Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/308

264 Early in 1506, the painter went to Milan, at the invitation of the French king, Louis XII., who had frequently tried to secure his services, and was once more employed on engineering works in Lombardy. The disgust which he felt at the failure of his last great enterprise was increased by a vexatious lawsuit with his half-brothers, over his late father's inheritance, and he was glad to escape from these cares and anxieties and find a new sphere of action. But the Gonfaloniere of Florence, Piero Soderini, refused to prolong his leave of absence, and complained that Leonardo had not treated the Republic well, and had never finished the work committed to him. "He has, in fact, acted like a traitor." The painter, to do him justice, offered to return the money which had been paid him for his cartoon in the Palazzo Pubblico, but Soderini refused his offer, and eventually granted the French king's earnest entreaty and allowed Leonardo to remain at Milan. Before long, a fresh revolution in that city sent him back to Florence, and, in 1513, he accompanied Giuliano de' Medici to Rome, to attend the coronation of his brother. Pope Leo X. The new pontiff welcomed Leonardo warmly, and gave him rooms in the Vatican, where Michelangelo and Raphael were both employed, and where his old friend Bramante was architect of the new basilica of St. Peter. But instead of painting pictures for the Pope, the wayward master spent his time in vain attempts to realise his old dream of a flying machine, and in composing a dissertation on the papal coinage. "Alas!" exclaimed Pope Leo, when he found Leonardo distilling herbs to make a new