But in the St. John the 'over-ripeness' is so marked, that Dr. Thiis cannot accept it as Leonardo's work. Yet the St. John and the St. Anne were painted at Cloux, where the Louvre Mona Lisa was also finished. All three are undoubtedly 'closely connected with the ageing Leonardo,' to use the words of Dr. Thiis, and at this very time, the Cardinal of Aragon's secretary tells us, Leonardo was ably assisted by 'a Milanese pupil who works exceedingly well,' and who, no doubt, was a member of the master's 'numerous school who readily took the one step further' of 'over-ripeness,' as Dr. Thiis asserts.
Again, M. Coppier insists: 'It is not the Mona Lisa that has just returned to the Gallery of the Louvre, but the ideal conception of the greatest master of the Renaissance, the most perfect sister of the St. Anne and the St. John.'[1] M. Gruyer endorses this: 'These three pictures,' he says, 'are of the same art, the same spirit, the same style, the same period.'[2] Michelet, the great French historian, classes the Mona Lisa with the St. John and the Bacchus. Theophile Gautier calmly assures us that there is 'a shade of mischief mingling in the smile' of the Mother of Christ in the Louvre Vièrge aux Rochers, while Passavant described it as 'probably a copy.' Waagen attributes the Louvre St. Anne to one of Leonardo's pupils, because 'the smile is so exaggerated and affected'; and Dr. Gronau admits that this same smile resembles that in the Mona Lisa! Rosenberg declares the master's 'hand traceable in the picture, which was certainly painted under his supervision and with his help.' Müntz extols the 'wonderful little St. John the Baptist,' calls it a 'master piece,' but admits it was 'certainly one of Leonardo's last works.'
The later critics and biographers refuse to attribute the St. John in the Louvre to Leonardo, while they have completely discarded the
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