LEONARDO DA VINCI 21J ders, lizards, toads, serpents ; insects, as moths, locusts, and other crawling and flying obscene and obnoxious things ; and out of these he composed a sort of monster or chimera, which he represented as about to issue from the shield, with eyes flashing fire, and of an aspect so fearful and abominable that it seemed to in- fect the very air around. When finished, he led his father into the room in which it was placed, and the terror and horror of Piero proved the success of his attempt. This production, afterward known as the " Rotello del Fico," from the material on which it was painted, was sold by Piero secretly for one hundred ducats to a mer- chant, who carried it to Milan, and sold it to the duke for three hundred. To the poor peasant, thus cheated of his " Rotello," Piero gave a wooden shield, on which was painted a heart transfixed by a dart, a device better suited to his taste and comprehension. In the subsequent troubles of Milan, Leonardo's pict- ure disappeared, and was probably destroyed as an object of horror by those who did not understand its value as a work of art. During this first period of his life, which was wholly passed in Florence and its neighborhood, Leonardo painted several other pictures of a very different char- acter, and designed some beautiful cartoons of sacred and mythological subjects, which showed that his sense of the beautiful, the elevated, and the graceful was not less a part of his mind than that eccentricity and almost perversion of fancy which made him delight in sketching ugly, exaggerated caricatures, and repre- senting the deformed and the terrible. Leonardo da Vinci was now about thirty years old, in the prime of his life and talents. His taste for pleasure and expense was, however, equal to his genius and indefatigable industry ; and anxious to secure a certain provision for the fut- ure, as well as a wider field for the exercise of his various talents, he accepted the invitation of Ludovico Sforza il Moro, then regent, afterward Duke of Milan, to reside in his court, and to execute a colossal equestrian statue of his ancestor, Francesco Sforza. Here begins the second period of his artistic career, which includes his sojourn at Milan, that is from 1483 to 1499. Vasari says that Leonardo was invited to the court of Milan for the Duke Ludovico's amusement, " as a musician and performer on the lyre, and as the greatest singer and improvisatore of his time ;" but this is improbable. Leonardo, in his long letter to that prince, in which he recites his own qualifications for employment, dwells chiefly on his skill in engineering and fortification ; and sums up his pretensions as an artist in these few brief words : " I understand the different modes of sculpture in marble, bronze, and terra-cotta. In painting, also, I may esteem myself equal to anyone, let him be who he may." Of his musical talents he makes no mention whatever, though undoubtedly these, as well as his other social accomplishments, his handsome person, his winning ad- dress, his wit and eloquence, recommended him to the notice of the prince, by whom he was greatly beloved, and in whose service he remained for about seven- teen years. It is not necessary, nor would it be possible here, to give a particu- lar account of all the works in which Leonardo was engaged for his patron, nor of the great political events in which he was involved, more by his position than
