ard fancies, and humour their caprices with infinite tact
and kindliness. And from the little that we glean of his intercourse
with Leonardo, he seems to have treated him rather as an equal than as a
subject, and more like a friend than a servant.

The glimpses that we catch of Leonardo's private life from the writings
of contemporaries, whether in Bandello's _novelle_, or in Bellincioni's
_rime_, all give the same pleasant impression, and show the ease and
liberty which he enjoyed at the court of Milan. And in his own
"Trattato" (Cap. 36) the painter describes himself as living in a fine
house, full of beautiful paintings and choice objects, surrounded by
musicians and poets. Here he sits at his work, handling a brush full of
lovely colour, never so happy as when he can paint listening to the
sound of sweet melodies. The spacious atelier is full of scholars and
apprentices employed in carrying out their master's ideas or making
chemical experiments, but careless of the noise of tools and hammers,
the fair-haired boy Angelo sings his golden song, and Serafino the
wondrous _improvisatore_ chants his own verses to the sound of the lyre.
Visitors come and go freely--Messer Jacopo of Ferrara, the architect who
was "dear to Leonardo as a brother," the courtly poet Gaspare Visconti,
and Vincenzo Calmeta, Duchess Beatrice's secretary, or, it may be, the
great Messer Galeaz himself, whose big jennet and Sicilian horse the
master has been drawing as models for the great equestrian statue
standing outside in the Corte Vecchia. There, among them all, the
painter bends over his canvas seeking to perfect the glazes and scumbles
of his pearly tints, or trying to realize some dream of a face that
haunts his fancy with its exquisite smile. He has, it is true, many
labours--"_a tanta faccenda!_" as he wrote to the councillors of
Piacenza--and at times he hardly knows which way to turn, but he is his
own master, free to work as he will, now at one, now at another. He has
no cares or anxiety. He can dress as he pleases, wear rich apparel if he
is so minded, or don the plain clothes and sober hues that he prefers.
He has gold enough and to spare; he can help a poorer friend and educate
a needy apprentice, or save his money for a rainy day; and, above all,
he has plenty of books and leisure to meditate on philosophical
treatises, or ponder over the scientific problems in which his soul
delights. He can find time to jot down his thoughts on m