Messer Gio. Batista Strozzi has spoken to his praise in the following words:—
Vince costui pur solo
Tutti altri, e vince Fidia, e vince Apelle,
E tulto il lor vittorioso stuolo[1]
The Milanese artist, Gio. Antonio Boltraffio,[2] was a disciple of Leonardo; he was an intelligent and able master, and, in the year 1500, he painted a picture in oil in the church of the Misericordia, outside the city of Bologna. The subject of this work is Our Lady, with the Child in her arms; there are besides figures of San Giovanni Battista, San Bastiano (Sebastian), a nude figure, and that of the person for whom the work was executed, painted in a kneeling position; a truly admirable picture, on which the artist inscribed his name, with the fact of his being a disciple of Leonardo. The same painter executed many other works
- ↑
He alone
Vanquished all others. Phidias be surpassed,
Surpassed Apelles, and the conquering troop
Of their proud followers.
“Another was also added,” observes Vasari in his first edition, “which was
indeed to his honour,” and runs thus;—
leonardus vincius
impensis curaverunt.
quid ulura? divinum ingenium
divina manus
emori in sinu regio meruere
virtus et fortuna hoc monumentum
contingere graviss.
Et gentem et patriam noscis, tibi gloria et ingens
Nota est; tegitur nam Leonardus humo.
Perspicuas picturae umbras, oleoque colorcs
Illius ante alios docta manus posuit,
Imprimere ille hominum, divum quoque corpora in aere;
Et pictis animam fingere novit equis.
- ↑ Or Beltraffio. He died in 1510, at the age of forty-nine.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, edition of 1849. The Trattato della Pittura of Leonardo was translated into English and published, in London in 1721. The following are among the principal literary works of this master:—A Treatise on Hydraulics; (those on the Human Anatomy and that of the Horse, have been mentioned in the text;) a Treatise on Perspective, and one on Light and Shade, with a work on Architecture, already alluded to.
