, it may be said that for diligence and
truth to nature divine wit could not make it so perfect. In it is
the fig-tree, together with the foreshortening of the leaves and the
varying aspects of the branches, wrought with such lovingness that
the brain reels at the mere thought how a man could have such
patience. There is also a palm-tree which has the radiating crown of
the palm, executed with such great and marvellous art that nothing
save the patience and intellect of Leonardo could avail to do it.
This work was carried no farther; wherefore the cartoon is now at
Florence, in the blessed house of the Magnificent Ottaviano de'
Medici, presented to him not long ago by the uncle of Leonardo.

It is said that Ser Piero da Vinci, being at his villa, was besought
as a favour, by a peasant of his, who had made a buckler with his
own hands out of a fig-tree that he had cut down on the farm, to
have it painted for him in Florence, which he did very willingly,
since the countryman was very skilful at catching birds and fishing,
and Ser Piero made much use of him in these pursuits. Thereupon,
having had it taken to Florence, without saying a word to Leonardo
as to whose it was, he asked him to paint something upon it.
Leonardo, having one day taken this buckler in his hands, and seeing
it twisted, badly made, and clumsy, straightened it by the fire,
and, having given it to a turner, from the rude and clumsy thing
that it was, caused it to be made smooth and even. And afterwards,
having given it a coat of gesso, and having prepared it in his own
way, he began to think what he could paint upon it, that might be
able to terrify all who should come upon it, producing the same
effect as once did the head of Medusa. For this purpose, then,
Leonardo carried to a room of his own into which no one entered save
himself alone, lizards great and small, crickets, serpents,
butterflies, grasshoppers, bats, and other strange kinds of suchlike
animals, out of the number of which, variously put together, he
formed a great ugly creature, most horrible and terrifying, which
emitted a poisonous breath and turned the air to flame; and he made
it coming out of a dark and jagged rock, belching forth venom from
its open throat, fire from its eyes, and smoke from its nostrils, in
so strange a fashion that it appeared altogether a monstrous and
horrible thing; and so long did he labour over making it, that the
stench of the dead animals in that room was