File:Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science (1898) (14597921979).jpg

Identifier: leonardodavincia01mn (find matches)
Title: Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Müntz, Eugène, 1845-1902
Subjects: Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519
Publisher: London : W. Heinemann New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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mouths the voice of some speaker hidden behind passes. This is a gravedefect in real persons, still graver in those represented by art. For if their author doesnot give them lively gestures, corresponding to their parts, they are doubly dead, firstlybecause they have no life in reality, and secondly, because their attitude is lifeless. Butto return to our subject: I shall treat below of certain motions of the soul, namely,of anger, pain, fear, sudden terror, grief, flight or precipitation, authority, sloth,diligence, &c. C C 2 196 LEONARDO DA VINCI brownish tapestry, of a very simple pattern, enframed in mouldingsof white stone. The wall at the end is broken by three square-headed windows, the central one surmounted by a semi-circularpediment ; through these windows we see an undulating landscape,with scattered buildings, and distant blue mountains. An opentimbered ceiling completes the architecture of the room, whichhas a monumental aspect, in spite of its severity. There is not
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THE LAST SUPPER. (in its present state.) an ornament, not a fragment of sculpture, to divert attention fromthe action. Leonardo was undoubtedly the advocate of a rigorous delimitationin the various branches of art. It would be difficult otherwise toexplain why he, familiar as he was with all the laws of architecture,should have excluded from his pictures those architectural back-grounds and views of buildings so admirably calculated to enhancetheir effect. Perhaps no other artist, with the exception of Brunel-lesco, Piero della Francesca, and Mantegna, had worked out the laws ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUNDS IN ART 197 of linear perspective with equal ardour. It would, therefore, havebeen easy for him to have brought the various planes of his composi-tions into relief by the introduction of buildings. But the only worksin which we find him making use of this artifice are the Last Supperand the cartoon for the Adoration of the Magi; in the latter, only forthe background. To this artistic scru

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