Ercole d'Este and Leonardo Da Vinci's Equestrian Statue of Francesco Sforza

Few lost works of art of the Renaissance have excited more learned discussion than the great equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza which Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to make by Lodovico il Moro. The project for erecting such a monument to the founder of the ducal house had been under discussion for several years before Leonardo settled at Milan (1482), and if Sabba da Castiglione is correct in his assertion that the artist worked on it for sixteen years it must have been begun in 1483 or 1484. Leonardo's first projects were too grandiose to be capable of realization, and in 1489 Lodovico was enquiring about other sculptors who might take it over. But in 1490 Leonardo was back at work on the statue, and by the autumn of 1493 a full-scale model in clay was complete and could be exhibited during the festivities which accompanied the marriage of Lodovico's niece, Bianca Maria Sforza, to the future Emperor Maximilian. No advance was made with the casting, however, and in November, 1494, the duke sent the bronze collected for the statue to his cannon-founding brother-in-law, Ercole d'Este. The clay model stood in the Cortile Vecchio of the Castello at Milan until the coming of the French, and Vasari has preserved the tradition that they destroyed it (lo spezzarono tutto). In fact there is good reason to suppose that Ercole obtained the model as well as the metal, but that the casting was never undertaken, and that it was at Ferrara that it finally disintegrated

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Bronze · Brother · Emperor · Humanities · Painting · Statue · The Renaissance · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Architecture and Art History Studies · Conservation Techniques and Studies · History · Law

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