between a circular and a square base. The first design shows some affinity with the mausoleum of Hadrian (the fortress of S. Angelo at Rome) and is surmounted-not very appropriately, it must be

acknowledged by an equestrian statue. But immediately afterwards, on the same sheet of paper (which shows that these various sketches must belong to the earliest of his experiments),1 comes a sketch

1 One of the drawings at Windsor (no. 84) in which the horse rears above a fallen warrior who tries to defend himself, was certainly among the first attempts. This is evident in the want of breadth of the horse's body and in the insignificant treatment of the base.

The course of these fluctuating conceptions has been vividly brought before us by

in which he places on the entablature of the base, now ornamented with pillars and pediments-seated figures, captives, in bold and vigorous relief (an arrangement adopted later by Michelangelo, and thenceforth a very favourite one during the Renaissance). Above this rises the equestrian statue.

I think I may say without disparagement to the memory of the great artist that more than any of his contemporaries, Leonardo kicked against the restraints of architecture, the necessity, for instance, of blending figures with their surroundings in order to produce a decorative effect. In all sketches for the monument his embarrassment is patent as soon as he attempts to bring the statue into harmony with the base. But let him draw the horse by itself, or merely with its rider, and whether he depicts the animal as rearing above a fallen warrior (Richter, pl. lxviii., lxix.), or stepping majestically, its head arched over its breast (pl. lxx.), or proudly raised (pl. lxxi.), he shows an incomparable freedom and assurance.

The studies for the Sforza monument are, for the most part, vague in the extreme; it would be impossible to reconstruct the final design through them. And the reason for this is not far to seek the fundamental idea once fixed in the artist's mind, he no longer works with pencil or pen, but with the trowel; it is not on paper that he records his experiments, but in clay. Why waste time in drawing on Louis Courajod. Let me, for the moment, borrow his eloquent pen. "While by an ardent study of the anatomy of the horse-a study which apparently goes far beyond the exigencies of sculpture-Leonardo takes every means of ensuring the charm of marvellous execution in his work, the entire composition is shaping itself in his mind. The picture of a colossal monument rises up before him—a gigantic pedestal grouped about with figures, and surmounted by the hero. The statue seems at first to have been associated with the idea of a fountain; the horse, stepping composedly forward, overturns with its fore-foot a vase, from which water flows. This ingenious allegory would recall the fact that Lombardy had been given a marvellous system of irrigation by its rulers. Another symbol is added to complete it-under the uplifted hind-foot of the steed is a tortoise, the placid and appropriate denizen of the moist plains about Milan: it still swarms in the enclosure of the Certosa of Pavia. Thus conceived, the statue would be emblematic of a pacific ruler, a protector of agriculture. Meanwhile, Leonardo hollows in the pedestal a niche destined to receive the recumbent statue of the Duke. We know that the colossal monument was intended, primarily, for a tomb."

1 My hypothesis as to the date of these drawings is corroborated by the fact that studies of the horse walking and galloping, of a circular and of a rectangular pedestal, are found on the same page. Dr. Richter states that among the sketches referring to the casting of the statue, six show the horse walking, but only one represents it galloping.

a flat surface a figure which will eventually be executed in the round? At the most, it serves only to give an idea of the general outline.

Leonardo was not one to make rapid decisions, and Lodovico il Moro had not the fortitude to make a plan and keep strictly to it; doubtless, too, his much-admired artist unsettled his mind anew each time they met, by laying some fresh design before him. As we have already seen, he made suggestion after suggestion-now the huge pedestal was circular, now rectangular, now in the shape of a rotunda, now of a triumphal arch; then again, it was to surmount a deep cavity containing the recumbent figure of the deceased Duke, and so forth. Finally, Sforza, worn out by these incessant discussions, begged Pietro Alemanni, the Florentine ambassador at Milan, to ask Lorenzo the Magnificent to send him one or two sculptors capable of executing the statue in question. The Duke, adds Alemanni, being afraid that Leonardo, who had been commissioned to make the model, was hardly equal to the task! 1

This threat to supplant him evidently had the desired effect of rousing Leonardo from his apathy, for we have indubitable proof that by the following year the work was once more in full swing. Under the date of April 23 we find this pregnant entry among his memoranda: "To-day I began this book and re-commenced the 'horse,' (the equestrian statue)."

At last, on November 30, 1493, on the occasion of the marriage of Bianca Maria Sforza to the Emperor Maximilian, the model of the horse was exhibited to the public under a triumphal arch.2

Was this colossal horse modelled in clay, or, like certain earlier models, that, for instance, of Jacopo della Quercia's equestrian statue of

1 Müller-Walde, Jahrbuch der Kg. Kunstsammlungen, 1897, p. 155.

This important document runs as follows: July 22, 1489. "Duke Lodovico intends to erect a noble memorial to his father; he has already charged Leonardo da Vinci to execute a model for it, that is to say, a great bronze horse upon which (will be placed) a figure of Duke Francesco in armour. And seeing that his Excellency was desirous of having something superlatively good, he charged me to write to you on his behalf, begging that you would send him an artist capable of carrying out such a work; for though he has entrusted it to Leonardo da Vinci, the Duke appears to me far from satisfied that he is equal to the task."

2 The poets Taccone, Giovanni da Tolentino, Lanc. Curzio and a host of others sang the praises of Leonardo's masterpiece. For some of their effusions see Il Castello di Milano, by Beltrami (p. 180-182).

Giantedesco da Pietramala at Siena, of a mixture of wood, hay, hemp, clay and mortar? An early writer enables us to satisfy our curiosity on this question by informing us that the "typus" (model) was "cretaceus," that is, of chalk or plaster.1

This was the end of the first act of the drama; the second opened

STUDIES OF HORSES.

with the necessary preparations for the casting of the statue.2 Strictly speaking, the sculptor might now have considered his part of the business completed; what remained to be done was chiefly mechanical. But the division of labour was not very clearly defined in the fifteenth century, and Leonardo was obliged to devote much time and patience to experiments in the founder's art. The construction of the furnaces and the moulds, the composition of the bronze, the manner

of heating, the finishing of the cast, the polishing, the chasing—all this had to be carefully considered.

The financial embarrassments of the court of Milan contributed quite as much as Leonardo's procrastinating tendencies to the delay in the completion of the "Cavallo." In a letter to Lodovico il Moro

1 De Cardinalatu, i. p. 50.-Cf. Müller-Walde, Jahrbuch der kg. Kunstsammlungen, 1897, p. 105-107.

2 In his work De Divina Proportione (dedicated to Lodovico il Moro, February 9, 1498), Leonardo's friend Pacioli, tells us that the colossus was to measure twelve braccie (about twenty-six feet in height), and to weigh, when cast in bronze, about 200,000 lbs., while that designed by the brothers Mantegazza would not have weighed more than 6,000.

unfortunately without a date-the artist writes, "I say nothing of the horse (the equestrian statue) because I know the state of affairs-" (literally, the times the difficulties of the present situation).

Leonardo himself was the first to feel a doubt as to the completion of the monument. In a letter to the wardens of a church at Piacenza, who, it seems, had asked his advice as to the choice of a bronze founder, he declares that he alone would be competent to carry out the work they propose, but that

he is overburdened with orders. The artist's words are too characteristic not to be given textually : Believe me, there is no man capable of it but Leonardo of Florence, who is engaged upon the bronze horse of the Duke Francesco; and he is out of the question, for he has enough work for all the rest of his days, and I doubt, seeing how great that work is, if he will ever finish it."1

An anonymous biographer confirms Vasari's

STUDIES OF HORSES.

statement that Leonardo intended casting the statue in one piece,2 but this statement is confuted by one of Leonardo's own manuscripts, in which he discusses the possibilities of casting 100,000 lbs. of metal, and determines that five furnaces would have to be used, reckoning 2,000 (20,000) or at the most 3,000 (30,000) lbs. to each furnace.3 This, of course, settles the question.

1 Richter, vol. ii. p. 15,400.-Uzielli, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 179.-Müller-Walde, Jahrbuch der kg. Pr. Kunstsammlungen 1897, p. 94 et seq.

2 Milanesi-Documenti inedite, p. 11. Vasari says that on this point Leonardo consulted his skilled compatriot, Giuliano da San Gallo, when the latter visited Milan. 3 Beltrami, Il Codice di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca del Principe Trivulzio, fol. 47.