The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Volume 1Leonardo, da Vinci
Philosophy
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Volume 1
Leonardo, da Vinci
Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Of Leonardo's studies for the Battle of Anghiari I must in the first
place point to five, on three of which--Pl. LII 2, Pl. LIII, Pl.
LVI--we find studies for the episode of the Standard. The standard
bearer, who, in the above named copies is seen stooping, holding on
to the staff across his shoulder, is immediately recognisable as the
left-hand figure in Raphael's sketch, and we find it in a similar
attitude in Leonardo's pen and ink drawing in the British
Museum--Pl. LII, 2--the lower figure to the right. It is not
difficult to identify the same figure in two more complicated groups
in the pen and ink drawings, now in the Accademia at Venice--Pl.
LIII, and Pl. LIV--where we also find some studies of foot soldiers
fighting. On the sheet in the British Museum--Pl. LII, 2--we find,
among others, one group of three horses galloping forwards: one
horseman is thrown and protects himself with his buckler against the
lance thrusts of two others on horseback, who try to pierce him as
they ride past. The same action is repeated, with some variation, in
two sketches in pen and ink on a third sheet, in the Accademia at
Venice, Pl. LV; a coincidence which suggests the probability of such
an incident having actually been represented on the cartoon. We are
not, it is true, in a position to declare with any certainty which
of these three dissimilar sketches may have been the nearest to the
group finally adopted in executing the cartoon.
With regard, however, to one of the groups of horsemen it is
possible to determine with perfect certainty not only which
arrangement was preferred, but the position it occupied in the
composition. The group of horsemen on Pl. LVII is a drawing in black
chalk at Windsor, which is there attributed to Leonardo, but which
appears to me to be the work of Cesare da Sesto, and the
Commendatore Giov. Morelli supports me in this view. It can hardly
be doubted that da Sesto, as a pupil of Leonardo's, made this
drawing from his master's cartoon, if we compare it with the copy
made by Raphael--here reproduced, for just above the fighting
horseman in Raphael's copy it is possible to detect a horse which is
seen from behind, going at a slower pace, with his tail flying out
to the right and the same horse may be seen in the very same
attitude carrying a dimly sketched rider, in the foreground of
Cesare da Sesto's drawing._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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