the Sancy, blazed in his cap or on his doublet.1 And if we turn to the "artes minores" what zeal, what liberality, what unfaltering discrimination he displayed. Miniature painting as represented by the famous Antonio da Monza owes to Lodovico many exquisite pages of the richest combinations, the rarest delicacy of colour, and the most ineffable charm: to mention but a few at random, there is his marvellous marriage contract, now in the British Museum, the frontispieces of the history of Francesco Sforza, the Libro del Jesus of the young Maximilian Sforza in the Trivulzi Library. Music was held no less in honour by him; I have told how Leonardo gained his good graces by his skilful playing on the lute.2 A series of ceremonies, partly private, partly public, gave Il Moro an opportunity of admitting even the humblest of his subjects to the enjoyment of all these marvels; the marriage festivals organised by him surpassed in brilliancy and refinement, as we shall see directly, anything that the Italy of the Renaissance had ever witnessed. Not one of these ceremonies, down to the smallest reception of an ambassador, but was a state affair, in the full force of the term, setting in motion all the resources of Lodovico's imagination, for he had no idea of leaving anything to the hazard of the moment. To give one example among many-in 149, when about to receive the ambassadors of the King of France, he issued the following instructions, the precision of which could not well be improved upon by any master of the ceremonies or director of protocols. The chief ambassador is to be lodged in the "Sala delle Asse," occupied at present by the most illustrious Duchess of Bari; this apartment is to be left as it is, save for the addition of a bed-canopy ornamented with fleurs-de-lys. The adjoining apartments, hung with rich tapestry, are to serve respectively as robing and dining rooms. To the second ambassador, Lodovico gave up his own apartments, to the third, those occupied by Madonna 1 Belgrano, Della Vita privata dei Genovesi, 2nd edit. p. 100. Lodovico went so far in his pursuit of the rare and curious as to obtain a dwarf from Chios. (Archivio storico lombardo, 1874, p. 485.) In 1481 the number of courtiers, functionaries and servitors of all ranks, who had the right of eating in the ducal palace, amounted to 170. (State archives of Milan. Pot. Sovr. A.-Z. Vitto.) Curious details touching these personages are to be found in the Chroniques of Jean d'Auton, published by M. de Maulde (vol. ii. p. 328 et seq.). 2 On music at Milan, see Tiraboschi, Storia della Litteratura italiana, ed. Milan, vol. vi. p. 633 et seq. On the festivals, see the Archivio storico lombardo, 1887, p. 820. Beatrice, Jacopo Antiquario, and other personages. The Duke also enters into the most circumstantial details as to the arrangement of these rooms, mentioning the tapestry, the velvet hangings, and the furniture to be placed in them. The gentlemen of the suite he ordered to be lodged in the various hostelries of the city, the Well, the Star, the Bell.1 Lodovico sometimes chose Bramante,2 sometimes Leonardo, as impresario for the more important of these festivals. In 1489, on the occasion of the marriage of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the latter collaborated with the poet Bellincioni, in the construction of a theatrical machine, which they christened "Il Paradiso." It was a colossal orrery, in which the planets, represented by actors of flesh and blood, revolved round the princess by means of an ingenious mechanism, and sang her praises.3 In 1491, Leonardo arranged the jousts held in honour of Messire Galeazzo di San Severino, Lodovico's son-in-law. We know from his own account that on this occasion he introduced masquers representing savages. It seems to me very probable that certain sketches of squires and pages, now in the Windsor Collection, are studies for the costumes Leonardo designed for these festivities. They are remarkable for their sovereign elegance and distinction. To Leonardo and his contemporaries, they were but improvisations for the uses of a day; but genius has given them a vitality that has preserved them for centuries, in all their freshness and poetry.a In Leonardo's manuscripts there are a few rare passages relating to these masques and festivities. There is the sketch of a bird which is 1 From a document in the State archives of Milan, communicated to me by the Vicomte Fr. Delaborde. 2 De Geymüller, Les Projets primitifs pour la Basilique de Saint Pierre de Rome, p. 48. 3 "Festa ossia rappresentazione chiamata Paradiso, che fece fare il Signore Ludovico in laude della duchessa di Milano, e così chiamasi, perchè vi era fabbricato con il grande ingegno ed arte di maestro Leonardo Vinci fiorentino il Paradiso, con tutti li sette pianeti che girovano, e li pianeti erano rappresentati da uomini nella forma ed abiti che si descrivono dai poeti, e tutti parlano in lode della prefata duchessa Isabella." (Bellincioni, Le Rime, vol. ii. p. 20 et seq.-Dulcinio, Nuptia ill. ducis Mediolani quinti Joh. Galeaz Vicecomitis Sfortia. Milan, 1489 (Argelati, vol. i. p. dlxxxv.) 4 According to Herr Müller-Walde, on the other hand, these sketches relate to a tournament presided over by Giuliano de' Medici. But I have already shown the value of this conjecture (p. 56). to figure in a comedy, a "design for a carnival costume," etc. He also proposes to have snow brought from the tops of mountains in summer and scattered in public places during festivities.1 The most gorgeous of these pageants was that held on the occasion of the marriage of Bianca Maria Sforza with the Emperor Maximilian (November 30, 1493). From one end of DESIGN FOE CANDELABRA. (Codex Atlanticus.) the city to the other, the streets were 66 vases antico" executed after Lodovico's orders (note this term "in the antique style") with jewels and ornaments of the rarest kind, treasures 1 Richter, vol. i. p 361. Directions for a handsome carnival costume may be found in Manuscript i. (fol. 49, v°) in the Institut. 2 These candelabra recall those which Leonardo drew on one of the pages of the Codex Atlanticus (ed. Govi, pl. xvi). Two contemporaries, Pietro Lazzarone of the Valtellina and Baldassare Taccone of Alessandria, sing the splendours-the one in Latin, the other in Italian—of this alliance, the most illustrious ever contracted by a princess of Milan. Il Moro thought no sacrifice too great to secure the protection of the emperor : he gave his niece a marriage portion of 400,000 gold florins (equal to about £800,000), besides a trousseau valued at 100,000 florins, making up a total which represented nearly a year's revenue of the Duchy. (This revenue, according to Corio, amounted to 600,000 florins.) But, despite the power and wealth of the Sforzi, this union was far from being agreeable to the Germans with their strong prejudices as to birth. "The marriage," writes Commines, "has greatly displeased the princes of the Empire and many friends of the King of the Romans, not being contracted with so noble a house as befitted his Majesty; for, on the side of the Visconti, as they who reign in Milan call themselves, there is but little nobility" (These were indeed purists, for whom the Visconti were not noble enough!-the Visconti, who for a century had counted among their kinsmen and allies the Kings of France, and most of the ruling a milies of Europe!)--" and still less on the side of the Sforzi, of whom the Duke Francisque de Millan was born." (Petri Lazarone, Epithalamiumn in nuptiis Blancæ Mariæ Sfortia cum Maximiliano Romanorum Rege, Milan, 1494. Argelati, vol. i. p. dxcvi. also F. Calvi, Bianca Maria Sforza Visconti, Milan, 1888.) See that defy description by the pen of the poet or the brush of the painter. A natural flexibility enabled Lodovico, the fastidious æsthete for whom nothing was too sumptuous, and who might have given points. to any Byzantine Emperor, to transform himself into a simple country gentleman every now and then he opposed the charms of nature pure and simple to the refinements of city life, and the subtleties of a finished and voluptuous civilisation; as a pendant to the splendid castle of Milan, he had the gardens, the pastures and farms of his castle at Vigevano. Does this not show that the existence of the Italian princes of the early Renaissance was wonderfully comprehensive, and that in Lodovico il Moro the man was as admirably balanced as the ruler was incomplete? But let us inquire more closely into those diversions, which alternated with his enjoyment of the delicate and subtle productions of Leonardo's brush. At Pavia, the pleasures of the chase prevailed ; "The chasteau," says our worthy chronicler Robert Gaguin, "is a very beautiful place, and marvellously well plenished with all necessary things. And joining the castle is a great park, enclosed about like the forest of Vincennes. It is well furnished with wild beasts such as stags, hinds, and roe-deer, wild cattle, horses, and mares, goats and other animals. At the end of the park is a monastery of the order of the Carthusians [des Chatreux (sic)], in which is a beautiful church, made for the most part of marble, and the porch all of alabaster." MARSHAL TRIVULZIO. FROM A PLAQUE ASCRIBED TO CARADOSSO. At Vigevano and in its neighbourhood, Lodovico the huntsman became Lodovico the agriculturist. His estate, or model farm there -it is still Gaguin who speaks was "a place much esteemed for the marvellous number of beasts that are there, and that all may see with the eye, as horses, mares, oxen, cows, bulls, rams, ewes, goats, and other beasts of the like nature with their young, as fawns, foals, calves, lambs, and kids. The domain is nobly situated in the midst of a great meadow about four leagues in circuit. And the meadow has more than thirty-three streams of fair living water running through this spot ! 1 so well suited for industry, seeing that they serve for the bathing and cleansing of the beasts, as well as for the watering of all the meadows. The plan of the said demesne is a square, like a great cloister, and around it, in the park, are stands loaded with hay, besides the other goods that are there. In the court of the said demesne are governors and captains, who direct all the interior. The out-buildings behind are in the shape of a great cross. In this place are many servitors, their wives and families. That is to say, some for grooming, tending, and cleaning the beasts; others for milking them; and also there are others to receive the milk and deliver it over to the master cheese-maker, who makes it into the great cheeses they call here Milan cheeses. Everything is taken and given by weight. That is to say, the hay, the milk, the butter, the cheese, and there is a great wealth and abundance of all things." I must ask the reader's pardon for dwelling on details apparently so trivial. But they have their significance. In this careful measuring and weighing of milk, &c., we trace that love of precision that characterised the Renaissance, the tendency to examine and classify-in a word, the modern scientific spirit! It Lodovico married comparatively late in life. He was forty when he was united to Beatrice d'Este in 1491. This explains the important part played in his life by his various irregular connections. He showed a certain distinction of taste, moreover, in his choice of favourites.1 is not known who was the first of Lodovico's mistresses. It may have been that Lucia Visconti whom he made Contessa Melzi, and who bore him a son in 1476. I know not if she, too, was the mother of his daughter Bianca (married in 1489 to Galeazzo di San Severino, died 1497), and of Leone, the future Notary-Apostolic. The second of Lodovico's favourites seems to have been Cecilia Gallerani. Of a noble Milanese family, she had received a brilliant education, and spoke and wrote Latin and Italian with equal facility. Her verses were much admired, as were also the solemn orations she recited at various times before theologians and 1 I complete, by means of the Famiglie celebri d'Italia by Litta, and of the Archivio storico lombardo (1874, p. 486-487), the data furnished by Uzielli in his Leonardo da Vinci e tre Gentildonne milanesi del secolo XV, (Pignerol, 1890). See also Les Amies de Ludovic le More, by M. Pélissier, from the Revue historique of 1890. |