Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LEONARDO DA VINCI POETISES THE DUKE IN HIS OWN DEFENCE. Padre Bandelli, then, complains of me Because, forsooth, I have not drawn a line Upon the Saviour's head; perhaps, then, he Could without trouble paint that head divine. But think, oh Signor Duca, what should be The pure perfection of our Saviour's face What sorrowing majesty, what noble grace, At that dread moment when He brake the bread, And those submissive words of pathos said, ' By one among you I shall be betrayed,' And say if 'tis an easy task to find, Even among the best that walk this earth, The fitting type of that divinest worth, That has its image solely in the mind. Vainly my pencil struggles to express The sorrowing grandeur of such holiness. In patient thought, in ever seeking prayer, I strive to shape that glorious face within, But the soul's mirror, dulled and dimmed by sin, Reflects not yet the perfect image there. Can the hand do before the soul has wrought ? Is not our art the servant of our thought ? And Judas, too, the basest face I see Will not contain his utter infamy; Among the dregs and offal of mankind, Vainly I seek an utter wretch to find. He who for thirty silver coins would sell His Lord, must be the Devil's miracle. Padre Bandelli thinks it easy is To find the type of him who with a kiss Betrayed his Lord. Well, what I can I'll do; And if it please his reverence and you, For Judas' face I'm willing to paint his. Padre Bandelli is a sort of man, Joking apart, whose little round of thought Is like his life, the measure of a span. He knows and does the duties he is taught, Prays, preaches, eats, and sleeps in dull content; Does the day's work, and deems it excellent; Says he's a sinner, but we're sinners all, And puts his own sin ...
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