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Page 84
"Why did Leonardo do this?" inquired Margery.
"He was particularly fond of oil-painting, because this method allowed
him to paint over and over again on the same picture, as he could not do
in fresco."
Mr. Sumner looked out of the window, and then hastened to say:--
"I think you all have learned that the chief quality of Leonardo da
Vinci's work is his rendering of facial expression--complex, subtile
expression: yet he excelled in all artistic representation;--in drawing,
in composition, in color, and in the treatment of light and shade. He
easily stands in the foremost rank of world painters. But, see! we are
drawing near to Milan,--bright, gay little Milan,--the Italian Paris."
One day, soon after their arrival, as they were in the Brera Gallery,
looking for the third or fourth time at Leonardo's _Head of Christ_,
Barbara remarked that she was disappointed because she could not find
any particular characteristic of this great artist's work, as she had so
often been able to do with others. "I feel that I cannot yet recognize
even his style," she lamented.
"You have as yet seen none of the pictures which contain his
characteristic ideal face," replied Mr. Sumner. "But there is work here
in Milan by Bernardino Luini, who studied Leonardo so intimately that he
caught his spirit in a greater degree than did any other of his
followers. Indeed, several of Luini's pictures have been attributed to
Leonardo until very recently. This is a picture by Luini--right
here--the _Madonna of the Rose-Trellis_. The Madonna is strikingly like
Leonardo's ideal in the long, slender nose, the rather pointed chin, the
dark, flowing hair,--and, above all, in the evidence of some deep
thought. If it were Leonardo's, there would be, with all this, a faint,
subtile smile. See the treatment of light and shade,--so delicate, and
yet so strong. This is also like Leonardo."
After a few minutes spent in study of the picture, Mr. Sumner continued:
"There is a singular mannerism in the backgrounds of Leonardo's
pictures. It is the representation of running water between rocks,--a
strange fancy. We see the suggestion of it through the window behind
Christ in the _Last Supper_, and it forms the entire background of the
famous _Mona Lisa_, in the Louvre. There is a beautiful picture by
Luini, _The Marriage of St. Catherine_, in the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum here
in Milan, to which we will go at once. The faces are thoroughly
Leonardesque, and through an open window in the background we clearly
see the streamlet flowing between rocky shores.
"But first," he added, as they turned to go out, "let us go into this
corridor where we shall find quite a large number of Luini's frescoes,
which have been collected from the churches in which he painted them. I
think you will grow familiar with Leonardo's faces through study of
Luini."
During the stay in Milan they went down to Parma for a day, just to look
at the fine examples of Correggio's works in the gallery and churches.
In this city they could get the association of this artist with his
works as nowhere else.
[Illustration: LUINI. POLDI-PEZZOLI MUSEUM, MILAN.
MARRIAGE OF SAINT CATHERINE.]
Mr. Sumner told them that it was a good thing to give especial attention
to Correggio while studying Leonardo, because there is a certain
similarity, and yet a very wide difference, between their works. Both
painters were consummate masters of the art. Their beautiful figures,
perfect in drawing and full of grace and life, melt into soft, rich
shadows. Both loved especially to paint women, and smiling women; but
the difference between the smiles is as great as between light and
darkness. Leonardo's are inexplicable; are wrought from within by depths
of feeling we cannot understand. Correggio's only play about the lips,
and are as simple as childhood. Leonardo's whole life was given to the
study of mankind's innermost emotions. Correggio was no deep student of
human nature.
"When you go to Paris and see _Mona Lisa_, you will understand me
better," he said in conclusion.
Delightful weeks among the Italian lakes and the mountains of
Switzerland followed. Then came September, and it was time to turn their
faces homeward. A week or two was spent in Paris, whose brilliance,
fascinating gayety, and beauty almost bewildered them, and in whose
great picture-gallery, the Louvre, they reviewed the art-study of the
year.
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