Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . miration for the author of the Divina Commedia. Leonardo, it ispretty safe to guess, was content to contribute this very un-classictriplet to the discussion. Leonardo has long been credited with a sonnet which still enjoys acertain popularity. It expresses, in a rather clumsy and hackneyedform, an idea which any philosopher would be ready to endorse,an idea, moreover, as old as the world : Let him who cannotdo what he wishes, wish to do what he One of the mastersbiographers ^ relies on this when he calls Leonardo a poet-moralist, f
Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . miration for the author of the Divina Commedia. Leonardo, it ispretty safe to guess, was content to contribute this very un-classictriplet to the discussion. Leonardo has long been credited with a sonnet which still enjoys acertain popularity. It expresses, in a rather clumsy and hackneyedform, an idea which any philosopher would be ready to endorse,an idea, moreover, as old as the world : Let him who cannotdo what he wishes, wish to do what he One of the mastersbiographers ^ relies on this when he calls Leonardo a poet-moralist, familiar with internal conflicts, and gifted with qualities ofstyle analogous to those which marked him as a painter. The If Petrarch was so fond of bay, it was because it is of a good taste in sausages andwith tunny ; I cannot put any value on their foolery (Richter, vol. ii., p. 377). 2 Terence, for one, had already said the same thing: Quoniam non [jolest id fiericjuod vis, vclis id quod possit. * Rio, author of LArt Chrétien. LEONARDO AS A 25. sonnet, he adds, could nol be excelled for precision and technicalconciseness, and nothing could be more nobly pathetic than thefrankness of its personal application. Unhappily, modern criticism is ruthless, and Professor Uzielli, whohas discussed the problems connected with Leonardo with suchunequalled perspicacity, has mathematically demonstrated, if I may usethe term, in an argument covering eighty-five pages, that this famoussonnet is really the workof one Antonio, a Floren-tine (Antonio di Meglio,according to Uzielli :according to others,Antonio di Matteo, whodied in 1446). 1 .eonardo thereforehad nothing to do withit, which is a pity, asits combination of soodsense with a certain technical inexperience would have been thoroughly in keeping withhis sincere and sagacious intellect. After all these negative conclusions, the reader may well beimpatient to learn in what, after all, Leonardos talent as a poetconsisted, and how I
Size: 1964px × 1273px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
