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.