is
right hand he twisted the iron ring of a door-bell, or a horse-shoe,
as if it were lead. With his liberality he would assemble together
and support his every friend, poor or rich, if only he had intellect
and worth. He adorned and honoured, in every action, no matter what
mean and bare dwelling; wherefore, in truth, Florence received a
very great gift in the birth of Leonardo, and an incalculable loss
in his death. In the art of painting, he added to the manner of
colouring in oils a certain obscurity, whereby the moderns have
given great force and relief to their figures. And in statuary, he
proved his worth in the three figures of bronze that are over the
door of S. Giovanni, on the side towards the north, executed by
Giovan Francesco Rustici, but contrived with the advice of Leonardo;
which are the most beautiful pieces of casting, the best designed,
and the most perfect that have as yet been seen in modern days. By
Leonardo we have the anatomy of the horse, and that of man even more
complete. And so, on account of all his qualities, so many and so
divine, although he worked much more by words than by deeds, his
name and fame can never be extinguished; wherefore it was thus said
in his praise by Messer Giovan Battista Strozzi:

Vince costui pur solo
Tutti altri; e vince Fidia e vince Apelle
E tutto il lor vittorioso stuolo.

[Illustration: MAN AND WOMAN PRAYING

(_After the panel by =Giovan Antonio Boltraffio=. Milan: Brera,
281_)

_Anderson_]

A disciple of Leonardo was Giovan Antonio Boltraffio of Milan, a
person of great skill and understanding, who, in the year 1500,
painted with much diligence, for the Church of the Misericordia,
without Bologna, a panel in oils containing Our Lady with the Child
in her arms, S. John the Baptist, S. Sebastian naked, and the patron
who caused it to be executed, portrayed from the life, on his
knees--a truly beautiful work, on which he wrote his name, calling
himself a disciple of Leonardo. He has made other works, both at
Milan and elsewhere; but it must be enough here to have named this,
which is the best. Another (of his disciples) was Marco Oggioni, who
painted, in S. Maria della Pace, the Passing of Our Lady and the
Marriage of Cana in Galilee.

FOOTNOTE:

[10] Two accurate literal translations of the same original
must often coincide; and in dealing with this beautiful Life, the
translator has had to take the risk either of seeming to copy the
almost pe