of extraordinary character, or heads, beards or hair of unusual appearance, that he would follow any such, more than commonly attractive, through the whole day, until the figure of the person would become so well impressed on his mind that, having returned home, he would draw him as readily as though he stood before him. Of heads thus obtained there exist many, both masculine and feminine; and I have myself several of them drawn with a pen by his own hand, in the book of drawings so frequently cited. Among these is the head of Amerigo Vespucci, which is a very beautiful one of an old man, done with eharcoal, as also that of the Gypsy Captain Scaramuccia, which had been left by Gianbullari to Messer Donato Valdambrini, of Arezzo, Canon of San Lorenzo.[1] A picture representing the Adoration of the Magi was likewise commenced by Leonardo, and is among the best of his works, more especially as regards the heads; it was in the house of Amerigo Benci, opposite the Loggia of the Peruzzi, but like so many of the other works of Leonardo, this also remained unfinished.[2]
On the death of Giovanni Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, in the year 1493, Ludovico Sforza was chosen in the same year to be his successor, when Leonardo was invited with great honour to Milan by the Duke, who delighted greatly in the music of the lute, to the end that the master might play before him;[3] Leonardo therefore took with him a certain in-
- ↑ The fate of these works cannot be ascertained with certainty; there are many of the kind here described, and known to be by Leonardo, in the British Museum. Other drawings by this master are in ttie possession of Lord Arundel. A considerable number of his caricatures have been engraved.—See Variae figurae monstrosae a Leon, da Vinci delineatae aere inc. a Jacobo Sandrart. Ratisbon, 1654; see also Gerli, as cited above. Lomazzo, Trattato della Pittura, relates that he was himself present at a supper to which Leonardo had invited a number of peasants, whom he diverted by stories which made them laugh immoderately, and display the most extravagant contortions; the artist then withdrew, and reproduced the faces thus distorted, with an effect so irresistibly comic, that none could look at them without laughter.
- ↑ Now in the Uffizj, in the larger Hall of the Tuscan School. There is an outline engraving of this work also, in the Gallerie di Firenze, &c., above cited.—Serie 1, tom. ii. tav. lxxxviii.
- ↑ For the question of when Leonardo first repaired to Milan, and details respecting his works undertaken there, see Amoretti, Memorie Storiche sulla Vita di Leonardo, &c.
