Volume 2

Translated by Jean Paul Richter

1888

XI.

The notes on Sculpture.

Compared with the mass of manuscript treating of Painting, a very

small number of passages bearing on the practice and methods of

Sculpture are to be found scattered through the note books; these

are here given at the beginning of this section (Nos. 706-709).

There is less cause for surprise at finding that the equestrian

statue of Francesco Sforza is only incidentally spoken of; for,

although Leonardo must have worked at it for a long succession of

years, it is not in the nature of the case that it could have given

rise to much writing. We may therefore regard it as particularly

fortunate that no fewer than thirteen notes in the master's

handwriting can be brought together, which seem to throw light on

the mysterious history of this famous work. Until now writers on

Leonardo were acquainted only with the passages numbered 712, 719,

720, 722 and 723.

In arranging these notes on sculpture I have given the precedence to

those which treat of the casting of the monument, not merely because

they are the fullest, but more especially with a view to

reconstructing the monument, an achievement which really almost lies

within our reach by combining and comparing the whole of the

materials now brought to light, alike in notes and in sketches.

A good deal of the first two passages, Nos. 710 and 711, which refer

to this subject seems obscure and incomprehensible; still, they

supplement each other and one contributes in no small degree to the

comprehension of the other. A very interesting and instructive

commentary on these passages may be found in the fourth chapter of

Vasari's Introduzione della Scultura under the title "Come si fanno

i modelli per fare di bronzo le figure grandi e picciole, e come le

forme per buttarle; come si armino di ferri, e come si gettino di

metallo," &c. Among the drawings of models of the moulds for casting

we find only one which seems to represent the horse in the act of

galloping--No. 713. All the other designs show the horse as pacing

quietly and as these studies of the horse are accompanied by copious

notes as to the method of casting, the question as to the position

of the horse in the model finally selected, seems to be decided by

preponderating evidence. "Il cavallo dello Sforza"--C. Boito remarks

very appositely in the Saggio on page 26, "doveva sembrare fratello

al cavallo del Colleoni. E si direbbe che questo fosse figlio del

cavallo del Gattamelata, il quale pare figlio di uno dei quattro

cavalli che stavano forse sull' Arco di Nerone in Roma" (now at

Venice). The publication of the Saggio also contains the

reproduction of a drawing in red chalk, representing a horse walking

to the left and supported by a scaffolding, given here on Pl. LXXVI,

No. 1. It must remain uncertain whether this represents the model as

it stood during the preparations for casting it, or whether--as

seems to me highly improbable--this sketch shows the model as it was

exhibited in 1493 on the Piazza del Castello in Milan under a

triumphal arch, on the occasion of the marriage of the Emperor

Maximilian to Bianca Maria Sforza. The only important point here is

to prove that strong evidence seems to show that, of the numerous

studies for the equestrian statue, only those which represent the

horse pacing agree with the schemes of the final plans.

The second group of preparatory sketches, representing the horse as

galloping, must therefore be considered separately, a distinction

which, in recapitulating the history of the origin of the monument

seems justified by the note given under No. 720.

Galeazza Maria Sforza was assassinated in 1476 before his scheme for

erecting a monument to his father Francesco Sforza could be carried

into effect. In the following year Ludovico il Moro the young

aspirant to the throne was exiled to Pisa, and only returned to

Milan in 1479 when he was Lord (Governatore) of the State of Milan,

in 1480 after the minister Cecco Simonetta had been murdered. It may

have been soon after this that Ludovico il Moro announced a

competition for an equestrian statue, and it is tolerably certain

that Antonio del Pollajuolo took part in it, from this passage in

Vasari's Life of this artist: "E si trovo, dopo la morte sua, il

disegno e modello che a Lodovico Sforza egli aveva fatto per la

statua a cavallo di Francesco Sforza, duca di Milano; il quale

disegno e nel nostro Libro, in due modi: in uno egli ha sotto

Verona; nell'altro, egli tutto armato, e sopra un basamento pieno di

battaglie, fa saltare il cavallo addosso a un armato; ma la cagione

perche non mettesse questi disegni in opera, non ho gia potuto

sapere." One of Pollajuolo's drawings, as here described, has lately

been discovered by Senatore Giovanni Morelli in the Munich

Pinacothek. Here the profile of the horseman is a portrait of

Francesco Duke of Milan, and under the horse, who is galloping to

the left, we see a warrior thrown and lying on the ground; precisely

the same idea as we find in some of Leonardo's designs for the

monument, as on Pl. LXVI, LXVII, LXVIII, LXIX and LXXII No. 1; and,

as it is impossible to explain this remarkable coincidence by

supposing that either artist borrowed it from the other, we can only

conclude that in the terms of the competition the subject proposed

was the Duke on a horse in full gallop, with a fallen foe under its

hoofs.

Leonardo may have been in the competition there and then, but the

means for executing the monument do not seem to have been at once

forthcoming. It was not perhaps until some years later that Leonardo

in a letter to the Duke (No. 719) reminded him of the project for

the monument. Then, after he had obeyed a summons to Milan, the plan

seems to have been so far modified, perhaps in consequence of a

remonstrance on the part of the artist, that a pacing horse was

substituted for one galloping, and it may have been at the same time

that the colossal dimensions of the statue were first decided on.

The designs given on Pl. LXX, LXXI, LXXII, 2 and 3, LXXIII and LXXIV

and on pp. 4 and 24, as well as three sketches on Pl. LXIX may be

studied with reference to the project in its new form, though it is

hardly possible to believe that in either of these we see the design

as it was actually carried out. It is probable that in Milan

Leonardo worked less on drawings, than in making small models of wax

and clay as preparatory to his larger model. Among the drawings

enumerated above, one in black chalk, Pl. LXXIII--the upper sketch

on the right hand side, reminds us strongly of the antique statue of

Marcus Aurelius. If, as it would seem, Leonardo had not until then

visited Rome, he might easily have known this statue from drawings

by his former master and friend Verrocchio, for Verrocchio had been

in Rome for a long time between 1470 and 1480. In 1473 Pope Sixtus

IV had this antique equestrian statue restored and placed on a new

pedestal in front of the church of San Giovanni in Luterano.

Leonardo, although he was painting independently as early as in 1472

is still spoken of as working in Verrocchio's studio in 1477. Two

years later the Venetian senate decided on erecting an equestrian

statue to Colleoni; and as Verrocchio, to whom the work was

entrusted, did not at once move from Florence to Venice--where he

died in 1488 before the casting was completed--but on the contrary

remained in Florence for some years, perhaps even till 1485,

Leonardo probably had the opportunity of seeing all his designs for

the equestrian statue at Venice and the red chalk drawing on Pl.

LXXIV may be a reminiscence of it.

The pen and ink drawing on Pl. LXXII, No. 3, reminds us of

Donatello's statue of Gattamelata at Padua. However it does not

appear that Leonardo was ever at Padua before 1499, but we may

conclude that he took a special interest in this early bronze statue

and the reports he could procure of it, form an incidental remark

which is to be found in C. A. 145a; 432a, and which will be given in

Vol. II under Ricordi or Memoranda. Among the studies--in the widest

sense of the word--made in preparation statue we may include the

Anatomy of the Horse which Lomazzo and Vas mention; the most

important parts of this work still exist in the Queen's Li Windsor.

It was beyond a doubt compiled by Leonardo when at Milan; only

interesting records to be found among these designs are reproduced

in Nos. 716a but it must be pointed out that out of 40 sheets of

studies of the movements of the belonging to that treatise, a horse

in full gallop occurs but once.

If we may trust the account given by Paulus Jovius--about l527--

Leonardo's horse was represented as "vehementer incitatus et

anhelatus". Jovius had probably seen the model exhibited at Milan;

but, need we, in fact, infer from this description that the horse

was galloping? Compare Vasari's description of the Gattamelata

monument at Padua: "Egli [Donatello] vi ando ben volentieri, e fece

il cavallo di bronzo, che e in sulla piazza di Sant Antonio, nel

quale si dimostra lo sbuffamento ed il fremito del cavallo, ed il

grande animo e la fierezza vivacissimamente espressa dall'arte nella

figura che lo cavalca".

These descriptions, it seems to me, would only serve to mark the

difference between the work of the middle ages and that of the

renaissance.

We learn from a statement of Sabba da Castiglione that, when Milan

was taken by the French in 1499, the model sustained some injury;

and this informant, who, however is not invariably trustworthy, adds

that Leonardo had devoted fully sixteen years to this work (la forma

del cavallo, intorno a cui Leonardo avea sedici anni continui

consumati). This often-quoted passage has given ground for an

assumption, which has no other evidence to support it, that Leonardo

had lived in Milan ever since 1483. But I believe it is nearer the

truth to suppose that this author's statement alludes to the fact

that about sixteen years must have past since the competition in

which Leonardo had taken part.

I must in these remarks confine myself strictly to the task in hand

and give no more of the history of the Sforza monument than is

needed to explain the texts and drawings I have been able to

reproduce. In the first place, with regard to the drawings, I may

observe that they are all, with the following two exceptions, in the

Queen's Library at Windsor Castle; the red chalk drawing on Pl.

LXXVI No. 1 is in the MS. C. A. (see No. 7l2) and the fragmentary

pen and ink drawing on page 4 is in the Ambrosian Library. The

drawings from Windsor on Pl. LXVI have undergone a trifling

reduction from the size of the originals.

There can no longer be the slightest doubt that the well-known

engraving of several horsemen (Passavant, Le Peintre-Graveur, Vol.

V, p. 181, No. 3) is only a copy after original drawings by

Leonardo, executed by some unknown engraver; we have only to compare

the engraving with the facsimiles of drawings on Pl. LXV, No. 2, Pl.

LXVII, LXVIII and LXIX which, it is quite evident, have served as

models for the engraver.

On Pl. LXV No. 1, in the larger sketch to the right hand, only the

base is distinctly visible, the figure of the horseman is effaced.

Leonardo evidently found it unsatisfactory and therefore rubbed it

out.

The base of the monument--the pedestal for the equestrian statue--is

repeatedly sketched on a magnificent plan. In the sketch just

mentioned it has the character of a shrine or aedicula to contain a

sarcophagus. Captives in chains are here represented on the

entablature with their backs turned to that portion of the monument

which more

strictly constitutes the pedestal of the horse. The lower portion of

the aedicula is surrounded by columns. In the pen and ink drawing

Pl. LXVI--the lower drawing on the right hand side--the sarcophagus

is shown between the columns, and above the entablature is a plinth

on which the horse stands. But this arrangement perhaps seemed to

Leonardo to lack solidity, and in the little sketch on the left

hand, below, the sarcophagus is shown as lying under an arched

canopy. In this the trophies and the captive warriors are detached

from the angles. In the first of these two sketches the place for

the trophies is merely indicated by a few strokes; in the third

sketch on the left the base is altogether broader, buttresses and

pinnacles having been added so as to form three niches. The black

chalk drawing on Pl. LXVIII shows a base in which the angles are

formed by niches with pilasters. In the little sketch to the extreme

left on Pl. LXV, No. 1, the equestrian statue serves to crown a

circular temple somewhat resembling Bramante's tempietto of San

Pietro in Montario at Rome, while the sketch above to the right

displays an arrangement faintly reminding us of the tomb of the

Scaligers in Verona. The base is thus constructed of two platforms

or slabs, the upper one considerably smaller than the lower one

which is supported on flying buttresses with pinnacles.

On looking over the numerous studies in which the horse is not

galloping but merely walking forward, we find only one drawing for

the pedestal, and this, to accord with the altered character of the

statue, is quieter and simpler in style (Pl. LXXIV). It rises almost

vertically from the ground and is exactly as long as the pacing

horse. The whole base is here arranged either as an independent

baldaquin or else as a projecting canopy over a recess in which the

figure of the deceased Duke is seen lying on his sarcophagus; in the

latter case it was probably intended as a tomb inside a church.

Here, too, it was intended to fill the angles with trophies or

captive warriors. Probably only No. 724 in the text refers to the

work for the base of the monument.

If we compare the last mentioned sketch with the description of a

plan for an equestrian monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (No. 725)

it seems by no means impossible that this drawing is a preparatory

study for the very monument concerning which the manuscript gives us

detailed information. We have no historical record regarding this

sketch nor do the archives in the Trivulzio Palace give us any

information. The simple monument to the great general in San Nazaro

Maggiore in Milan consists merely of a sarcophagus placed in recess

high on the wall of an octagonal chapel. The figure of the warrior

is lying on the sarcophagus, on which his name is inscribed; a piece

of sculpture which is certainly not Leonardo's work. Gian Giacomo

Trivulzio died at Chartres in 1518, only five months before

Leonardo, and it seems to me highly improbable that this should have

been the date of this sketch; under these circumstances it would

have been done under the auspices of Francis I, but the Italian

general was certainly not in favour with the French monarch at the

time. Gian Giacomo Trivulzio was a sworn foe to Ludovico il Moro,

whom he strove for years to overthrow. On the 6th September 1499 he

marched victorious into Milan at the head of a French army. In a

short time, however, he was forced to quit Milan again when Ludovico

il Moro bore down upon the city with a force of Swiss troops. On the

15th of April following, after defeating Lodovico at Novara,

Trivulzio once more entered Milan as a Conqueror, but his hopes of

becoming _Governatore_ of the place were soon wrecked by intrigue.

This victory and triumph, historians tell us, were signalised by

acts of vengeance against the dethroned Sforza, and it might have

been particularly flattering to him that the casting and

construction of the Sforza monument were suspended for the time.

It must have been at this moment--as it seems to me--that he

commissioned the artist to prepare designs for his own monument,

which he probably intended should find a place in the Cathedral or

in some other church. He, the husband of Margherita di Nicolino

Colleoni, would have thought that he had a claim to the same

distinction and public homage as his less illustrious connection had

received at the hands of the Venetian republic. It was at this very

time that Trivulzio had a medal struck with a bust portrait of

himself and the following remarkable inscription on the reverse:_

DEO FAVENTE--1499--DICTVS--10--IA--EXPVLIT--LVDOVICV--SF--

(Sfortiam) DVC-- (ducem) MLI (Mediolani)--NOIE

(nomine)--REGIS--FRANCORVM--EODEM--ANN --(anno) RED'T (redit)--LVS

(Ludovicus)--SVPERATVS ET CAPTVS--EST--AB--EO. _In the Library of

the Palazzo Trivulzio there is a MS. of Callimachus Siculus written

at the end of the XVth or beginning of the XVIth century. At the

beginning of this MS. there is an exquisite illuminated miniature of

an equestrian statue with the name of the general on the base; it is

however very doubtful whether this has any connection with

Leonardo's design.

Nos. 731-740, which treat of casting bronze, have probably a very

indirect bearing on the arrangements made for casting the equestrian

statue of Francesco Sforza. Some portions evidently relate to the

casting of cannon. Still, in our researches about Leonardo's work on

the monument, we may refer to them as giving us some clue to the

process of bronze casting at that period.

Some practical hints (706-709).

7O6.

OF A STATUE.

If you wish to make a figure in marble, first make one of clay, and

when you have finished it, let it dry and place it in a case which

should be large enough, after the figure is taken out of it, to

receive also the marble, from which you intend to reveal the figure

in imitation of the one in clay. After you have put the clay figure

into this said case, have little rods which will exactly slip in to

the holes in it, and thrust them so far in at each hole that each

white rod may touch the figure in different parts of it. And colour

the portion of the rod that remains outside black, and mark each rod

and each hole with a countersign so that each may fit into its

place. Then take the clay figure out of this case and put in your

piece of marble, taking off so much of the marble that all your rods

may be hidden in the holes as far as their marks; and to be the

better able to do this, make the case so that it can be lifted up;

but the bottom of it will always remain under the marble and in this

way it can be lifted with tools with great ease.

707.

Some have erred in teaching sculptors to measure the limbs of their

figures with threads as if they thought that these limbs were

equally round in every part where these threads were wound about

them.

708.

MEASUREMENT AND DIVISION OF A STATUE.

Divide the head into 12 degrees, and each degree divide into 12

points, and each point into 12 minutes, and the minutes into minims

and the minims into semi minims.

Degree--point--minute--minim.

709.

Sculptured figures which appear in motion, will, in their standing

position, actually look as if they were falling forward.

[Footnote: _figure di rilievo_. Leonardo applies this term

exclusively to wholly detached figures, especially to those standing

free. This note apparently refers to some particular case, though we

have no knowledge of what that may have been. If we suppose it to

refer to the first model of the equestrian statue of Francesco

Sforza (see the introduction to the notes on Sculpture) this

observation may be regarded as one of his arguments for abandoning

the first scheme of the Sforza Monument, in which the horse was to

be galloping (see page 2). It is also in favour of this theory that

the note is written in a manuscript volume already completed in

1492. Leonardo's opinions as to the shortcomings of plastic works

when compared with paintings are given under No. 655 and 656.]

Notes on the casting of the Sforza monument (710-715).

710.

Three braces which bind the mould.

[If you want to make simple casts quickly, make them in a box of

river sand wetted with vinegar.]

[When you shall have made the mould upon the horse you must make the

thickness of the metal in clay.]

Observe in alloying how many hours are wanted for each

hundredweight. [In casting each one keep the furnace and its fire

well stopped up.] [Let the inside of all the moulds be wetted with

linseed oil or oil of turpentine, and then take a handful of

powdered borax and Greek pitch with aqua vitae, and pitch the mould

over outside so that being under ground the damp may not [damage

it?]

[To manage the large mould make a model of the small mould, make a

small room in proportion.]

[Make the vents in the mould while it is on the horse.]

Hold the hoofs in the tongs, and cast them with fish glue. Weigh the

parts of the mould and the quantity of metal it will take to fill

them, and give so much to the furnace that it may afford to each