“And a fine jest it was at the opening of the chapel, for these Ricci looked for their arms with much ado, and finally, not being able to find them, went off to the Tribunal of Eight, contract in hand. Whereupon the Tornabuoni showed that these arms had been placed in the most conspicuous and honourable part of the work; and although the others exclaimed that they were invisible, they were told that they were in the wrong, and that they must be content, since the Tornabuoni had caused them to be placed in so honourable a position as the neighborhood of the most Holy Sacrament. And so it was decided by that tribunal that they should be left untouched, as they may be seen today. Now, if this should appear to anyone to be outside the scope of the Life that I have to write, let him not be vexed, for it all flowed naturally from the tip of my pen. And it should serve, if for nothing else, at least to show how easily poverty falls a prey to riches, and how riches, if accompanied by discretion, achieve without censure anything that a man desires.” [Illustration: FIG. 127. Leonardo da Vinci. Cartoon of Madonna and St. Ann.—_Burlington House, London._ ] CHAPTER V DAWN OF THE GOLDEN AGE: BOTTICELLI AND LEONARDO DA VINCI Leonardo da Vinci as assimilator of the Realistic reforms—Botticelli as reactionary—His beginnings under Fra Filippo and Pollaiuolo—Height of his realistic achievement in Adoration of the Magi—Assertion of his fantastic vein in the Primavera—The Dante drawings and the distraught style of the later works, its æsthetic value—Minor Eccentrics: Filippino Lippi—Piero di Cosimo—Leonardo da Vinci, his gradual advance towards Chiaroscuro method, his ideals—His work with Verrocchio—The Adoration of the Kings, its disciplined richness—Cartoon of St. Ann—First Madonna of the Rocks—Leonardo at Milan. The Last Supper—At Florence again. The Battle Cartoon. Mona Lisa—Second Sojourn at Milan. The St. Ann, his influence—At Rome, in France and the end—Leonardo’s successors at Florence; Fra Bartolommeo— Andrea del Sarto—Agnolo Bronzino—Pontormo—Decline of Florentine independence and of the School.