|
1508-1513
The Milan of Charles d'Amboise
|
|
|

|
|
The years of French domination
|
|
The cultural and political ambition of Charles
d'Amboise, Count of Chaumont and governor of Milan on
behalf of the French king Louis XII, heralded a revival
of the golden age of patronage associated with Ludovico
il Moro. As a sign of continuity with the Sforza
tradition, Charles requested Pietro Soderini,
gonfalonier (chief magistrate) of the Florentine
Republic, to invite Leonardo to Milan, where he spent
the years 1508 to 1513. Involved in the plans for Santa
Maria alia Fontana, he designed for the governor a
suburban villa with gardens and water displays. He
painted a Madonna and Child for King Louis,
supervised the second version of the Virgin of the
Rocks, and created his highly original St John, on
the precedent of his Florentine Angel of the
Annunciation. He made studies for the Trivulzio
Monument, and pursued his research into subjects that
had always occupied his mind, codifying and arranging
his notes on a broad range of scientific topics.
|

Francesco de' Tatti, The Crucifixion of the
Bosto Polyptych, 1517, detail, Sforza Castle,
Milan.
This provincial painter, with his robust, immediate
style and folkloric approach, provides some
interesting military detail in the background to
this scene, notably the outlines of the Sforza
Castle and troops of the French army. The French,
who had conquered the duchy in 1499, ruled until
1513 when they were overthrown briefly by
Massimiliano Sforza, son of il Moro.
|
|
|
|

King Louis XII and his wife Anne of Brittany were
portrayed by the French medallist Leclerc. The bronze
medals, belonging to the Carrand Collection, are today
housed in the Museo Nazionale, Florence.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Andrea Solario, Portrait of Charles
d'Amboise, after 1507, Musee du Louvre,
Paris.
Summoned to the court of the French king (1507),
the Lombard painter applied lessons learned from
Leonardo. The thematic choice of landscape, the
rhythmical handling of space, and the
psychological interpretation of the subject were
modelled upon Antonello and the Flemish school,
still strongly rooted in local tradition.
|
|
|
|
|
|

Giovan Gerolamo Savoldo,
Portrait of a Gentleman in Armour
(traditionally identified as Gaston de Foix), c.1510-20,
Musee du Louvre, Paris, from the royal collections at Fontainebleau.
The nephew of Louis XII, and the king's deputy in Lombardy, the
valiant young commander,
fought against the armies of the Holy League brought together by
Pope Julius II.
He was killed at the victorious battle of Ravenna in 1512.
|
|
|
|

|
|
The Trivulzio Monument
|
|
From 1508 to 1510 Leonardo made plans for the monument
to be erected in the Trivulzio Mausoleum in San Nazaro,
Milan, in memory of Marshal Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. The
commission was never completed, and all that is left is a
series of drawings embodying new ideas for representing the
heroic theme of the horse and the man on horseback,
previously addressed in the Adoration of the Magi,
the Sforza Monument, and the Battle of Anghiari.
While tackling the problems that this project entailed,
Leonardo returned to the never-realized idea of a
Treatise of the Horse. Alongside the naturalistic and
scientific studies of equine anatomy, poses, and attitudes,
were sketches modelled upon the subjects depicted on antique
coins and jewels remembered from the Medici collections in
Florence, and consonant with the heroic and celebratory
nature of the subject in hand.
|

Interior of the Trivulzio Mausoleum,
built after 1512 by Bramante.
|
|
|

Leonardo da Vinci, Studies for the Equestrian Monument,
1508-10, Royal Library, Windsor.
A kind of "cinematic design", these sketches show the varied movement
and rhythm of the horse.
Sometimes Trivulzio was depicted as an ancient hero, nude, with his
cloak swirling in the wind. |
|
|

Leonardo da Vinci, Rearing Horse, 1503-04,
Royal Library, Windsor.
The opportunity to revive a sculptural project abandoned
years before led Leonardo to look afresh at themes that had
already interested him in the latter years of the 15th
century.
|

Leonardo da Vinci , Study for an
Equestrian Monument, 1510-12,
Royal Library, Windsor.
Underneath the group there is an arch of triumph in the
antique style.
|
|
|

Leonardo da Vinci
Study of horses
1504-06
Red chalk on paper
Royal Library, Windsor |
|
|

Leonardo da Vinci, Studies for the Equestrian
Monument,
1508-10, Royal Library, Windsor.
Four prisoners were envisaged by the sides of the tomb, as
in the sepulchre of Julius II.
|
|
|
|

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the Trivulzio monument
1508-12
Pen, ink and red chalk on paper
Royal Library, Windsor
|
|

Leonardo da Vinci, Equestrian monument
1517-18
Black chalk on paper
Royal Library, Windsor
|
|
 |