er vada flectit equos.
Mente quidem vates illum conspexit uterque,
Vincius ast oculis; jureque vincit eos.

[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

(_After the panel by =Leonardo da Vinci=. Florence: Uffizi, 1252_)

_Anderson_]

The fancy came to him to paint a picture in oils of the head of a
Medusa, with the head attired with a coil of snakes, the most
strange and extravagant invention that could ever be imagined;
but since it was a work that took time, it remained unfinished, as
happened with almost all his things. It is among the rare works of
art in the Palace of Duke Cosimo, together with the head of an
angel, who is raising one arm in the air, which, coming forward, is
foreshortened from the shoulder to the elbow, and with the other he
raises the hand to the breast.

It is an extraordinary thing how that genius, in his desire to give
the highest relief to the works that he made, went so far with dark
shadows, in order to find the darkest possible grounds, that he
sought for blacks which might make deeper shadows and be darker than
other blacks, that by their means he might make his lights the
brighter; and in the end this method turned out so dark, that, no
light remaining there, his pictures had rather the character of
things made to represent an effect of night, than the clear quality
of daylight; which all came from seeking to give greater relief, and
to achieve the final perfection of art.

He was so delighted when he saw certain bizarre heads of men, with
the beard or hair growing naturally, that he would follow one that
pleased him a whole day, and so treasured him up in idea, that
afterwards, on arriving home, he drew him as if he had had him in
his presence. Of this sort there are many heads to be seen, both of
women and of men, and I have several of them, drawn by his hand with
the pen, in our book of drawings, which I have mentioned so many
times; such was that of Amerigo Vespucci, which is a very beautiful
head of an old man drawn with charcoal, and likewise that of
Scaramuccia, Captain of the Gypsies, which afterwards came into the
hands of M. Donato Valdambrini of Arezzo, Canon of S. Lorenzo, left
to him by Giambullari.

He began a panel-picture of the Adoration of the Magi, containing
many beautiful things, particularly the heads, which was in the
house of Amerigo Benci, opposite the Loggia de' Peruzzi; and this,
also, remained unfinished, like his other works.

It came to pass t