Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/406

 •376 Painting in Italy. (a) Leonardo da Vinci and his School. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 — 1519), the pupil of Andrea Verrocchio, was the head of the great Milanese school. He appears to have been a universal genius, and to have been endowed with exceptional beauty of person. His versatility and energy were alike unparalleled ; he was a sculptor, painter, musician, poet, and had a thorough practical knowledge of architecture, mechanics, anatomy, botany, and kindred sciences. The son of a notary, Leonardo was born at Vinci, near Florence, and spent the early part of his life in indefatig- able study. His first painting seems to have been a Chimcera, executed on a piece of wood for a peasant on his father's estate. While with Verrocchio he completed a picture which that master had begun — a Baptism of Christ, now in the Academy at Florence. At the age of thirty the future master was invited to the court of Lodovico Sforza, then Regent, afterwards Duke of Milan, and was entrusted by him with the foundation of an Academy of Art at Milan, which was established in 1485. His Last Supper, of which we give the greater part (Fig. 134), painted in oils on a wall in the refectory of the Convent of S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan, now nearly perished by decay, and almost entirely re-painted, was executed soon after his arrival. This world-famous picture combined all the best characteristics of Da Vinci's style, and must have been one of the grandest works that Chris- tian art ever produced. Fortunately the original cartoons of many of the heads, and several fine copies executed under the master's own direction (one of the best of which,