Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . cil undertook to pay him fifteenflorins a month (about ^30 lo^.) from April 20, 1504. If the artisthad not finished his work by the end of February, 1505, he wasbound to return all the money, and to make over his cartoon tothe Signory. The execution of the paintings was to be the subject According to Vasari, Leonardo invented a very ingenious machine for tlie drawingof this cartoon. It rose up when it was compressed, and sank when it was drawn out. RIVALRY OF LEONARDO AND MM H1\N(;1:F,0 37 of a special contract (here follow several u
Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . cil undertook to pay him fifteenflorins a month (about ^30 lo^.) from April 20, 1504. If the artisthad not finished his work by the end of February, 1505, he wasbound to return all the money, and to make over his cartoon tothe Signory. The execution of the paintings was to be the subject According to Vasari, Leonardo invented a very ingenious machine for tlie drawingof this cartoon. It rose up when it was compressed, and sank when it was drawn out. RIVALRY OF LEONARDO AND MM H1\N(;1:F,0 37 of a special contract (here follow several uninteresting clauses).Then we have purchases of plaster, of Alexandrian ceruse, of paper(one ream and twenty-nine quires of royal folio), eighty-eight poundsof flour for pasting the said paper, and a bed sheet of three widthsto edge it.^ Competition is a word which has often been used in thecourse of references to the famous struggle between those two giantsof art, Leonardo and Michelangelo. The term, as a matter of fact, isquite inapplicable. Com- Vtf. petition indicates a pre-ference shown to one party,an elimination of the of the sort occursin this case. Each rivalreceives his own separateorder, each treats his sepa-rate subject, each has thecertain hope of seeing hishandiwork shine in per-petual glory in the chiefhall of the ancient muni-cipal Palace. The compe-tition, if such there be, ispurely platonic. The onlyobject of either artist isto excel the other, and win more general applause. It was in this fashion that, some twelveyears later, Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo produced, the first hisTransfiguration, the second his Raising of Lazarus, before the raptand admiring eyes of Rome. These tournaments of art—distinct inevery particular from all competition in the modern sense of theterm—were far more refined, because they gave room for moreindependence, and therefore for greater fancy. Such, for instance,were those opened for the completion of buildin
Size: 1264px × 1977px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
