Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/292

248 contemporary traveller, which Leonardo, who was fond of collecting topographical facts upon all parts of the world, in this as in many other cases, has copied for his own amusement. The absence of drawings of Oriental scenes in the artist's notebooks, and of any allusion to these travels in the writings of his contemporaries, may be taken as still more destructive of this theory.

The Anonimo who wrote Leonardo's life early in the sixteenth century tells us, that when the painter was thirty years old, he was sent by Lorenzo de' Medici, with the musician Atalante Migliorotti, to bear a silver lute to Lodovico Sforza at Milan. This would fix the date of Leonardo's arrival in 1482, or early in 1483, and agrees with the statement of a contemporary, Sabbà da Castiglione, who says that Leonardo spent sixteen years of his life in modelling the great equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, which was destroyed after he left Milan in 1499. This equestrian statue was, in all probability, the cause of his journey to Milan. From the moment of his accession to power, in 1480, Lodovico Sforza had determined to raise a colossal statue in honour of his father, the great condottiere who became Duke of Milan, and, as was his habit, asked his friend Lorenzo de' Medici for a sculptor who could execute the work. It was then, doubtless, that Leonardo wrote the famous letter offering Lodovico Sforza his services. After dwelling at length on his capacities as military engineer, and his ability to construct cannons and scaling-ladders, mortars and engines of useful and beautiful shape, he concludes with the following proud words:—