master. I considered it with the utmost attention; landskip, and every part, and find it the same as my father's in every respect; the same particularly in the colouring of the hands, as distinguished from that of the face: so that at that distance I could remember no difference, nor can I tell which I should chuse.'[1]
Now I come to the last, and the latest, though by no means the least, of the authorities that I purpose dealing with. Dr. Jens Thiis, in his very able book upon Leonardo's early work, makes but a short reference to the famous picture under discussion when he says:—
'In the portrait of Mona Lisa we delight in the wonderful sweetness that is inseparable from the most perfect maturity; but one step further, and over-ripeness supervenes, and the sweetness acquires a nauseating after-taste. Leonardo's numerous school readily took this step. In a picture such as St. John the Baptist, in the Louvre, which is closely connected with the ageing Leonardo, but can scarcely have been painted by his own hand, the overripeness has already set in, and a tainted flavour accompanies the charm.'[2]
With the utmost respect for Dr. Thiis's opinion, I maintain that 'the one step further' is discernible in the Louvre Mona Lisa, and 'over-ripeness supervenes,' though to a much less extent than in the St. John. For what says the great French historian Michelet of the Louvre Mona Lisa? He calls it a 'dangerous picture,' and classes it with the St. John and the Bacchus, both at that time attributed to Leonardo; but which are now admittedly not his but his pupil's.
'This canvas,' he says, 'entices me, calls me, usurps me, absorbs me; I go to it in spite of myself, as the bird goes to the serpent. . . . There is a strange look of Alcina's Island[3] in the eyes of La Joconde, gracious and smiling phantom. You would believe her attentively reading the airy stories of Boccaccio.'[4]
- ↑ 'Mr. Richardson's Account of Statues and Pictures, Bas-reliefs and Drawings, in Italy, France, etc' London, MDCCXXII (p. 16).
- ↑ 'Leonardo da Vinci,' by Dr. Jens Thiis (p. 62).
- ↑
'Thou, too, that to this fatal Isle art led
By way unwonted and till now unknown,
That some possessor of the fairy's bed
May be for thee transformed to wave or stone,
Thou shalt, with more than mortal pleasures fed,
Have from Alcina seigniory and throne;
But shalt be sure to join the common flock,
Transformed to beast or fountain, plant or rock.'Canto vi. verse lii. Ariosto's 'Orlando Furioso.' Translated by W. Rose, London, 1858.
- ↑ 'Histoire de France' (vol. 9, pp. 88, 89, 90), par Jules Michelet, Paris, 1879. See Appendix 5. M. Gruyer says: 'She has been regarded in turn as the most charming or the most perfidious of women.' See Appendix 4.
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