to the earlier period of the master. A very decided effect of chiaroscuro is, however, here aimed at, with an expression of enthusiastic ecstacy, wrought up to a pitch which borders on the sentimental.

One of Leonardo's most famous pictures, La Carità- -a mother with several children-also belongs to the period of his residence in Milan; it was formerly in the old gallery at Cassel, and is now come to light again, as it appears, in the gallery of the Hague. It formerly represented a naked figure of Leda, standing, with the two children-some scruples of decorum have converted it by over-paintings into a Charity.1

Besides these, there are many excellent originals by Leonardo in Milan and the surrounding country, as well as numerous copies of the same subjects by his scholars, which attest his full employment in that city. Among these latter is a Madonna and Child, formerly in the possession of the Araciel family. The Madonna holds the Child with both hands; he reaches his hand to her chin, as if to kiss her; his face is still turned to the spectator, towards whom she also looks, as she bends down her head. The expression of the whole is fascinating, and the picture beautifully finished. A half-figure of a Mater Dolorosa, too, is grand and noble, with the most touching expression.2

1 Rumohr (Drei Reisen in Italien, p. 70) says of this picture," In this work, of which I have a lively recollection, I distinctly recognise the scholar of Verocchio, and the companion of Lorenzo da Credi, whose children these much resemble; only that there is more intelligence here in every partmore depth of character and expression. In the countenances of the mother and the children, especially of the little one upon her arm, there is an expression of grief and longing which I cannot describe. The picture was called a Carità. Italian painters of later times have represented similar groups under the same name, but always in the form of a mother delighting in the blooming offspring around her. Leonardo, however, seems to have departed from this obvious sentiment. It was his nature to overlook that which lay nearest to him. He either intended, by the mournful and longing expression he has given to the group, to allude to the idea of the lost Paradise, or he had some other mystical thought in view, to which those who afterwards adopted the subject had lost the key. As far as I remember, this picture was painted in For this reason, and also because Vasari makes no mention of it, I am inclined to consider it a production of his Milanese time. The opaque, violet, local colour of his carnation agrees with the portraits of Lodovico Sforza and his wife, which are in the Ambrosiana Gallery at Milan." See also a notice by Passavant, Kunstbl., 1844, p. 118.

oil.

2 On both compositions, see Fumagalli, Scuola di Lionardo, &c., before quoted.

The composition of a Holy Family by Leonardo (la Vierge au bas relief) is frequently found repeated in this neighbourhood. The original, it appears, is in England. The Madonna holds the infant Christ on her lap, and embraces the little St. John, who kneels with folded hands to receive the blessing and caresses of Christ. In the background on the right stands Joseph, with folded arms; his aged head, with a somewhat exaggerated expression of joy, is finished to excess; on the left is Zacharias. In the Hermitage at St. Petersburgh there is a similar composition, with the exception of the little St. John; a figure of St. Catherine is also introduced in the place of Zacharias. This latter picture was executed 1513, during Leonardo's later residence in Rome.

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After the conquest of Milan, Leonardo returned to Florence, his native city, and remained there some years: to this period belong some important works. The first, executed directly after his arrival, a cartoon of the Holy Family (called the Cartoon of St. Anna"), when publicly exhibited, was the admiration of the whole city. The Virgin is holding the child on her lap, who is turning towards the little Baptist. St. Anna, who is sitting by, is looking with ecstacy at the Virgin, and pointing upwards, as if to indicate the divine origin of the infant. The grace of the children, the blissful expression of the grandmother, and, above all, the lovely modesty and humility on the countenance of the Virgin, are wonderfully given. The original cartoon, executed in black chalk, and in good preservation, is in the Royal Academy in London. Pictures by Leonardo's scholars, from this or some similar composition, are frequent. The best of them-gene

1 Passavant, Kunstreise, p. 111; engraved by Förster, 1835. A copy in the Brera at Milan is ascribed in Fumagalli's work to Cesare da Sesto.[The picture above mentioned, formerly in the possession of Messrs. Woodburn, is now the property of the Earl of Warwick. One arm of the infant Christ

(not of the Virgin) is round the St. John.-ED.]

2 [Parts of this drawing (for example, the lower portion of the figure of the infant Christ) have either been effaced by time, or were originally unfinished the cartoon is now kept under a glass. The pictures to which the author alludes-no less than four exist in various collections-appear to have been done from a different composition; at all events Vasari's description corresponds only with the drawing in question. Hence the best connoisseurs have concluded that this is the cartoon which was so celebrated in Florence. See Dr. Waagen, Kunstwerke in Paris, p. 426.—ED.]

rally, though erroneously, ascribed to Leonardo himself-is in the Louvre. Here the Virgin is seated on the lap of St. Anna-a playful, but at first sight strange representation of a sacred scene, which would lead to the conclusion that there was an affinity between the minds of Leonardo and Correggio. The well-known refined type of his female heads, with the small chin and the graceful smile, sometimes approaching to a coquettish expression, is rather mannered in this picture, though the original cartoon is free from all such tendency, and is of the highest nobility of sentiment.

A second larger cartoon, executed by Leonardo in Florence, and described as one of the greatest masterpieces of modern Art, shared the fate of his equestrian statue and Last Supper. It was a commission from the city, and executed in competition with Michael Angelo in the year 1503.' It was intended that paintings should be executed from them in the Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo took for his subject the victory of the Florentines over Nicolo Picinnino, general of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, in 1440, at Anghiari in Tuscany Michael Angelo, a scene from the Pisan campaigns. The former chose the last yet doubtful moment of victory; the latter, that in which the battle is just beginning. When these masterly and highly finished cartoons were exhibited, the young artists poured in from all sides to make them their study, and they appear to have exercised a decided influence on the full development of modern art. Both cartoons have perished: Rubens copied from Leonardo's a group of four horsemen fighting for a standard; this is engraved by Edelingk, and is just sufficient to make us bitterly deplore the loss of this rich and grand work.

Among the works which Leonardo executed in Florence is an Adoration of the Kings, of a large size, in the gallery of the Uffizj. It can only be called a cartoon, since the light brown dead-colour intended to indicate the masses of shadow is all that is finished. It is, however, a rich and beautifully arranged composition, in which the general excitement caused

[They were not done precisely at the same time: Michael Angelo's was not completed and shown till 1506. See Passavant, Rafael von Urbino, i. 114.-ED.]