philosophers. Her name and her praises are constantly to be met with in Bandello's Novelle. Many poets extolled her beauty and her talents.

According to M. Uzielli, Lodovico's liaison with Cecilia began in 1481 at latest, for at that time the favourite received from her lover an estate near Saronno. In 1491 Lodovico presented her with a vast and sumptuous palace, formerly belonging to the Count of Carmagnola, the restoration of which was directed by Giovanni de' Busti, the ducal engineer. The building is now the "Broletto," or Finance Office. In May of the same year, Cecilia bore a son, who received the name of Cesare, and who, on the occasion of the solemn entry into Milan of his natural brother Maximilian, in 1512, bore the ducal sword before him.

If Lodovico's marriage with Beatrice d'Este did not entirely break the bonds that united him to Cecilia, at least it imposed some restrictions on their intercourse. Beatrice, who at first showed a supreme indifference towards her husband, soon became jealous of the favourite. In February 1492, she declared that she would not wear a certain gown of gold tissue if her rival were permitted to wear the same.1 Lodovico was at last forced to promise either to find a husband for his mistress, or put her into a convent. It was probably about this time that he married her to Count Lodovico Carminati Bergamino.2

One word more about this distinguished woman, to whom we shall refer again in connection with the portrait of her painted by Leonardo : Cecilia Gallerani died in 1536 at a very advanced age.

Details are lacking as to the character of Lucrezia Crivelli, who appears to have succeeded Cecilia Gallerani, and who also had the honour of being painted by Leonardo. In 1497, during the lifetime of Beatrice d'Este therefore, she received an important donation from her lover; her son, Giovanni Paolo, was made Marquis of Caravaggio by his father, and thus became the founder of the family of that name.

1 It was perhaps on the occasion of one of these disputes that Lodovico, after barely a year of marriage, forgot himself so far as to strike his wife. (Bertolotti, Il Filotecnico, May-June, 1887.)

2 This accommodating husband followed the fortunes of Il Moro, in spite of himself: put by Louis XII. upon the list of rebels, he fled to Mantua (1503), and his pension of 300 ducats was assigned to one of the Trivulzi. (Chroniques de Jean d'Auton, ed. de Maulde, vol. ii, p. 335.)

Adopting the profession of arms, he signalised himself by his valour,

and died in 1535.

There is nothing to prove that these two favourites were ambitious of any higher glory than to sit to Leonardo. Nothing in them recalls the intriguing Isotta da Rimini, or suggests Diane de Poitiers, or Madame de Pompadour.

The support and collaboration which Lodovico neither asked nor expected from the nobles of his court, he found indeed, in the highest degree, in his consort, the ambitious and energetic Beatrice d'Este, daughter to Duke Ercole of Ferrara. This princess had been affianced to him as early as 1480, when she was only five years old, for she was born in 1475. The marriage was finally consummated on January 18, 1491, and during the six years that were to elapse before her death on January 2, 1497-she was barely twentytwo-few clouds seem to have dimmed their happiness. Notwithstanding her extreme youth, Beatrice at once gave a bolder turn to Lodovico's policy. To her counsels is attributed the ever-increasing rigour of the hapless Gian Galeazzo Sforza's imprisonment. Her feminine vanity did the rest. Neglecting no opportunity for the humiliation of her niece, Isabella of Aragon, the lawful Duchess of Milan, she ended by provoking a storm which very nearly cost her the throne. We know how Isabella's trials at last drove her father, the King of Naples, to threaten Lodovico, and how the latter, to save himself, induced Charles VIII. to make his descent upon Italy. This time, all turned out well for Beatrice and her husband; poison, it is affirmed, rid them of Gian Galeazzo, and their alliance with the other Italian States relieved them of the irksome ally they had called in, the feeble and pretentious Charles VIII. But let us leave political history and return to our own subject, the history of art and letters. There is no doubt that Beatrice, brought up in the traditions of the house of Ferrara, the dynasty of all others in Italy which best understood how to husband its resources, taught her lord to give more method to his enterprises, and to follow them up with greater spirit.

✓ From time to time, in 1490, in 1510, &c., the visits of Beatrice's sister, Isabella of Mantua, incontestably the most fascinating woman of her day, infused more life and warmth into these cold calculations. With her passion for the beautiful and her fine intellect, Isabella was not long in not long in singling out Leonardo da Vinci, and it was not her fault that this king of artists did not come to Mantua, and there take the place of Andrea Mantegna, then at the end of his long and glorious career. The Marchesa at least

succeeded, by dint of many entreaties, in obtaining a few of his works, among others, the portrait of herself, that superb cartoon, for the discovery of which in the Louvre we are indebted to M. Charles Yriarte.

V A third representative of the house of Este, Cardinal Ippolito (born 1470, died 1520), the brother of Beatrice and Isabella, established himself in Milan in 1497, the year of Beatrice's death. He was one of those "grands seigneurs" on whom Fortune had lavished her favours from his birth. In 1487, when scarcely seventeen years of age, the patronage of his aunt, Beatrice of Aragon, the wife of Mathias Corvinus of Hungary, secured to him the rich archbishopric of Gran, or Strigonium, in Hungary. In 1497 he left this to ascend the archiepiscopal throne of S. Ambrogio at Milan. His taste for letters (it was for him that Ariosto wrote the Orlando Furioso) was hardly inferior to his military talents. (In 1500 he gained a brilliant victory over the Venetian fleet.) His love of art was no less pronounced. Like his sisters, he was ambitious of obtaining some work from Leonardo's ́hand. Unhappily, an outrageous violence of temper dimmed the lustre of his qualities. Having discovered that one of his natural brothers had supplanted him in the good graces of a lady of Lucrezia Borgia's suite, he had his rival's eyes put out. In one of the stanzas of the Orlando Furioso (canto xlvi., v. 94), Ariosto shows us the Cardinal sharing both good and evil fortune with his brother-in-law, Lodovico: now assisting him with advice, now unfurling at his side the serpent standard of the Visconti; following him in flight, and consoling him in

1 See a study of the highest interest by Messrs. A. Luzio and R. Renier on the relations of Isabella d'Este with the Court of Milan: Delle relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Ludovico e Beatrice Sforza. Milan 1890.

affliction. The fall of the house of Sforza did not interrupt the relations between Leonardo and the Cardinal. In 1507 we find the painter seeking the prelate's support in his lawsuit with his brothers.

Lodovico's brother, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza (born 1445, died 1505), may also be mentioned as a would-be Mæcenas. This personage, whose crafty face has come down to us on one of Caradosso's medals, was the most arrant intriguer of his time. A worthy brother of Il Moro, he long contested his policy, but ended by giving it the most devoted, if not the most loyal, support. At the moment of his flight, in 1499, Lodovico refused to confide the citadel of Milan to his keeping. For the rest, he was a man of intelligence and taste, and was capable, on occasion, of liberality. Poets, historians, painters, sculptors, musicians, sought his favour, when they could not obtain that of his all-powerful brother. To him the musician Florentius dedicated his Liber Musices, the chronicler Corio his interesting Historia di Milano, published at Venice in 1503. The sculptor Antonio Pollajuolo worked for him, as did also the medallist Caradosso; and at his request Bramante planned the cathedral of Pavia. After sharing the misfortunes of his brother, Ascanio died in Rome, where Andrea Sansovino's magnificent tomb in S. Maria del Popolo assured his immortality.2

Lodovico's niece, Bianca Maria Sforza (born in 1472; married 1493, to the Emperor Maximilian; died 1510), was, according to Lomazzo, soft as wax, tall and slender, with a beautiful face and graceful carriage. Unfortunately, it would appear that her intellectual and moral qualities did not correspond to her

1

In questa parte il giovene si vede

Col Duca sfortunato degl' Insubri,

Ch' ora in pace a consiglio con lui siede

Or armato con lui spiega i colubri;

E sempre par d'una medesma fede,

Or ne' felici tempi o nei lugubri :

Nella fuga lo segue, lo conforta

Nell' afflizion, gli é nel periglio scorta.

2 On the miniatures in the manuscript of Florentius dedicated to Cardinal Ascanio, see Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. iv, p. 28. The general's bâton belonging to Cardinal. Ascanio Sforza is now in the collection of Prince Charles of Prussia; his armour is in the “Armeria” of Turin (Angelucci, Catalogo della Armeria reale. Turin 1890, p. 47-48).