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THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI - VOLUME 2
THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI - VOLUME 2 LEONARDO DA VINCI 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
part its amount of metal; and this you may know by weighing the clay
of each part of the mould to which the quantity in the furnace must
correspond. And this is done in order that the furnace for the legs
when filled may not have to furnish metal from the legs to help out
the head which would be impossible. [Cast at the same casting as
the horse the little door]
[Footnote: The importance of the notes included under this number is
not diminished by the fact that they have been lightly crossed out
with red chalk. Possibly they were the first scheme for some fuller
observations which no longer exist; or perhaps they were crossed out
when Leonardo found himself obliged to give up the idea of casting
the equestrian statue. In the original the first two sketches are
above l. 1 and the third below l. 9.]
711.
THE MOULD FOR THE HORSE.
Make the horse on legs of iron strong and well set on a good
foundation; then grease it and cover it with a coating leaving each
coat to dry thoroughly layer by layer; and this will thicken it by
the breadth of three fingers. Now fix and bind it with iron as may
be necessary. Moreover take off the mould and then make the
thickness. Then fill the mould by degrees and make it good
throughout; encircle and bind it with its irons and bake it inside
where it has to touch the bronze.
OF MAKING THE MOULD IN PIECES.
Draw upon the horse when finished all the pieces of the mould with
which you wish to cover the horse and in laying on the clay cut it
in every piece so that when the mould is finished you can take it
off and then recompose it in its former position with its joins by
the countersigns.
The square blocks _a b_ will be between the cover and the core that
is in the hollow where the melted bronze is to be; and these square
blocks of bronze will support the intervals between the mould and
the cover at an equal distance and for this reason these squares
are of great importance.
The clay should be mixed with sand.
Take wax to return [what is not used] and to pay for what is used.
Dry it in layers.
Make the outside mould of plaster to save time in drying and the
expense in wood; and with this plaster enclose the irons [props]
both outside and inside to a thickness of two fingers; make terra
cotta. And this mould can be made in one day; half a boat load of
plaster will serve you.
Good.
Dam it up again with glue and clay or white of egg and bricks and
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