III
Next we come to the drafts of Leonardo's two letters in his own handwriting, addressed respectively to The Maréchal Chaumont, Governor of Milan, and to The Superintendent of Canals. They were written in Florence, where he was on leave in 1511, and in each he says he hopes to be back in Milan at Easter and bring with him two pictures. In his letter to Chaumont he describes them as 'due quadri di due nostre donne di varie grandezze, le quali son fatte pel cristianissimo nostre re,' which translated means, 'two pictures of two of our ladies of different size which are made for our most Christian King.'[1] In the first draft of his letter to the Superintendent, he says, 'due quadri di nostra donna chi io o' comiciate' (two pictures of our lady which I commenced). In the second draft he corrects it to 'due quadri done sono due Nostre donne di varie grandezze le quali io o' comiciate pel cristianissimo re' (two pictures on which are two of our ladies of different size, the which I commenced for our most Christian King). In each draft he says they are for the most Christian King or 'whomsoever you please.' But in Chaumont's letter he calls them 'two pictures of two of our ladies,' as also in the altered second draft to the Superintendent, while again in Chaumont's he says they are finished and in the other two they are only commenced. The alteration from 'two pictures of our lady' in the first draft, to 'two pictures of two of our ladies' in the second draft of his letter to the Superintendent, is a very significant fact. These sentences have been translated as meaning two pictures of the Madonna, or Blessed Virgin, which, I maintain, is wrong. Translated accurately, they signify 'two pictures of two of our ladies '; not—mind you—two pictures of our lady, but two pictures of two of our ladies,[2] and who ever heard of two 'pictures of our two Blessed Virgins'? Besides,
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- ↑ 'Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci,' by J. P. Richter (vol. 2, pp. 404-5).
- ↑ In the 'Life of Da Vinci,' by John William Brown, London, 1828 (p. 285), the translation is 'two of our ladies here.' They are described as Deux beaux portraits de femme in the 'Biographie Universelle' (vol. 43, p. 563).
