Page:Freud - Leonardo da Vinci, a psychosexual study of an infantile reminiscence.djvu/18

8 degree. Edm. Solmi cites (p. 12) the expression of one of his pupils: “Pareva, che ad ogni ora tremasse, quando si poneva a dipingere, e però nonon [sic] diede mai fine ad alcuna cosa cominciata, considerando la grandezza dell'arte, tal che egli scorgeva errori in quelle cose, che ad altri parevano miracoli.” His last pictures, Leda, the Madonna di SaintSant’ [sic] Onofrio, Bacchus and St. John the Baptist, remained unfinished “come quasi intervenne di tutte le cose sue.” Lomazzo, who finished a copy of The Holy Supper, refers in a sonnet to the familiar inability of Leonardo to finish his works:

The slowness with which Leonardo worked was proverbial. After the most thorough preliminary studies he painted The Holy Supper for three years in the cloister of Santa Maria