File:The midsummer of Italian art (1911) (14782874685).jpg

Identifier: midsummerofitali00stea (find matches)
Title: The midsummer of Italian art
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Stearns, Frank Preston, 1846-1917
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, R.G. Badger, Gorham Press
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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bronze general was going toride through the wall opposite, and that you couldhear the clanking of his armor. It is a wonderfulstatue. There was a chord of mystery vibrating throughLeonardos life from beginning to end. None of thecontemporary writers mention meeting him, or areable to account for his mode of living. He cameand went in a mysterious manner. Vasari speaks ofhis travelling with a retinue of servants. If this betrue, how did he obtain the funds for such extrava-gance ? It could not have been from the sale ofpaintings; or if he obtained it so, the mystery iswhat has become of them ? Of pictures that hefinished before his thirtieth year, less than half adozen are known to exist. The earliest painting attributed to Leonardo ex-tant is a Madonna in the little old church of SantOnofrio in Rome; but its authenticity has lately beendisputed by Woltmann and others, and with excel-lent reason; for we do not find any trace in it ofLeonardos characteristic style, nor of the power and
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HEAD OF MEDUSA, by LEONARDO DA VINCIIn Uffizzi Gallery, Florence Leonardo da Vinci. 33 majesty of his later works. It shows, however, thecorrect use of observation and a truthfulness tonature, with a freedom from self-restraint, such as isdifficult to account for at the time this painting wasproduced; for it is evidently a work of the fifteenthcentury. The donor is a half-length figure of asquare-built, elderly man, drawn in profile, andholding his cap before him with both hands, as if hewere slightly embarrassed. The faces are evidentlyportraits, though that of the Madonna may beslightly idealized. Her hair is in the fashion ofthirty years ago; two wrinkled plaits coming downover her temples and in front of the ears. Theinfant Jesus is full of life and energy, and it be-stowing a blessing on his visitor in the papal fashion.His attitude is original and interesting, and the foldsof the Virgins gown on which he rests are remark-able for their breadth and pliant softness. Theportrait of

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