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Defense. Sir Joseph volleyed in return. He defined an expert as "a man who knows pictures and can tell a copy from an original." Of the Lardoux painting he said: "The neck is a clumsy cylinder of flesh . . . there are unnatural plates of flesh . . . faulty construction, faulty anatomy." He pointed to "poor" shadows, an off-perspective eye, awkward drawing. He defined technique as the "handwriting" of an artist whereby a "friend" can always recognize his work. Leonardo, he felt, could never have been a botchy anatomist, nor did the picture reveal his technique.
Jokes. Lawyer Miller mentioned a painter named Garbo, suggested a relationship with Cinemactress Greta Garbo. Sir Joseph failed to understand. When Sir Joseph indicated the contours of the painted bosom Lawyer Miller jocosely murmured: "We will not go below the beads." Lawyer Miller denied perceiving certain innuendoes of color and form in the Louvre Belle. "If I were with you, you would see it," gibed Sir Joseph. When Sir Joseph was asked if he belonged to the French society called Friends of the Louvre he sighed and said: "I don't know. I shall have to ask my secretary."
Aspects. As the trial wore on, the absence of absolute evidence grew obvious. There was a deadlock between the connoisseur, foiled 'by the need to express nebulous impressions in concrete language, and the shrewd lawyer, facetiously tilting and impaling but hampered by lack of the factual material of law. Sir Joseph grew lugubrious, exasperated, weary. Said he: "Last night I did not get a wink of sleep. All night my mind was filled with images of pictures going round and round. How long is this sort of thing going to last, do you think?"
To some spectators it seemed wise to let Leonardo da Vinci lie quietly in his undiscovered grave in Amboise by the sunny river Loire; to sell pictures for whatever they may bring regardless of recondite aspersions. The New York World editorialized: "We believe it would be a good idea if the court found out whether the talesmen know a Corot from a Wallace Nutting, and whether the Louvre is an art museum, a hotel or a disease. . . . There is grave danger that the verdict will be i cent to the plaintiff, 'with costs on the said Devinchey.' "
*M. Hacquin restored paintings for French monarchs.
*Lefthanded Leonardo often rubbed his pigments with his curiously burned right thumb.