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Summary
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| Ludovico was a member of the Sforza dynasty of Milan, and was the second son of Francesco Sforza. Ludovico was nicknamed "Il Moro", the Moor, because of his dark-skinned complexion which is played down in the portrait of him shown right.
Upon the assassination of Ludovico's elder brother Galeazzo in 1476, the ducal crown passed to his seven-year-old nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Ludovico seized control of the government of Milan during the boy's minority. When Gian Galeazzo died in 1494, Ludovico received the ducal crown from the Milanese nobles. In the same year he simultaneously encouraged the French, then ruled by King Charles VIII, and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, to become involved in Italian politics. Ludovico hoped control the two rulers and reap the rewards himself. This started the Italian Wars. |
 Ludovico Sforza, portrait by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis
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However, finding his own position endangered by the French, Ludovico joined the league against King Charles VIII, giving his niece Bianca in marriage to Maximilian I and receiving in return imperial investiture of the duchy.
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The Duke's mistress was Cecilia Gallerani, likely subject of Leonardo's famous portrait executed 1483-1490 called "Lady With An Ermine". The portrait is briefly glimpsed in the opening frames of [ 79 Concerning Flight]. The ermine was the Duke's emblem and is simultaneously a play on her surname as "gale" is Greek for ermine. |
Like his brother before him, and simultaneously emphasise his connection to his father Francesco Sforza and imply legitimacy for how he had obtained power, in (probably 1485) Ludovico commissioned Leonardo to construct an equestrian statue of his father Francesco Sforza.
above: In the centre, Leonardo's sheet from Codex Madrid I, folio 149r shows, from above, the hollow for casting the Sforza monument.
 Francesco Sforza, intended commemorative subject of Leonardo's "great bronze horse" monument in Milan |
As part of the design preparation for the equestrian statue, Leonardo observed and drew many horses. But the equestrian statue did not get finished. Enormous technical problems delayed the monument's construction, as well as the Duke's wish for a much larger monument. The full-scale model of the horse in clay was unveiled in November 1493 in the courtyard of the Milan fortress. But in 1495 the metals set aside to make the monument, notably 70 tons of bronze, were instead turned into cannons to fight and defeat the French at the Battle of Fornovo. But the French captured Milan, without a fight, and toppled Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo stayed until one morning when he discovered French crossbowmen using his clay model of the monument's horse for target practice. |
In 1494, the Duke of Milan decided to make the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie his family's burial place. This is the context within which Leonardo was probably commissioned to decorate the monks' dining room, the refectory, with a depiction of the Last Supper, this being the popular subject in religious art of the last supper that Christ had with his disciples before his betrayal by disciple Judas Iscariot. It is not known precisely when Leonardo was given the commission. The painting was completed in 1498.
'The Last Supper' is one of the most famous paintings in the history of art. Word of its quality spread quickly, copies were produced of it, and contemporary sources speak highly of the painting. But within 20 years of its completion, the painting was already suffering from the effects of water damage sustained by the wall's absorption of water. As often with other major projects, Leonardo had sought a new technical solution for the process of painting. He had decided in favour of mixed media and painted over two ground layers using oil and tempera paints, as was done in panel painting. This particular technique was partially responsible for the fact that the disintegration of the work set in so soon.
In 1500, the French King Louis XII lay siege to the city of Novara where Ludovico was based. The armies of both sides included Swiss mercenaries, fighters who had been virtually undefeated in battle for over two centuries. The Swiss did not want to fight each other and left. Ludovico was handed over to the French in April that year. He died in 1508 while a prisoner in the castle of Loches. The Swiss later executed a soldier from Uri called Hans Turmann who had, they claimed, betrayed Ludovico for money. The Swiss later restored the duchy of Milan to Ludovico's son, Maximilian Sforza. While in control of Milan, Louis XII wanted to remove 'The Last Supper' to France, but was advised that removing it would be tantamount to destroying it.
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