Leonardo da Vinci | Page 7

traitor in the
"Last Supper" when he declared that "Since the days of Judas Iscariot
there has never been so black a traitor as Bernardino di Corte." On
October 6th Louis XII. entered the city. Before the end of the year
Leonardo, realising the necessity for his speedy departure, sent six
hundred gold florins by letter of exchange to Florence to be placed to
his credit with the hospital of S. Maria Nuova.
In the following year, Ludovico having been defeated at Novara,
Leonardo was a homeless wanderer. He left Milan for Mantua, where
he drew a portrait in chalk of Isabella d'Este, which is now in the
Louvre. Leonardo eventually arrived in Florence about Easter 1500.
After apparently working there in 1501 on a second Cartoon, similar in
most respects to the one he had executed in Milan two years earlier, he
travelled in Umbria, visiting Orvieto, Pesaro, Rimini, and other towns,
acting as engineer and architect to Cesare Borgia, for whom he planned
a navigable canal between Cesena and Porto Cese-natico.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.-PORTRAIT (PRESUMED) OF LUCREZIA
CRIVELLI
In the Louvre. No. 1600 [483]. 2 ft by I ft 5 ins. (0.62 x 0.44)
This picture, although officially attributed to Leonardo, is probably not
by him, and almost certainly does not represent Lucrezia Crivelli. It
was once known as a "Portrait of a Lady" and is still occasionally
miscalled "La Belle Féronnière."]

MONA LISA
Early in 1503 he was back again in Florence, and set to work in earnest
on the "Portrait of Mona Lisa" (Plate I.), now in the Louvre (No. 1601).

Lisa di Anton Maria di Noldo Gherardini was the daughter of Antonio
Gherardini. In 1495 she married Francesco di Bartolommeo de Zenobi
del Giocondo. It is from the surname of her husband that she derives
the name of "La Joconde," by which her portrait is officially known in
the Louvre. Vasari is probably inaccurate in saying that Leonardo
"loitered over it for four years, and finally left it unfinished." He may
have begun it in the spring of 1501 and, probably owing to having
taken service under Cesare Borgia in the following year, put it on one
side, ultimately completing it after working on the "Battle of Anghiari"
in 1504. Vasari's eulogy of this portrait may with advantage be quoted:
"Whoever shall desire to see how far art can imitate nature may do so
to perfection in this head, wherein every peculiarity that could be
depicted by the utmost subtlety of the pencil has been faithfully
reproduced. The eyes have the lustrous brightness and moisture which
is seen in life, and around them are those pale, red, and slightly livid
circles, also proper to nature. The nose, with its beautiful and delicately
roseate nostrils, might be easily believed to be alive; the mouth,
admirable in its outline, has the lips uniting the rose-tints of their colour
with those of the face, in the utmost perfection, and the carnation of the
cheek does not appear to be painted, but truly flesh and blood. He who
looks earnestly at the pit of the throat cannot but believe that he sees
the beating of the pulses. Mona Lisa was exceedingly beautiful, and
while Leonardo was painting her portrait, he took the precaution of
keeping some one constantly near her to sing or play on instruments, or
to jest and otherwise amuse her."
Leonardo painted this picture in the full maturity of his talent, and,
although it is now little more than a monochrome owing to the free and
merciless restoration to which it has been at times subjected, it must
have created a wonderful impression on those who saw it in the early
years of the sixteenth century. It is difficult for the unpractised eye
to-day to form any idea of its original beauty. Leonardo has here
painted this worldly-minded woman--her portrait is much more famous
than she herself ever was--with a marvellous charm and suavity, a
finesse of expression never reached before and hardly ever equalled
since. Contrast the head of the Christ at Milan, Leonardo's conception
of divinity expressed in perfect humanity, with the subtle and
sphinx-like smile of this languorous creature.

The landscape background, against which Mona Lisa is posed, recalls
the severe, rather than exuberant, landscape and the dim vistas of
mountain ranges seen in the neighbourhood of his own birthplace. The
portrait was bought during the reign of Francis I. for a sum which is
to-day equal to about £1800. Leonardo, by the way, does not seem to
have been really affected by any individual affection for any woman,
and, like Michelangelo and Raphael, never married.
In January 4, 1504, Leonardo was one of the members of the
Committee of Artists summoned to advise the Signoria as to the most
suitable site for the