of Antonio, to Messer Giovanni Gaddi,[1] with the following lines:—
Pinxit Virgilius Neptunum, pinxit Homerus;
Dum maris undisoni per vada flectit equos.
Mente quidem rates ilium conspexit uterque,
Vincius ast oculis; jureque vincit eos.
Leonardo also had a fancy to paint the head of a Medusa in oil, to which he gave a circlet of twining serpents by way of head-dress; the most strange and extravagant invention that could possibly be conceived: but as this was a work requiring time, so it happened to the Medusa as to so many other of his works, it was never finished. The head here described is now among the most distinguished possessions in the palace of the Duke Cosimo,[2] together with the half length figure of an angel raising one arm in the air; this arm, being foreshortened from the shoulder to the elbow, comes forward, while the hand of the other arm is laid on the breast.[3] It is worthy of admiration that this great genius, desiring to give the utmost possible relief to the works executed by him, laboured constantly, not content with his darkest shadows, to discover the ground tone of others still darker; thus he sought a black that should produce a deeper shadow, and be yet darker than all other known blacks, to the end that the lights might by these means be rendered still more lucid, until he finally produced that totally dark shade, in which there is absolutely no light left, and objects have more the appearance of things seen by night, than the clearness of forms perceived by the light of day, but all this was done with the purpose of giving greater relief, and of discovering and attaining to the ultimate perfection of art.
Leonardo was so much pleased when he encountered faces
- ↑ The collections of the Gaddi family having been dispersed, the fate of this work is now unknown.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ Still in excellent preservation in the Florentine Gallery of the Uffizj; it will be found in the room wherein are the smaller pictures of the Tuscan school. An outline engraving of this work may be seen in the first series of the Gallerie di Firenze illustrata, tom. iii. tav. cxxviii.
- ↑ This picture was long believed to be lost, but was found in the hands of a broker, by a dealer in and restorer of j^ictures; it was much injured, and though seen by many connoisseurs, was not supposed to be a work of Leonardo, but the dealer, “having given it a plausible appearance, sold it as such to a Russian of high rank.” For further details, see Passavant.
