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