ges seen in the neighbourhood of his own birthplace. The
portrait was bought during the reign of Francis I. for a sum which is
to-day equal to about L1800. Leonardo, by the way, does not seem to
have been really affected by any individual affection for any woman,
and, like Michelangelo and Raphael, never married.

In January 4, 1504, Leonardo was one of the members of the Committee
of Artists summoned to advise the Signoria as to the most suitable
site for the erection of Michelangelo's statue of "David," which had
recently been completed.

BATTLE OF ANGHIARI

In the following May he was commissioned by the Signoria to decorate
one of the walls of the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The
subject he selected was the "Battle of Anghiari." Although he
completed the cartoon, the only part of the composition which he
eventually executed in colour was an incident in the foreground
which dealt with the "Battle of the Standard." One of the many
supposed copies of a study of this mural painting now hangs on the
south-east staircase in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It depicts the
Florentines under Cardinal Ludovico Mezzarota Scarampo fighting
against the Milanese under Niccolo Piccinino, the General of Filippo
Maria Visconti, on June 29, 1440.

AGAIN IN MILAN

Leonardo was back in Milan in May 1506 in the service of the French
King, for whom he executed, apparently with the help of assistants,
"the Madonna, the Infant Christ, and Saint Anne" (Plate VIII.). The
composition of this oil-painting seems to have been built up on the
second cartoon, which he had made some eight years earlier, and which
was apparently taken to France in 1516 and ultimately lost.

IN ROME

From 1513-1515 he was in Rome, where Giovanni de' Medici had been
elected Pope under the title of Leo X. He did not, however, work for
the Pope, although he resided in the Vatican, his time being occupied
in studying acoustics, anatomy, optics, geology, minerals,
engineering, and geometry!

IN FRANCE

At last in 1516, three years before his death, Leonardo left his
native land for France, where he received from Francis I. a princely
income. His powers, however, had already begun to fail, and he
produced very little in the country of his adoption. It is,
nevertheless, only in the Louvre that his achievements as a painter
can to-day be adequately studied.

[Illustration: PLATE VIII.-MADONNA, INFANT CHRIST, AND ST. ANNE

In the Louvr