d masters of Italy, LEONARDO DA
VINCI (1452-1519), the head of the Lombard or Milanese school. He was not
the equal of the great masters, Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Titian; but
he stands between them and the painters who preceded him or those of his
own day.

In some respects, however, he was the most extraordinary man of his time.
His talents were many-sided; for he was not only a great artist, but also
a fine scholar in mathematics and mechanics; he wrote poetry and composed
music, and was with all this so attractive personally, and so brilliant in
his manner, that he was a favorite wherever he went. It is probable that
this versatility prevented his being very great in any one thing, while he
was remarkable in many things.

When still very young Leonardo showed his artistic talent. The paper upon
which he worked out his sums was frequently bordered with little pictures
which he drew while thinking on his lessons, and these sketches at last
attracted his father's attention, and he showed them to his friend Andrea
Verrocchio, an artist of Florence, who advised that the boy should become
a painter. Accordingly, in 1470, when eighteen years old, Leonardo was
placed under the care of Verrocchio, who was like a kind father to his
pupils: he was not only a painter, but also an architect and sculptor, a
musician and a geometer, and he especially excelled in making exquisite
cups of gold and silver, crucifixes and statuettes such as were in great
demand for the use of the priesthood in those days.

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--LEONARDO DA VINCI. _From a drawing in red chalk
by himself. In the Royal Library, Turin._]

Pietro Perugino was a fellow-pupil with Leonardo, and they two soon
surpassed their master in painting, and at last, when Verrocchio was
painting a picture for the monks of Vallambrosa, and desired Leonardo to
execute an angel in it, the work of his pupil was so much better than his
own that the old painter desired to throw his brush aside forever. The
picture is now in the Academy of Florence, and represents "The Baptism
of Christ." With all his refinement and sweetness, Leonardo had a liking
for the horrible. It once happened that a countryman brought to his father
a circular piece of wood cut from a fig-tree, and desired to have it
painted for a shield; it was handed over to Leonardo, who collected in his
room a number of lizards, snakes, bats, hedgehogs, and other frightful
creatures, and from these painted