ual of any master, be he who he may. Again, I will undertake to
execute the bronze horse to the immortal glory and eternal honour of the
duke, your father, of blessed memory, and of the illustrious House of
Sforza. And if any of the things I have mentioned above should seem to
you impossible and impracticable, I will gladly make trial of them in
your park, or any other place that may please your Excellency, to whom I
commend myself in all humility."

The master had kept his word, and justified the confidence which from
the first Lodovico Sforza placed in him. According to Vasari and the
biographer of the Magliabecchiana, who wrote about 1540, Leonardo
originally attracted the Moro's notice by the surpassing charm with
which he played on a silver lyre of his own invention, and afterwards
fascinated him by his conversation. But from the moment of his arrival
at Milan the Florentine artist was employed by his new master to paint
portraits and frescoes, to construct canals, arrange masques and
pageants, or invent mechanical contrivances for use on the stage or in
the house. A thousand different studies in his sketch-books and
manuscripts bear witness to the strange variety of subjects upon which
his versatile genius was brought to bear. But the most important work
upon which Leonardo was engaged, and that which lay nearest to Lodovico
Sforza's heart, was the equestrian statue of Duke Francesco Sforza.
This, we learn from the master's own words, was the true reason that
brought him to Milan. In a letter to the Fabbricieri of the Duomo of
Piacenza, he describes himself as Leonardo the Florentine whom Signor
Lodovico brought to Milan to make the bronze horse, and says that he can
undertake no other task, for this will fill his whole life, if indeed it
is ever finished! Countless were the designs, endless the different
forms which the great master made for this model, which was, after all,
never to be cast in bronze, and was destined to perish by the hands of
French archers. At one time it seemed as if he could neither satisfy
himself nor yet his master. In July, 1489, Pietro Alamanni, one of
Lorenzo de' Medici's agents, wrote to ask his master if he could send
another artist capable of executing the work to the Milanese court.

"Signor Lodovico," he says, "wishes to raise a noble memorial to his
father, and has already charged Leonardo da Vinci to prepare a model for
a great bronze horse, with a figure of Duke Francesco in arm