Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . s. Mente quidem vates ilium conspexit uterque,Vincius ast oculis ; jureque vincit eos. The central part of this composition is probably shown in themagnificent drawing from the Windsor Library, reproduced vol. i.,p. 140.^ No words can describe the life and movement, the intensity,the fancy, overflowing yet restrained, of this fragment. Every lineis melodious, eloquent, and triumphant. We have every reason to suppose that Leonardo was also workingat this period on his picture of Lcda. Nothing can exceed the obscurity which veils the histo
Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . s. Mente quidem vates ilium conspexit uterque,Vincius ast oculis ; jureque vincit eos. The central part of this composition is probably shown in themagnificent drawing from the Windsor Library, reproduced vol. i.,p. 140.^ No words can describe the life and movement, the intensity,the fancy, overflowing yet restrained, of this fragment. Every lineis melodious, eloquent, and triumphant. We have every reason to suppose that Leonardo was also workingat this period on his picture of Lcda. Nothing can exceed the obscurity which veils the history of thiscomposition. We know—and this through an anonymous bio-grapher ^—that the master did paint this subject ; and Lomazzo Miiller-Walde, p. 88, no. 48. The Nc]>Uine in chariot drawn by sea-horses maybe compared with the analogous subject represented by the miniaturist Attavante in thefrontispiece of the Missal of Mathias Corvinus {La Renaissance au temps de Charles Y FIL,p. 384). ^ De Fabriczy, Il Codice delFAnonimo (Jaddiaiio, p. AN OLD COlY OF THE LEDA. (Ill the di Rubles Collection.) i66 LEONARDO DA VINCI informs us that he represented Leda nude, with the swan on herbreast, her e^es modestly downcast The picture, he adds, was atFontainebleau, with the Mona Lisa} In a recent article in the fahrhucli, H err Muller-Walde haspointed out, on a sheet of the Codex Atlaiiticiis, which every studentof Leonardo had handled and fingered without discovering anythingat all, the painters original sketch for the lost masterpiece. Therecan be no doubt about the matter. The sketch, though micro-scopic in dimensions, contains the germ of the whole idea of theLcda. She stands erect, holding in her left arm (the side of theheart) a confused mass which is easily recognisable as Jupiter underthe form of a bird. This subject was subsequently worked out by Leonardo in severaldrawings now in the Windsor Library, and more particularly in somestudies of heads, in which
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