The study and criticism of Italian art . swan would haveshocked me by their naturalism and over-display ofabdominal rotundities. But all these doubts, questionings, and spiritualcombats might have remained confined to my breast—a breast once so subject to incantations and stillfilled with a pietas tending to make me loyal to theancient gods. But one unhappy day I was calledupon to see the Benois Madonna, a picture thathad turned up in Russia some few years ago, andhas since been acquired by the Hermitage. I found myself confronted by a young womanwith a bald forehead and puffed cheek, a toothl
The study and criticism of Italian art . swan would haveshocked me by their naturalism and over-display ofabdominal rotundities. But all these doubts, questionings, and spiritualcombats might have remained confined to my breast—a breast once so subject to incantations and stillfilled with a pietas tending to make me loyal to theancient gods. But one unhappy day I was calledupon to see the Benois Madonna, a picture thathad turned up in Russia some few years ago, andhas since been acquired by the Hermitage. I found myself confronted by a young womanwith a bald forehead and puffed cheek, a toothlesssmile, blear eyes, and furrowed throat. The uncanny,anile apparition plays with a child who looks like ahollow mask fixed on inflated body and limbs. Thehands are wretched, the folds purposeless and fussy,the colour like whey. And yet I had to acknowledgethat this painful affair was the work of Leonardo daVinci. It was hard, but the effort freed me, and the in-dignation I felt gave me the resolution to proclaimmy freedom. LEONARDO. {Hermitage, Petrograd. THE BENOIS MADONNA - LEONARDO II Of course there remains something to be said indefence, in extenuation and in explanation; and atthe end there may appear a Leonardo quite dif-ferent from the sorcerer held up by an uncriticaladmiration. But first I feel called upon to meet the objectionsure to be raised against one like myself, supposedto subordinate illustration to decoration, for being atthe trouble to attack Leonardos fame as an illus-trator. To begin with, and as a matter of fact, it hasnever been my intention to advocate the view thatillustration and expression were of no my Florentine Painters, published more thantwenty years ago, I laid as much stress upon spiritual significance as I did upon movement and tactile values. But the last term was new,mysterious, and promising, and thus ended by at-tracting all the attention, the more so that I hadtaken the human interest and ethical appeal in worksof art
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