. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science;. His reputation was now so far estab-lished that in March, 14S1, the monksof the rich monastery of San Donatoat Scopeto, beyond the Porta Romana,commissioned him to paint the altar-piece for their high altar, la pala perIaltare maggiore. - In August, 1481, he was settled in his ownhouse, casa sua propria, at Floience. MuUer-\Va\de,/a/irùuc/i der kg. Preuss. Kiinstsammluiigen, 1897, p. 121. - The time allowed him for the completion ofthe altar-piece was two, or two and a half years. He was to receive in payment the thirdof a little proper
. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science;. His reputation was now so far estab-lished that in March, 14S1, the monksof the rich monastery of San Donatoat Scopeto, beyond the Porta Romana,commissioned him to paint the altar-piece for their high altar, la pala perIaltare maggiore. - In August, 1481, he was settled in his ownhouse, casa sua propria, at Floience. MuUer-\Va\de,/a/irùuc/i der kg. Preuss. Kiinstsammluiigen, 1897, p. 121. - The time allowed him for the completion ofthe altar-piece was two, or two and a half years. He was to receive in payment the thirdof a little property in the Val d^Elsa, but the abbey reserved the right of redeeming thisthird within a term of two years, for 300 florins di suggello. Finally, on this third,Leonardo undertook to furnish the sum necessary to secure a dowry of 150 florins onthe Monte di Iiuta of Florence for a young girl mentioned in the act. He was alsobound to provide his own colours, gold, &c. The monastery of San Donato, which contained pictures by Filii)pino Lippi, Botticelli-. STUDY FOR the AUUK.^TIQN(JF iHB MAGI. (The Louvre.) 62 LEONARDO DA VINCI The artist set to work at once, but yielding to a fatal tendency—hewas all flame at the beginning, all ice at the end of a few weeks—hesoon put the unfinished work aside.^ The monks waited patiently forabout fifteen years. At last, in despair, they addressed themselves toFilippino Lippi. In 1496 he, more expeditious than Leonardo,delivered the beautiful Adoration of the Magi, the brilliant andanimated work that now hangs in the same room with Leonardosunfinished cartoon in the Ufifizi. From the fact that the subject givento Filippino was the Adoration of the Magi, it was concluded that thiswas also the subject of the altar-piece begun by Leonardo ; hence theidentification of the cartoon with that in the Uffizi. True, the worksol the two artists are almost of the same size, a fact that has escapedmy predecessors. Signor Ferri, Keeper of the Prints and Drawi
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