Notebooks
Page 38
San Paolo in Rome has 5 naves and 80 columns and in its width across the naves is 130 braccia, and from the steps of the high altar to the door is br. 155, and from these steps to the further wall at the back of the high altar br. 70, and the portico is 130 br. long and 17 br. wide. Taken August 1516.178
VI. FRENCH PERIOD (1516-1519)
During 1516 the 64-year-old Leonardo accepted the invitation of Francis I to become peintre du Roy and went to stay at the small chateau of Cloux, near the royal residence at Amboise on the Loire. The French king had a sincere love of letters and art, and during his reign and that of his predecessor numerous Italian artists and craftsmen were installed at the court. He greatly admired Leonardo and told Benevenuto Cellini twenty years later ‘that he believed no other man had been born who knew as much about sculpture, painting and architecture, but still more that he was a very great philosopher’. It is said that he enjoyed Leonardo’s conversation almost every day.
The following note reveals Leonardo’s attitude towards his listeners in conversation.
Words which do not satisfy the ear of the listener weary him or vex him, and you will often see symptoms of this in the frequent yawns of such listeners; therefore when you speak before men whose good will you desire, and see such an excess of fatigue, abridge your speech, or change the subject; and if you do otherwise you will earn dislike and hostility instead of the hoped for favour. And if you want to see in what a man takes pleasure, without hearing him speak, change the subject of your discourse in speaking to him and, when he presently becomes intent and does not yawn nor wrinkle his brow and the like, you may be certain that the matter which you are speaking is agreeable to him.179
Ascension Day at Amboise in Cloux. May 1517.180
On 1 October 1517 Rinaldo Ariosto wrote to the Marquess Gianfrancesco Gonzaga describing a festival at Argentan which had been organized by Leonardo for Francis I and where a mechanized lion was much admired.
On 10 October 1517 the Cardinal Luigi of Aragon visited Leonardo’s studio. He was accompanied by his secretary Antonio de Beatis, who wrote the following account of the event: ‘In one of the outlying parts [of Amboise] Monsignor and the rest of us went to see Messer Leonardo da Vinci, the Florentine, who is more than seventy years old, and is one of the most excellent painters of the day. He showed His Eminence three pictures, one of a certain Florentine lady done from life for the late Magnificent Giuliano de’ Medici, another a young John the Baptist, and a third the Madonna and Child seated on the lap of St Anne, all perfect. Nothing more that is fine can be expected of him, however, owing to the paralysis, which has attacked his right hand. A Milanese, who was educated by him and paints excellently, lives with him. Although Leonardo can no longer paint with his former sweetness he can still draw and teach others. This gentleman has written of anatomy with such detail, showing with illustrations the limbs, veins, tendons, intestines and whatever else there is to discuss in the bodies of men and women in a way that has never yet been done. All this we have seen with our eyes; and he said that he had dissected more than thirty bodies of men and women of all ages. He has also written on the nature of water, on various machinery and on other matters, which he has set down in an infinite number of volumes all in the vulgar tongue; which if they were published would be useful and very delightful.’
On 11 October De Beatis adds in his diary, ‘there was also a picture in which a certain lady from Lombardy is painted in oil, from life, quite beautiful, but in my opinion not as much as the lady Gualanda, the lady Isabella Gualanda’.
In this note addressed to Leonardo he is referred to as ‘paintre du Roy’. The writing is partly illegible.
To Monsieur de Vinci . . . the horses of the king’s equerry. . . .
Continue the payment to Mons. Lyonard, painter to the king. Amboise.181
Plan to construct transportable houses near the royal hunting lodge at Romorantin.
On moving houses.
Let the houses be moved and arranged in order; and this will be done with facility because such houses are at first made in pieces on the open places, and can then be fitted together with their timbers in the site where they are to be permanent.
Let the men of the country partly inhabit the new houses when the court is absent.
The main underground channel does not receive turbid waters, but that water runs in the ditches outside the town with four mills at the entrance and four at the outlet; and this may be done by damming the water above Romorantin.
There should be fountains made in each piazza.182
French canal project
If the river mn, a tributary of the river Loire, were turned with its turbid waters into the river of Romorantin it would enrich the lands that it irrigated and would render the country fertile to supply food for the inhabitants and it would serve as a navigable canal for merchandise. . . .182
The eve of St Anthony [13 January 1518] I returned from Romorantin to Amboise and the king left Romorantin two days before.183
In May 1518 the French court at Amboise celebrated the baptism of the dauphin and the marriage of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Pope’s nephew, to Maddalena de la Tour d’Auvergne, the niece of Francis I. The festivities went on for weeks, and included a brilliant tournament. In the evening of 19 June 1518, the king brought his great company of guests to Leonardo’s chateau at Cloux where the court had been turned into a wonderful ballroom covered by a dome of deep blue fabric from which the sun, moon, and stars shone on the guests below. This magic night at Cloux brought the festivities at Amboise to a close.
On the 24th of June, 1518, the day of St John, at Amboise in the palace of Cloux.184
This is the last dated note in Leonardo’s hand.
LEONARDO’S WILL
April 23, 1519.
Be it known to all persons, present and to come, that at the court of our Lord the King at Amboise before ourselves in person, Messer Leonardo da Vinci, painter to the King, at present staying at the place known as Cloux near Amboise, duly considering the certainty of death and the uncertainty of its time, has acknowledged and declared in the said court and before us that he has made according to the tenor of these presents, his testament and the declaration of his last will as follows:
And first he commends his soul to our Lord, Almighty God, and to the glorious Virgin Mary, and to our Lord Saint Michael, to all blessed angels and Saints male and female in Paradise.
Item. The said Testator desires to be buried within the church of St Florentin at Amboise, and that his body shall be borne thither by the chaplains of the church.
Item. That his body may be followed from the said place to the said church of St Florentin by the collegium of the said church, that is to say by the rector and the prior, or by their vicar and chaplains of the church of St Denis at Amboise, also the Minors of the place; and before his body shall be carried to the said church this Testator desires that in the said church of St Florentin three grand masses shall be celebrated by the deacon and sub-deacon and that on the day on which these three high masses are celebrated, thirty low masses shall also be performed at St Gregory.
Item. That in the said church of St Denis similar services shall be performed as above.
Item. That the same shall be done in the church of the said friars and Minors.
Item. The aforesaid Testator gives and bequeaths to Messer Francesco da Melzo, nobleman of Milan, in remuneration for services and favours done to him in the past, each and all of the books the testator is at present possessed of, and the instruments and portraits appertaining to his art and calling as a painter.
Item. The same Testator gives and bequeaths henceforth for ever to Batista de Vilanis one half, that is, the moiety of his garden, which is outside the walls of Milan, and the other half of the same garden to Salaì his servant; in which garden aforesaid Salaì has built and constructed a house which shall be and remain henceforth in all perpetuity the property of the said Salaì, his heirs and successors; and this is in remuner
ation for the good and kind services which the said de Vilanis and Salaì, his servants, have done him in past times until now.
Item. The said Testator gives to Maturina his waiting woman a cloak of good black cloth lined with fur, a . . . of cloth, and two ducats paid once only; and this likewise in remuneration for good service rendered to him in past times by the said Maturina.
Item. He desires that at his funeral sixty tapers shall be carried by sixty poor men, to whom shall be given money for carrying them at the discretion of the said Melzo, and these tapers shall be distributed among the four above-mentioned churches.
Item. The said Testator gives to each of the said churches ten lbs. of wax in thick tapers, which shall be placed in the said churches to be used on the day when those services are celebrated.
Item. That alms be given to the poor of the Hôtel Dieu, to the poor of St Lazare d’Amboise and, to that end, there shall be given and paid to the treasures of that same fraternity the sum and amount of seventy soldi of Tours.
Item. The said Testator gives and bequeaths to the said Messer Francesco Melzo, being present and agreeing, the remainder of his pension and the sums of money which are owing to him from the past till the day of his death by the receiver or treasurer-general M. Johan Sapin, and each and every sum of money that he has already received from the aforesaid Sapin of his said pension, and in case he should die before the said Melzo and not otherwise; which moneys are at present in the possession of the said Testator in the said place called Cloux, as he says. And he likewise gives and bequeaths to the said Melzo all and each of his clothes which he at present possesses at the said place of Cloux, and all in remuneration for the good and kind services done by him in past times till now, as well as in payment for the trouble and annoyance he may incur with regard to the execution of this present testament, which however, shall all be at the expense of the said Testator.
And he orders and desires that the sum of four hundred scudi in his possession, which he has deposited in the hands of the treasurer of Santa Maria Nuova in the city of Florence, may be given to his brothers now living in Florence with all the interest and usufruct that may have accrued up to the present time and be due from the aforesaid treasurers to the aforesaid Testator on account of the said four hundred scudi, since they were given and consigned by the Testator to the said treasurers.
Item. He desires and orders that the said Messer Francesco de Melzo shall be and remain the sole and only executor of the said will of the said Testator, and that the said testament shall be executed in its full and complete meaning and according to that which is here narrated and said, to have, hold, keep and observe, the said Messer Leonardo da Vinci, constituted Testator, has obliged and obliges by these presents the said his heirs and successors with all his goods movable and immovable, present and to come, and has renounced and expressly renounces by these presents all and each of the things which to that are contrary.
Given at the said place of Cloux in the presence of Magister Spirito Fleri, vicar of the church of St Denis at Amboise, of Mr Guglielmo Croysant, priest and chaplain, of Magister Cipriane Fulchin, Brother Francesco de Corton, and or Francesco da Milano, a brother of the Convent of the Minorites at Amboise, witnesses summoned and required to that end by the indictment of the said court in the presence of the aforesaid M. Francesco de Melzo, who accepting and agreeing to the same has promised by his faith and his oath which he has administered to us personally and has sworn to us never to do or say nor act in any way to the contrary. And it is sealed by his request with the royal seal apposed to legal contracts at Amboise, and in token of good faith.
Given on the 23rd day of April 1518 before Easter.*
And on the 23rd day of this month of April 1518 in the presence of M. Guglielmo Borian, Royal notary in the court of the bailiwick of Amboise, the aforesaid M. Leonardo da Vinci gave and bequeathed by his last will and testament as aforesaid to the said M. Baptista de Vilanis, being present and agreeing the right of water which the King Louis XII of pious memory lately deceased, gave to this same da Vinci, the stream of the canal of Santo Cristoforo in the duchy of Milan, to belong to the said Vilanis for ever in such wise and manner that the said gentleman made him this gift in the presence of M. Francesco de Melzo, gentleman of Milan, and in mine.
And on the aforesaid day in the said month of April in the said year 1518 the same M. Leonardo da Vinci by his last will and testament gave to the aforesaid M. Baptista de Vilanis, being present and agreeing, each and all of the articles of furniture and utensils in his house at present at the said place of Cloux, in the event of the said de Vilanis surviving the aforesaid M. Leonardo da Vinci, in the presence of the said M. Francesco Melzo and of me, Notary, &c. Borian.185
2 May 1519. Death of Leonardo at Cloux.
On 1 June 1519 Francesco Melzi wrote from Amboise to the brothers of Leonardo regarding his death. The will had been made valid by royal decree and would be sent as soon as a trusted person could be found. Meanwhile he wished to report that Leonardo had left to them his estate at Fiesole and the 400 scudi deposited at 5 per cent with the treasurer of S. Maria Nuova at Florence. He wrote: ‘I understand that you have been informed of the death of Master Leonardo, your brother, who was like an excellent father to me. It is impossible to express the grief I feel at his death, and as long as my limbs sustain me I will feel perpetual unhappiness, which is justified by the consuming and passionate love he bore daily towards me. Everyone is grieved by the loss of such a man whose like Nature no longer has it in her power to produce. And now Almighty God grants him eternal rest.’
12 August 1519. Entry in the register of St Florentin at Amboise: ‘In the cloister of this church was buried M.eLeonard de Vincy, noble Milanese, first painter, engineer and architect of the King, State mechanist, and sometime director of painting of the Duke of Milan.’
EXPLANATORY NOTES
4 Marius . . . permit me my own: Marius was a Roman military commander who fought against and defeated Jugurtha in 109-104 BC. His speech to the Romans comes from the Roman historian Sallust’s Jugurthine War, ch. 85, para 25.
5 abbreviators: the name abbreviatori was given to the secretaries at the chancery of the Vatican. During his stay in Rome Leonardo was impeded in his anatomical researches by the Vatican and in writing this may have had their obstruction in mind.
Justinus: Marcus Junianus Justinus, Roman historian of the second- third century AD and author of an abridgement of the Philippic History by Pompeius Trogus (first century BC). The book was much used in the Middle Ages. See also p. 313.
7 Wisdom . . . experience: see Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Paradiso, ii. 94-6, ‘Experience, the only fountain whence your arts derive their streams’.
15 Anaxagoras: Anaxagoras (c.500-428 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher whom Leonardo credits with this cosmological theory. Plato: Plato’s Timaeus, written c.360 BC, posits the composition of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as platonic solids, with each one being made up of components which could be broken down and made up into any of the other elements, thus making the elements interconvertible.
27 braccia: a braccio (pl. braccia) is an arm’s length, or approximately 58 cm.
52 The sun does not move: a similar statement by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) more than a hundred years later was condemned as heresy.
53 The Spera . . . the sun: La Sfera, written by the Florentine Gregorio Dati before 1435, was an illustrated text on astronomy and geography. Lines 16-22 are in praise of the sun. Renaissance poet, scholar, and soldier, Michele Tarcaniota Marullus dedicated a poem to the sun (1487).
82 Vitruvius says: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, first-century BC Roman architect and engineer, in De Architectura (The Ten Books of Architecture), 10. 16. 5.
99 tent . . . covered with cloth: Leonardo is describing a parachute.
103 the eye takes cognizance of ten different qualities of objects: this theory was first propounded by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in De Anima (O
n the Soul), c.350 BC.
111 Necessity has . . . the eye: the image formed on the retina is upside down, but it is the brain and not the lens which transposes the image and enables us to see things in their correct position. In the figure Leonardo conceives the lens as a ball in the centre of the eyeball. visual power: compare with Plato, Timaeus, 45, which includes in the physical description of vision, ‘light-bearing eyes’ that project light from the eye to perceive and interact with the world.
113 Linear perspective . . . disappearance: the last two of the three subjects are now generally known as ‘aerial’ perspective.
115 I ask to have . . . place where it strikes: this corresponds to the first axiom in the Greek mathematician Euclid’s Optics, a treatise on perspective (c.300 BC).
140 Vitruvius . . . his work on architecture: Vitruvius, De Architectura, 3. 1.
157 Avicenna . . . error: Avicenna (Ibn Sina, c.980-1037), Persian physician, philosopher, and scientist, in his De Anima.
172 One who was drinking . . . the man who is leaning: some of the gestures described here can be found in the final version of the Last Supper (Milan, Santa Maria delle Grazie).
185 the grandchild of nature and as related to God: see Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia: Inferno, xi. 105: ‘so that your art is, as it were, God’s grandchild’.
186 the sense which comes second: according to ancient traditions the five senses ranked in order of nobility. Sight came first, then hearing. These two were connected with the arts of painting and music, and were superior to the senses of smell, taste, and touch.
189 Apelles painted the Calumny: Apelles (late fourth-early third-century BC) was a famed Greek artist whose lost painting, the Calumny, was made following an attempt by a rival artist to slander him. This story was widely known in the Renaissance and the Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) painted a version, The Calumny of Apelles (Florence, Uffizi).