Note 51 — Chapter V · DAWN OF THE GOLDEN AGE: BOTTICELLI AND LEONARDO DA VINCI
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481The capital mistake of the more exclusive critics of Leonardo’s early work is that they set this delightful little masterpiece at the beginning of the series in an impossibly early date. There is no such manipulation of paint and no such feeling for unity of landscape before 1475 or so. Being a revision of the design of the Uffizi Annunciation, it is necessarily later.
My list of Leonardo’s would include, in approximate order:
1.
In Verocchio’s Baptism. The landscape at left and distance, the Angel kneeling to right, about 1470, Uffizi.
2.
Madonna and Child with an Angel, design by Verrocchio, London.
3.
The Annunciation, design mostly by Verrocchio, about 1475, Uffizi.
4.
Portrait of a Girl, possibly a Verrocchio, Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna.
5.
Annunciation, Louvre.
6.
Benois Madonna, about 1478–9, Petrograd.
7.
St. Jerome, unfinished, Vatican, Rome.
8.
Adoration of the Magi, left unfinished about 1481, Uffizi.
9.
Cartoon of St. Ann, Burlington House, London.
10.
Madonna of the Rocks, between 1480–83, Paris.
11.
So-called Belle Ferronnière, perhaps bottega piece, about 1490, Paris.
12.
Girl with an Ermine, perhaps a bottega piece, about 1495, Cracow.
13.
Clay model of the Sforza horse, destroyed in 1500.
14.
Last Supper, 1498, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
15.
Cartoon for a St. Ann, lost but represented by sketches at Venice, 1503.
16.
Madonna of the Distaff, represented by old copies.
17.
Cartoon for Battle of Anghiari, only central group painted, partly represented by sketches and old copies, 1504.
18.
Portrait of Mona Lisa, Paris.
19.
Cartoon for a standing Leda, probably only the figure, since numerous old copies have widely varying accessories.
20.
Madonna of the Rocks, 1507, London.
21.
Cartoon for a Kneeling Leda, the figure only. Sketches and old copies.
22.
Madonna and St. Ann, Paris.
23.
St. John, half-length, Paris.
All Leonardo’s main activity as a painter lies from 1470–1500. He painted a picture about every two years.
Various sculptures have been ascribed to Leonardo. Of these only two, which will have been made in Verrocchio’s bottega and under his direction, seem to me to deserve the distinction. A terra cotta Madonna and Child in the Metropolitan Museum, there ascribed to Verrocchio’s school, may represent Leonardo’s modelling about 1465. A stucco Madonna owned by Mr. George Diblee, at Oxford, is perhaps ten years later. The first is discussed by me in Art and Archaeology, Vol. IV, p. 122; the second is reproduced and accepted as a Leonardo by Prof. A. Venturi in L’ Arte, Vol. XXV, p. 131.