The recent purchase in England by Dr. Bode, of the
Berlin Museum, of a wax Renaissance bust attributed by him to Leonardo da Vinci has had a sensational sequel. In last Saturday's Times Mr. Cooksey, of Southampton, asserts that the so-called Renaissance bust was executed sixty years ago to the commission of a London dealer by a sculptor named Lu ens from a Leonardo school picture, and that, owing to the failure of the dealer to fulfil his contract, the bust remained in Lucas's hands until his death, when it was sold. These statements, which are embodied in a circumstantial narrative by Mr. Cooksey, have received further confirmation from the son of Lucas, who is still living at Southampton. He not only declares that the bust was the work of his father, but distinctly remembers the circumstances of its execution, in which he assisted. Supporters of the Leonardo attribution cannot deny that the bust is that known to Messrs. Cooksey and Lucas ; they only deny that Mr. R. C. Lucas executed it, and one of them suggests that the commission was not for a bust from a picture, but vice verse,. The balance of evidence is unmistakably in favour of Mr. Cooksey, confirmed as he is by Mr. Lucas, and we are inclined to view the exportation of the bust to Berlin with as much equanimity as the refusal of the British Museum to secure the notorious tiara o/ Saitaphernes.
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