myself to pointing out that the difference in style does not allow of our placing the Weimar drawings in the same category as those here reproduced.  The mode of grouping in the Weimar drawings is of itself sufficient to indicate that they were not executed before the picture was painted, but, on the contrary, afterwards, and it is, on the face of it, incredible that so great a master should thus have copied from his own work.

The drawing of Christ’s head, in the Brera palace at Milan was perhaps originally the work of Leonardo’s hand; it has unfortunately been entirely retouched and re-drawn, so that no decisive opinion can be formed as to its genuineness.

The red chalk drawing reproduced on Pl.  XLVI is in the Accademia at Venice; it was probably made before the text, Nos._ 664 and 665, was written.

The two pen and ink sketches on Pl.  XLV seem to belong to an even earlier date; the more finished drawing of the two, on the right hand, represents Christ with only St. John and Judas and a third disciple whose action is precisely that described in No._ 666, Pl. 4. It is hardly necessary to observe that the other sketches on this page and the lines of text below the circle (containing the solution of a geometrical problem) have no reference to the picture of the Last Supper.  With this figure of Christ may be compared a similar pen and ink drawing reproduced on page 297 below on the left hand; the original is in the Louvre.  On this page again the rest of the sketches have no direct bearing on the composition of the Last Supper, not even, as it seems to me, the group of four men at the bottom to the right hand—­who are listening to a fifth, in their midst addressing them.  Moreover the writing on this page (an explanation of a disk shaped instrument) is certainly not in the same style as we find constantly used by Leonardo after the year 1489.

It may be incidentally remarked that no sketches are known for the portrait of “Mona Lisa”, nor do the MS. notes ever allude to it, though according to Vasari the master had it in hand for fully four years.

Leonardo’s cartoon for the picture of the battle of Anghiari has shared the fate of the rival work, Michaelangelo’s “Bathers summoned to Battle”.  Both have been lost in some wholly inexplicable manner.  I cannot here enter into the remarkable history of this work; I can only give an account of what has been preserved to us of Leonardo’s scheme and preparations for executing it.  The extent of the material in studies and drawings was till now quite unknown.  Their publication here may give some adequate idea of the grandeur of this famous work.  The text given as No._ 669 contains a description of the particulars of the battle, but for the reasons given in the note to this text, I must abandon the idea of taking this passage as the basis of my attempt to reconstruct the picture as the artist conceived and executed it.