smaller price mainly by Ambrogio da Predisunder the supervision, and
with the help, of Leonardo to be placed in the Chapel of the
Conception.

The differences between the earlier, the more authentic, and the more
characteristically Florentine "Vierge aux Rochers," in the Louvre, and
the "Virgin of the Rocks," in the National Gallery, are that in the
latter picture the hand of the angel, seated by the side of the Infant
Christ, is raised and pointed in the direction of the little St. John
the Baptist; that the St John has a reed cross and the three principal
figures have gilt nimbi, which were, however, evidently added much
later. In the National Gallery version the left hand of the Madonna,
the Christ's right hand and arm, and the forehead of St. John the
Baptist are freely restored, while a strip of the foreground right
across the whole picture is ill painted and lacks accent. The head of
the angel is, however, magnificently painted, and by Leonardo; the
panel, taken as a whole, is exceedingly beautiful and full of charm
and tenderness.




THE LAST SUPPER

Between 1496 and 1498 Leonardo painted his _chef d'oeuvre_, the
"Last Supper," (Plate IV.) for the end wall of the Refectory of the
Dominican Convent of S. Maria delle Grazie at Milan. It was originally
executed in tempera on a badly prepared stucco ground and began to
deteriorate a very few years after its completion. As early as 1556 it
was half ruined. In 1652 the monks cut away a part of the fresco