New-York tribune., 1919-05-04
THE ART OF LEONARDO DA VINCI


robbery, although l was certain of it.
A thieving, lying, pig-headed glutton." :"
Remembrance of the everyday side of
life which these lines illustrate will
keep the student from visualizing Leo
nardo too much of rapt Olympian,
with his singing robes always about
him. He went to and fro amonq mon
IN homespun, so to say, with an in
tensely human curiosity about all the
things of the visible world. If he
painted the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last
Supper" he drew also the most appall-
ing proiles of hideous, malforlned
peasants. When Baroncelli was hanged
in Florence for his share in the con-
spiracy of the Pazzi, Leonardo made a
drawing Of him at the end of the rome.
and something Of the dispassionatelv
artistic trend of his temperament is
shown by the note he added on the
sheet: Small tan-coored CAP, black
satin doublet, lined black ierkin, blue
cloak lined with fur of foxes breasts.
and the collar of the cloak covered with
velvet speckled black and red: Ber-
nardo di Bandno Baroncelli; black
hose" confirmed realist, we saw.
must have made that sketch and that
note. One can see him ignoring the
emotional horror of the spectacle, look
ing only to the accurate registration of
the facts. Most Characteristic of all is
the touch about the "black hose" hast
lily jotted down after he had thonoht
the portrait complete.
Leonardo was realst in that he
never undervalued what he could see
and touch handle and measure. He
was peculiarly a master of ponderablo
things. Here it is interesting to turn
for moment to the scientist in him,
the man of practical affairs, a famous
letter IN which he offered his services
to the Duke of Milan, supplying lust
the needed light on what we mirht call
the prosaic turn of his mind "I have
method of constructing very light
and portable bridges" he says, "to be
used in the pursuit of or retreat from
the enemy. also have most convenient
and portable bombs, proper for throw
ing showers Of small missiles. and with
the smoke thereof causing great ter
ror to the enemy, to his imminent loss
and confusion" In these and in other
lines he shows how useful he could
be IN time of war, and then he goes on
as follows: "ln time of peace | he
lleve that l could equal any other, as
regards works in architecture. | can
prepare designs for buildings, whether
public or private, and also conduct
water from one place to another. Fur
thermore, l can execute works in
sculpture, marble, bronze or terra
Gotta. In painting, also, can do what
may be done, as we'll as any other, be
he who he may" How revealing, and.
again, how human, is that return to
the ruling passion, that transition from
canal cutting to the art Of the painter!
1t is profoundly inevitable. The plav
of Leonardo's intellect knew no boun-
darles. He studied acoustics. He was
a seasoned anatomist. Botany fasci-
mated him, and so on through an alpha-
betlcal list one might follow his imagi-
nation, ranging through all the inter
ests of man. But, then, we would veer
toward the Leonardo who is, as we have
SAID, the property of the scholar. The
Leonardo who is the property of the
world IS the Leonardo who is the
property of the artist, the man who is
remembered because Of the way in
which he drew the ripple of a woman's
hair athwart her cheek.
AS he drew it the searching observa-
tlon OF the realist magnifcently sus-
tanned him, but in the same instant all
that is materialistic in realism fell
from him, and he functioned as a poet.
The result was a work of art that is
incomparably beautiful and that also is
we believe, the most successful mani
testatlon of Leonardo's genius. There
is, after all, a sharp distinction to be
recognized between his universalitv
and the universally Of Shakespeare.
The poet, taking the world for his
province, bodied forth creations in
which his purpose is clearly realized.
His energy is concentrated upon a task
which he completes. Leonardo. unde-
niably putting to his credit specific
achievements in science, at the same
time varies them with an infinite num-
Der of inconclusive experiments. His
energy is diffused. 1t is in his Curl
oslty rather than in the actual things
he accomplished that the univcrsalitv
OF his mind is declared. He survives
IN his writings as Goethe rather than
as Shakespeare. But as an artist he
knows no diffusion, no incertitude.
There it would seem that he most tri-
umphantly expressed himself A sig
nitcant testimony to the fact that he
was, indeed, an artist far moro centrally
than a scientist lies in the paradox
that he needed no great mass of works
to affirm his Immortality in the sphere
Of painting. The Reconnaissance" lives
in touch. 1t is an ideal of beauty com
municated through the channel of a
style.
Legend clusters around the "Mona
Lisa" and famous tributes to that por-
trait, composed by such skilful writer's
as Gautier and Pater, have led thou
sands to the conviction that in this