Volume Volume1\Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations
Entry# 680.
Contents: Vol. 1 | Vol. 2
A head, full face, of a young man
with fine flowing hair,
Many flowers drawn from nature,
A head, full face, with curly hair,
Certain figures of Saint Jerome,
6 The measurements of a figure,
Drawings of furnaces.
A head of the Duke,
9 many designs for knots,
4 studies for the panel of Saint Angelo
A small composition of Girolamo da Fegline,
A head of Christ done with the pen,
13 8 Saint Sebastians,
Several compositions of Angels,
A chalcedony,
A head in profile with fine hair,
Some pitchers seen in(?) perspective,
Some machines for ships,
Some machines for waterworks,
A head, a portrait of Atalanta raising her
face;
The head of Geronimo da Fegline,
The head of Gian Francisco Borso,
Several throats of old women,
Several heads of old men,
Several nude figures, complete,
Several arms, eyes, feet, and positions,
A Madonna, finished,
Another, nearly in profile,
Head of Our Lady ascending into Heaven,
A head of an old man with long chin,
A head of a gypsy girl,
A head with a hat on,
A representation of the Passion, a cast,
A head of a girl with her hair gathered in a knot,
A head, with the brown hair dressed.
Footnote: 680. This has already been published by AMORETTI _Memorie
storiche_ cap. XVI. His reading varies somewhat from that here
given, _e. g._ l. 5 and 6. _Certi Sangirolami in su d'una figura_;
and instead of I. 13. _Un San Bastiano_.
Footnote: 680. 9. _Molti disegni di gruppi_. VASARI in his life of
Leonardo (IV, 21, ed. MILANESI 1880) says: "_Oltreché perse tempo
fino a disegnare_ gruppi _di corde fatti con ordine, e che da un
capo seguissi tutto il resto fino all' altro, tanto che s'empiessi
un tondo; che se ne vede in istampa uno difficilissimo e molto
bello, e nel mezzo vi sono queste parole: Leonardus Vinci
Accademia_". _Gruppi_ must here be understood as a technical
expression for those twisted ornaments which are well known through
wood cuts. AMORETTI mentions six different ones in the Ambrosian
Library. I am indebted to M. DELABORDE for kindly informing me that
the original blocks of these are preserved in his department in the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. On the cover of these volumes is a
copy from one of them. The size of the original is 23 1/2
centimetres by 26 1/4. The centre portion of another is given on p.
361. G. Govi remarks on these ornaments (_Saggio_ p. 22): "_Codesti
gruppi eran probabilmente destinati a servir di modello a ferri da
rilegatori per adornar le cartelle degli scolari (?). Fregi
somigliantissimi a questi troviamo infatti impressi in oro sui
cartoni di vari volumi contemporanei, e li vediam pur figurare nelle
lettere iniziali di alcune edizioni del tempo._"
Dürer who copied them, omitting the inscription, added to the second
impressions his own monogram. In his diary he designates them simply
as "_Die sechs Knoten_" (see THAUSING, Life of A. Dürer I, 362,
363). In Leonardo's MSS. we find here and there little sketches or
suggestions for similar ornaments. Compare too G. MONGERI, _L'Arte
in Milano_, p. 315 where an ornament of the same character is given
from the old decorations of the vaulted ceiling of the Sacristy of
S. Maria delle Grazie.
Footnote: 680, 17. The meaning in which the word _coppi_, literally
pitchers, is here used I am unable to determine; but a change to
_copie_ seems to me too doubtful to be risked.
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