It is only the skilled connoisseur who, in travelling from Paris to
Vienna, and from Vienna to Madrid, can hold in memory the qualities of
technique which link together the three pictures; but for general
characteristics of composition, the black and white reproductions may
suffice. Leonardo availed himself of his intimate knowledge of Nature
to choose from her storehouse something which is unique rather than
typical. The rock grotto doubtless has a real counterpart, but we must
go far to find it. In the river, gleaming beyond, we see the painter's
characteristic treatment of water, which Raphael was glad to adopt.
The triangular arrangement of the figures, the relation of the Virgin
to the children, the simple, childish beauty of the latter, and their
attitude towards each other--all these points suggest the source of
Raphael's similar conceptions. The Virgin's hair falls over her
shoulders entirely unbound, in gentle, waving ripples.

[Illustration: LEONARDO DA VINCI.--MADONNA OF THE
ROCKS.]

We do not need to be told, though the historian has taken pains to
record it, that a feature of personal beauty by which Leonardo was
always greatly pleased was "curled and waving hair." We see it in the
first touch of his hand when, as a boy in the workshop of Verrochio,
he painted the wavy-haired angel in his Master's Baptism; and here,
again, in the Virgin, we find it the crowning element of her
mysterious loveliness. We try in vain to penetrate the secret of her
smile,--it is as evasive as it is enchanting. And herein lies the
distinguishing difference between Leonardo and Raphael. The former is
always mysterious and subtle; the latter is always frank and
ingenuous. While both are true interpreters of nature, Leonardo
reveals the rare and inexplicable, Raphael chooses the typical and