[50] Cellini declares that he borrowed a great number of excellent observations upon perspective from one of Vinci's discourses. (Tratt. ii. p. 153.)
[51] Plin. lib. xxxv. c. 10. Uno se præstare, quod manum ille de tabulâ nesciret tollere. This he said in reference to that Jalysus, on which Protogenes had bestowed no less than seven years.
[52] (Page 329.) The Sig. Baldassare Orsini has likewise inveighed against the inconsiderate retouchings of old paintings, in his Risposta, p. 77; where he also alludes to a letter of Hakert's, in defence of varnishes, and to another in reply, in which the use of them is disapproved by force of examples. He moreover cites a Supplementary Letter drawn from the Roman Journal of Fine Arts, for December, 1788.
[53] A number of designs are to be seen in his MS. volumes belonging to the Ambrosian collection. See Mariette's letter, in vol. ii. of Lett. Pittoriche, p. 171; and, also, "Observations upon the Designs of Lionardo," by the Ab. Amoretti, Ed. of Milan, 1784.
[54] It was intended for the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, father of Lodovico. The Cav. Fr. Sabba da Castiglione has mentioned in his Ricordi, No. 109, that this very ingenious model, so greatly celebrated in the annals of the arts, which cost Vinci sixteen years to complete, was seen by the writer in 1499, converted into a target for the Gascon bowmen in the service of Louis XII. when he became master of Milan.
[55] Amoretti, Mem. Stor. del Vinci, p. 130.
[56] See Amoretti, p. 90.
[57] Can there be any doubt whether he was blind or not, when he wrote the following verses:—
Quindi andai[n] a Piacenza, et ivi fei
Nel refetorio di Sant'Agostino