion of
the monks 300 florins. He undertook to provide his own
colours and gold and all other materials. The records of
the monastery mention the advance of various sums on
account for colours, and in July, 1481, the sending to him
at Florence a load of wood and I lira 6 soldi for painting
the clock. Whatever progress the work may have made,
it was never completed, and in 1496 the monks gave the
commission to Filippino Lippi. He painted for them the
Adoration of the Magi now in the Uffizi.
There is no direct evidence as to the subject of
1 "Arch. Stor. Ital.," Series III., vol. xvi. The memorandum is
dated July, 1481. Its opening words show the date of the commis-
sion: "Lionardo di Ser Piero da Vinci si a tolto a dipignere tffia
nostra Pala per 1'altare magiore per infino di marzo 1480, . . ."
1
Alinariphoto} . f [Accademia, Florence
THE ANGELS IN THE "BAPTISM OF CHRIST"
Plate i
THE RECORDS UP TO 1493 5
Leonardo's composition for either of these commissions.
The fact of Leonardo's unfinished picture of the Adoration
of the Magi in the Uffizi being almost exactly similar in
size to Filippino's picture, and that size the very unusual
one of an almost exact square, suggests that they were
intended for the same altarpiece, and that Filippino, in
taking up Leonardo's commission, also took his subject.
It is also possible to trace a direct connection between
the two pictures. In the figure kneeling before the Virgin,
immediately to the right, Filippino has very closely re-
produced in reverse profile the features and pose of head
of the youngest of the Magi in Leonardo's picture.
M. Miintz holds that Leonardo's picture for the monks
of S. Donato was more advanced than the Uffizi cartoon,
which is only a sketch in bistre, and the records of the
monastery show that ultramarine was provided for
Leonardo's work. But the entry of the ultramarine is a
month previous to the payment to Leonardo for painting
the clock, and is probably connected with it.
The subject of an altarpiece for a chapel of S. Bernard
would presumably refer to the saint, as did the former
altarpiece by Bernardo Daddi and that executed in 1485
by Filippino Lippi, which was placed in the Sala del
Consiglio instead of the chapel. It is now in the Uffizi.
It represents the Madonna enthroned with S. Victor,
S. John the Baptist, S. Bernard and S. Zenobius.
The " Anonimo Fiorentino " refers to it in the life of
Filippino: " He painted in the lesser council chamber of
the Palace of the Signoria the altarpiece containing a
Madonna with other figures which Leonardo had com-
menced to paint"; and in the life of Leonardo he says it
was finished by Filippino from his cartoon. The com-
6 LEONARDO DA VINCI
position of the picture gives no support to these state-
ments. Can their origin have been a similarity in subject?
A pen drawing in the Uffizi (No. 446) of an old man's
head in right profile, and a head of a young man in
left profile with shaven crown looking up, has below
it a note partly torn, "... bre 1478 ichomiciai le. 2.
Vgine Marie." The preceding letter partly visible was I
believe o. The month, from its termination, must be one
of the last four, say, " October 1478 I commenced the
two of the Virgin Mary."
The younger of the two heads is connected with
S. Leonard in the Berlin Ascension of Christ ', which is
the work of a pupil who took the head from the
drawing.
The other head presents strong analogies to one of an
old man in a sheet of studies for the Adoration in the
British Museum.
Both heads might in fact be studies for the Adoration^
the youthful head having a strong resemblance to the
figure seen in profile with raised right hand on the right
of the Madonna in the Uffizi cartoon.
But 1478 is the year of the commission for the chapel
of S. Bernard for which the picture which he began con-
tained, according to the " Anonimo," " a Madonna with
other figures." The most natural interpretation of this
note is that it refers to studies for this composition,
marking the date at which Leonardo commenced two
alternative cartoons.
The younger of the two heads may be a study for the
same composition. The devout upturned gaze suggests
S. Bernard beholding the Madonna in vision. The char-
acteristics of the face are not dissimilar to the far less
THE RECORDS UP TO 1493 7
dramatic presentation of the saint in Filippino's picture
in the Uffizi.
A drawing in the collection of M. Bonnat can also
with certainty be ascribed to this period. It represents
the body of a young man hanging suspended from a
rope, with long loose garments, with his hands bound
behind his back. The face is sketched again at the
bottom of the sheet. Above the drawing is the note:
" Small tan-coloured cap, black satin doublet, lined black
jerkin, blue cloak lined with fur of foxes' breasts, and
the collar of the cloak covered with velvet speckled black
and red ; Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli ; black hose."
This ringleader in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, who
was the first to stab Giuliano de' Medici, escaped from
the fury of the populace and fled to Constantinople, but
was given up by the Sultan to Lorenzo's emissaries, taken
back to Florence and hanged from a window of the
Bargello on the 29th of December, 1479. The drawing
proves that Leonardo was then in Florence. The details
of the description suggest that the sketch was intended
to serve as material for a picture.
Vasari mentions a decree of the Signoria that the
traitors should be painted in fresco on the fagade of the
Bargello, but attributes the execution of the work to
Andrea del Castagno, who at the time of the conspiracy
had already been dead twenty years. The real author-
ship is established by an entry in the minutes of the
Council of Eight, dated 2ist July, 1478, sanctioning the
payment of forty florins to Botticelli for his labour in
painting the traitors.
The " Anonimo Fiorentino " says that Bernardo di Ban-
dim was represented in Botticelli's fresco hanging by the
8 LEONARDO DA VINCI
neck with a condemnatory epitaph below; but as he was
then still a fugitive, this can only have been an anticipation
of the event of which Leonardo's drawing is a record.
Leonardo, from his connection with Lorenzo, might very
conceivably have been associated with Botticelli in the
commission or selected to add to his work.
That he no longer lived as a member of his father's
household is evidenced by the fact that in Ser Piero's
taxation return for 1480 his name does not occur. The
documents already cited establish his presence in Florence
in 1472, 1476, 1478, 1480, and as late as August, 1481.
The next time-references of equal definiteness relate
to the year 1487. He was then already established in
Milan. Bernardo Bellincioni alludes to him in a poem,
" La Visione," among the illustrious men whom Ludovic
has gathered at his Court,
Da Fiorenza un Apelle ha qui condotto.
The reference is explained in a note at the side as
" Magister Lionardo da uinci." The poem must have
been written in 1487 on account of the description in it
of Gian Galeazzo, who was born in 1468, as being then
about nineteen years old ("egli e gia d' anni presso
a quattro lustri ").
Sabba da Castiglione (i485?-i554), in his " Ricordi,"
says that Leonardo was at work on the Sforza statue
for sixteen years continuously. 1 This argues his presence
in Milan in 1483, as he had quitted the city by the close
of the year 1499.
The date tallies with the statement of the " Anonimo
1 " Ricordi" (1561), 115 v., " Si occupo nella forma del cavallo di
Milano, ove sedici anni continui consume."
THE RECORDS UP TO 1493 9