DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0298
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LEONARDO DA VINCI
[1452-
“ To-day I began this new book and a new model of
the horse.” Three years and a half later, this model
was sufficiently advanced to be placed under a
triumphal arch on the Piazza in front of the Castello
of Milan, on the occasion of Bianca Sforza’s wedding
to the Emperor Maximilian. Poets and chroniclers
hailed the monument as one of the wonders of
the age, and compared Leonardo to Phidias and
Pericles. But the wars in which the Duke of Milan
became engaged, and his financial difficulties, put an
end to his most cherished schemes, and the statue was
never cast in bronze.
In 1487, Leonardo made a model for the cupola of
the Duomo of Milan, and three years later received
payment for another which he never finished. In
1490, he went to Pavia, to give his opinion on the new
Cathedral of that city, but was hastily recalled to
superintend the decorations of the Castello of Milan,
in honour of Lodovico’s marriage. During many
years he was employed in painting the camerini of
this palace, which, under the Moro’s rule, became one
of the finest in Italy, and plans for pavilions in the
ducal gardens and ingenious contrivances for heating
the Duchess’s baths are preserved among his manu-
scripts. His help, again, was often required in the
masquerades and Carnival festivities that were held
on so vast a scale at the Court of Milan. On one
occasion he constructed the mechanism of an operetta
called “11 Paradiso,” in which the planets and stars sang
the praise of the newly-wedded Duchess ; on another
he designed the costumes for a grand Tournament in
which the Duke’s son-in-law appeared at the head of
a horde of Scythians. On one page of his note-
LEONARDO DA VINCI
[1452-
“ To-day I began this new book and a new model of
the horse.” Three years and a half later, this model
was sufficiently advanced to be placed under a
triumphal arch on the Piazza in front of the Castello
of Milan, on the occasion of Bianca Sforza’s wedding
to the Emperor Maximilian. Poets and chroniclers
hailed the monument as one of the wonders of
the age, and compared Leonardo to Phidias and
Pericles. But the wars in which the Duke of Milan
became engaged, and his financial difficulties, put an
end to his most cherished schemes, and the statue was
never cast in bronze.
In 1487, Leonardo made a model for the cupola of
the Duomo of Milan, and three years later received
payment for another which he never finished. In
1490, he went to Pavia, to give his opinion on the new
Cathedral of that city, but was hastily recalled to
superintend the decorations of the Castello of Milan,
in honour of Lodovico’s marriage. During many
years he was employed in painting the camerini of
this palace, which, under the Moro’s rule, became one
of the finest in Italy, and plans for pavilions in the
ducal gardens and ingenious contrivances for heating
the Duchess’s baths are preserved among his manu-
scripts. His help, again, was often required in the
masquerades and Carnival festivities that were held
on so vast a scale at the Court of Milan. On one
occasion he constructed the mechanism of an operetta
called “11 Paradiso,” in which the planets and stars sang
the praise of the newly-wedded Duchess ; on another
he designed the costumes for a grand Tournament in
which the Duke’s son-in-law appeared at the head of
a horde of Scythians. On one page of his note-