. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science;. eonard-esque, because Leonardorecorded its perfection,is still to be met in allits beauty about theLago Maggiore and theLake of Como. The intellectual dif-ferences between theMilanese and the Flor-entines did not weig-hless heavily in thebalance. At ]\Iilan,Leonardo found a publicunaccustomed to criticiseand prone to enthu-siasm : qualities mostprecious to a man ofimagination, to an artistwith whom freshness ofimpression and indepen-dence of form meant somuch. Subjected to the demands of the Florentine studios, Art, on thebanks of the A
. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science;. eonard-esque, because Leonardorecorded its perfection,is still to be met in allits beauty about theLago Maggiore and theLake of Como. The intellectual dif-ferences between theMilanese and the Flor-entines did not weig-hless heavily in thebalance. At ]\Iilan,Leonardo found a publicunaccustomed to criticiseand prone to enthu-siasm : qualities mostprecious to a man ofimagination, to an artistwith whom freshness ofimpression and indepen-dence of form meant somuch. Subjected to the demands of the Florentine studios, Art, on thebanks of the Arno, had fallen into affectation or extravagance (on thissubject see p. 20). The one idea of the Tuscans was to astonish bysubtlety of contrivance or boldness of design : beauty pure and simpleseemed to them commonplace. Mannerism triumphed all along theline: with Botticelli, with Filippino Lippi, with Pollajuolo. Eachoutvied the other in torturing his style, in showing himself more com-plex and more inventive than his neighbour. The artistic coteries T. (Windsor Library.) 138 LEONARDO DA VINCI of Florence devoted themselves to artificial research, and v^^eregoverned by conventional formulae ; dexterity took the place of convic-tion, and everything was reduced to calculation, or to merely technicalskill ; in short, no one could be simple or natural, and so eloquence, inthe best sense, was a lost quality. At Milan, on the other hand, imaginations were still fertile andfresh ; if there was less science, there was more sincerity. Whatlife and youth breathe from the sculptures of the Pavian Certosa, initself a world ! A superior genius was bound, not only to animate andfertilise such germs, but to refresh his own spirit, in this new andinvigorating atmosphere. In fact, the unresting mental activitypeculiar to the Florentine, his conscious and deliberate effort, generatednaturally a race of draughtsmen, while the soft languor, the nativegrace, the exquisite suavity inherent in the M
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