for the Moro, have vanished; and the only works
that remain to us of his Milanese period are the cartoon of the Virgin
and St. Anne now in the Royal Academy, and the "Vierge aux Rochers" in
the Louvre, which was originally painted between 1490 and 1494 for a
chapel in San Francesco of Milan, the church where the great Condottiere
Roberto di Sanseverino was piously buried by his sons, after his death
in the battle of Trent. The fame which Leonardo had attained, and the
high esteem in which he was held by the Moro, is proved by the verses of
contemporary poets, and especially by those of his fellow-countryman,
Bellincioni, the court-poet who died in 1492.

"To-day," he sings, "Milan is the new Athens! Here Lodovico holds his
Parnassus; here rare and excellent artists flock as bees to seek honey
from the flowers; here, chief among them all, is the new Apelles whom he
has brought from Florence." In the volume of Bellincioni's Sonnets,
published soon after his death by the priest Francesco Tanzio, the name
Magistro Leonardo da Vinci appears in a marginal note, and in another
sonnet inscribed to "Four illustrious men who have grown up under the
shadow of the Moro," the editor gives the respective names of these
famous individuals as "the painter Maestro Leonardo Florentino, the
goldsmith Caradosso, the learned Greek scholar Giorgio Merula, called
the sun of Alessandria, and Maestro Giannino, the Ferrarese
gun-founder."

"Rejoice, O Milano," sings the poet in these verses--"rejoice above all,
that within your walls you hold one who is foremost among excellent
artists, Da Vinci, whose drawing and colouring are alike unrivalled by
ancient or modern masters."

The fact that Lodovico was able to keep this great master at his court
during so long a period is the best proof we have of his knowledge of
men and love of art. These sixteen years were the most brilliant and
productive of Leonardo's life. Never again was he to enjoy a freedom
and independence so complete, never again was he to find a master as
generous, as stimulating to his powers of brain and hand as the great
Moro. It was not only that Signor Lodovico gave him the large salary of
2000 ducats--about L4000 of our money--"besides many other gifts and
rewards," as Leonardo himself told Cardinal de Gurk, but that he was
himself so fine a connoisseur and understanding a patron. More than
this, he knew how to deal with men of genius, and could make allowance
for their wayw