Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
The moment selected by the painter is described in the 26th chapter of
St. Matthew, 21st and 22d verses: "And as they did eat, he said,
Verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me: and they were
exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him,
Lord, is it I?" The knowledge of character displayed in the heads of
the different apostles is even more wonderful than the skilful
arrangement of the figures and the amazing beauty of the workmanship.
The space occupied by the picture is a wall twenty-eight feet in
length and the figures are larger than life.
Of this magnificent creation of art, only the mouldering remains are
now visible. It has been so often repaired that almost every vestige
of the original painting is annihilated; but from the multiplicity of
descriptions, engravings, and copies that exist, no picture is more
universally known and celebrated. Perhaps the best judgment we can now
form of its merits is from the fine copy executed by one of Leonardo's
best pupils, Marco Uggione, for the Certosa at Pavia, and now in
London, in the collection of the Royal Academy. Eleven other copies,
by various pupils of Leonardo, painted either during his lifetime or
within a few years after his death, while the picture was in perfect
preservation, exist in different churches and collections.
While engaged on the Cenacolo, Leonardo painted the portrait of
Lucrezia Crivelli, now in the Louvre (No. 483). It has been engraved
under the title of _La Belle Ferronnière_, but later researches leave
us no doubt that it represents Lucrezia Crivelli, a beautiful favorite
of Ludovico Sforza, and was painted at Milan in 1497. It is, as a work
of art, of such extraordinary perfection that all critical admiration
is lost in wonder.
Of the grand equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, Leonardo never
finished more than the model in clay, which was considered a
masterpiece. Some years afterward (in 1499), when Milan was invaded by
the French, it was used as a target by the Gascon bowmen, and
completely destroyed. The profound anatomical studies which Leonardo
made for this work still exist.
[Illustration: Raphael Introduced to Da Vinci.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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