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