The third period of Da Vinci's life begins with this return to Florence. Pietro Soilcrini. the gonfaloniere, now had him enrolled among the artists iu the employ of the government, and procured him a pension. In 1502 Cesare Borgia, captain-general of the pope's ariny, appointed hiiti his chief architect and engineer, and Da Vinci visited many parts of the Koman states in his offi- cial capacity. In 1503 he was employed to paint one si<le of the council-hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, while Michael Angelo was to paint the other side. Leonardo drew upon his side the cartoon of the Batik of the Stand- ard, which has received much praise from the old Ital- ian critics. In 1507 he again visited INIilan, where he painted a large Madonna and Child. During this jje- riod Leonardo produced his best paintings. He was less occupied with other jiursuits than at any other period, and gave his almost undivided attention to the art. Among his productions about this time may be men- tioned a Holi/ F(imil//,\vhu'h found its way to the court of Russia; his own portrait, in the ducal gallery at Flor- ence; a portrait of Raphael; Christ JJispu/inrj in the Temple, in one of the collections at Rome ; the portrait of Queen Giovanna. in the Doria Palace; the portrait of Alona Lisa, now in the Louvre, at Paris; and the car- toon of *S/. .-1 «««, drawn for the Church of the Servi, at Florence. Iu 1512 he visited Milan, and painted two portraits of the tluke, iMaximilian, son cif Lodovico Sforza. In 1514 he again returned to Florence. About this time he went to Rome, drawn thither by the encour- agement given to art by the new pope. Leo X. He was introduced to the pontiff, who signified his inten-
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tion to employ 1iis services; but, on account of a want ofcourtesv on the part of the pope, or liecause of the ris- iiiir of Buonarroti anil Itaphael, he left liome in disgust.
Now begins the Joiiti/i perioil of Da Vinci's life, which is marked by his relinquishment of the art of painting. By invitation of Francis I of France, he went to Pavia, where he was received with the greatest kind- ness by that monarch, taken into his service, and grant- ed a salary of seven hundred crowns annually. He went with the king to Bologna to meet Leo X, and af- terwards, about the beginning of laid, accoinpanied him to France. Alter he left Italy, on account of enfeebled liealth he executed little or nothing. The king could not prevail on him to color his cartoon of St. Anna, which he had taken with him; nor was he at all dis- posed to commence any new work. Tie gradually grew worse during the next five years, during which time he .still received marks of the esteem and favor of the king, and died at Clon,near Amboise, May 2, l.')19, aged sixfy- ffven, and not seventy-five, as Yasari has stated. Va- sari relates that he died in the arms of Francis I, who happened to be on a visit to his chamber at the time that he was seized with the paroxysm.
Da A'inci achieved distinction in the field of letters as well as in that of art. lie wrote several treatises on various subjects, the principal of which was a treatise on ])aiuting, Trattnto delUt Pitlura (Paris, 1651). Very few of his other works have been published, but in 1797 Venturi collected inmierous extracts from his unjiub- lished writings, and published them in an essay entitled JCssni sur les Oiirraf/i's I'lijiMro-Miitliematiqiies de Leo- nurd de Vinci, etc., '•which,'' says Ilallam, "according, at least, to our common estimate of the age in which he lived, are more like revelations of physical truths vouch- safed to a single mind than the superstructure of its
reasonmg upon any established basis. The discoveries which made (ialileo and Kepler, and Maestliii, and jMaurolicus, and Castelli, and I'lher names illustrious, the system il Copernicus, the very theories of ncent geologors, are anticipated by Da Vinci within the compass of a lew jiages; not, perhaps, in the most precise language, or on the most coiulusive reasoning, but so as to strike us with something like the awe of supernatural knowl- edge. In an age of so nntch dog- matism, he first laid down the urand principle of Bacon, that ex- |Hriment and observation must be \\\Q guides to just theory in the investigation of nature."
Da Vinci's life has been written in Italian by Vasari (1550), Amo- retti (1784), Bossi( 1814); in French by St.-(iermain (1803), Delecluzc ( 184-1). Dumensil (1850), Kio (1855), Clement (18fil), Houssaye (1867J; in (ierman by Braun (1819); in l•;nl;li^h by Hawkins (1802), Brown (^i!^2.s), and others.
Vinckeiiboonis, Davih, a 1 lemish painter, was born at Mech- lin in 1578. He was instructed by bis father, Philip, an ob.scur^i)ainl- er in distemper. He painted land- ^capes of a small size, and deco- rated them with subjects taken Inim the Bible, with fairs, merry- m.akings, etc. C)ne of his most im- jxirtaut works is a picture, at Am- sierdaiT), of a crowd of people at- tending the drawing of a lottery by torchlight. He painted a picture of Christ Heurimi his Cross, in the collection of the elector palatine, and Christ Restoriii<i Blind Bartimceiis, at Frankfort, in each of which a laiul- scape serves for the background. He excelled in mak- ing drawings with the pen washed with India ink, several of which are in the British Museum, represent- ing the history of the Pi-odigal Son. He also engraved some plates of landscapes from his own designs. He died at Amsterdam in 1629. See Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine A rts. s. v.