. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science. ing-ton Museum, formerlyin the Gigli-Campanacollection, a young SaintJohn the Baptist, halflength, with thick hair,bare neck and arms, anda strip of sheeps skinacross the breast, dis-plays the Leonardesquetype in every point. If Itcannot with certainty beattributed to the youth-ful master, it may at leastshow us what the styleof his first Florentinesculptures probably was. After 1478, we feel we are at last on firm ground. A drawing inthe Uffizi, to which M. Charles Ravaisson first called attention,furnishes us with some particularly val
. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science. ing-ton Museum, formerlyin the Gigli-Campanacollection, a young SaintJohn the Baptist, halflength, with thick hair,bare neck and arms, anda strip of sheeps skinacross the breast, dis-plays the Leonardesquetype in every point. If Itcannot with certainty beattributed to the youth-ful master, it may at leastshow us what the styleof his first Florentinesculptures probably was. After 1478, we feel we are at last on firm ground. A drawing inthe Uffizi, to which M. Charles Ravaisson first called attention,furnishes us with some particularly valuable indications bearing uponLeonardos work after he left Verrocchio. This drawing, inscribedwith the date In question, shows us that by this time the young masterhad already addressed himself to the study of those character-heads,beautiful or the reverse, which were destined to occupy so large aplace in his work. He has sketched the portrait of a man aboutsixty, with a hooked nose, a bold and prominent chin, a very forcibly^ Richter, vol. ii. p. PORTRAIT(Malcolm Collect \ Museum.) 58 LEONARDO DA VINCI modelled throat ; the expression is energetic, and the whole compositionas free as it is assured. All trace of archaism has disappeared ; theflexibility of the treatment is extraordinary ; the supreme difficultiesin the interpretation of the human countenance are triumphantlysurmounted. Tne sketch of 1478, somewhat softened, becomes themarvellous study in red chalk, also in the Uffizi (No. 150 of Braunsphotographs). Opposite to this head, which attracts all eyes, there isa head of a young man, very lightly sketched, with those flowing,languorous lines which are the very essence of Leonardos art. Besidethis are sketches of mill-wheels, and something like an embryo turbine—the complete Leonardo already revealed. On the .... 1478, Ibegan the two Virgins, is written above the drawing. We do notknow which these two Madonnas were, and their identity opens upa w
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