in which all the resources of his art and all the experience of ripened years are gathered up. Very few of his preliminary studies, however, remain. The red chalk drawing in the Accademia at Venice, with the names of the different apostles, is one of the earliest, and some single heads in the library at Windsor are of great beauty, while some curious descriptive notes indicating the attitude of each apostle, in Leonardo's own handwriting, are preserved at South Kensington Museum.
"One, in the act of drinking, puts down his glass and turns his head to the speaker. Another, twisting his fingers together, turns to his companion, knitting his eyebrows. Another, opening his hands and turning the palm towards the spectator, shrugs his shoulders, his mouth expressing the liveliest surprise. Another whispers in the ear of a companion, who turns to listen, holding in one hand a knife, and in the other a loaf, which he has cut in two. Another, turning round with a knife in his hand, upsets a glass upon the table and looks; another gasps in amazement; another leans forward to look at the speaker, shading his eyes with his hand; another, drawing back behind the one who leans forward, looks into the space between the wall and the stooping disciple."
This first realistic conception, which curiously recalls Andrea del Castagno's fresco in Sant' Apollonia of Florence, was gradually transformed by the fine action of Leonardo's imagination into the noble and harmonious scene that is familiar to us all. There is consummate art in the grouping and gestures of the figures, in the simple tunics and mantles of the apostles, and the plain fittings of the upper chamber, with its timbered roof and
