But now let us see how many years Leonardo could have devoted to painting the Mona Lisa, and why it was left unfinished. As a matter of fact, he never spent on it four years in 'toiling' or in 'assiduous labour,' as Vasari and Müntz state; for does not Fra Nuvolaria aver that as early as March, 1501, Leonardo was devoting his whole time to mathematical studies, which had 'so drawn him away from painting that he cannot endure to use his brush'? Was it not just prior to this that he got the Servite Monks to transfer to him the order they had given to Filippino for the altar-piece in their church, for which Leonardo drew the St. Anne cartoon, but he never got any further, and the monks had again to have recourse to Filippino, who died before completing it?[1] McCurdy points out that the two historians of Caesare Borgia suggest that Leonardo was engaged in his service in the autumn of 1501. Then again in August, 1502, Caesare Borgia appointed Leonardo his engineer-in-chief;[2] but before the appointment was ratified he had already commenced his inspection of fortresses, and during that year he visited Urbino, Pasaro, Rimini, Cesina, and Cessimatico. No sooner had he finished this work than the Signoria of Florence in 1503 sent him to the Florentine encampment near Pisa, which he himself said 'placed him in his own element.'[3] On his return from Pisa he immediately under took the commission of the Signoria for the painting of the Battle of Anghiari on the wall of the Sala del Consiglio in the Palazzo Vecchio, to which he devoted the whole of his time during the years 1504, 1505, and part of 1506,[4] with the exception of the time spent in his short visit to Rome in 1505. In the autumn of 1506 he finally left Florence for Milan without finishing—as usual—the Anghiari battle picture. It must be admitted that his father's death on July 9, 1504, brought him much family trouble; but quite independent of this, it was Leonardo's besetting sin seldom to finish anything he commenced.[5] But Leonardo must not be too severely reproached if
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- ↑ Vasari's 'Lives of the Most Eminent Painters' (vol. 4, p. 100).
- ↑ 'This was the first occasion, probably, on which Leonardo da Vinci was permitted to realize a long-cherished dream, that of giving practical evidence of his skill in the art of war. For long this had been his supreme ambition.' (Müntz, vol. 2, p. 118.)
- ↑ 'Leonardo da Vinci.' Monograph by Adolf Rosenberg (p. 105).
- ↑ Richter's 'Leonardo' (p. 78).
- ↑ 'He began a panel-picture of the Adoration of the Magi . . . and this also remained unfinished like his other works.' Vasari (vol. 4, p. 95). 'He soon put it (St. Anne) aside half finished, as he did with so many other pictures.' Müntz (vol. 2, p. 1x8). 'How far greater would have been his success in Art had he not habitually abandoned his designs and left his pictures in part unfinished.' Richter's ' Life of Leonardo' (p. 73). 'He never produced finished works, although after the first manifestation of his genius he was overwhelmed with commissions by dignitaries of churches, convents, by governments, princes, noble families, with the result that, after waiting for years, they received nothing. ... Of all his plans, of all his commissions he received, one, and one only, was carried out: the celebrated Last Supper.' Rosenberg (pp. 13, 14, and 48).
