![Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci attributed to Francesco Melzi](https://cmsadmin.rct.uk/sites/default/files/lead_image_half_height/RC1894_Leonardo%201600%20x%20625_Yellow.jpg)
LEONARDO DA VINCI (VINCI 1452-AMBOISE 1519)
Studies for the Trivulzio monument
c.1508-10RCIN 912355
In 1499, invading French forces under the mercenary commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio had destroyed the clay model for Leonardo’s Sforza monument. A decade later, with deep irony, Trivulzio commissioned his own funerary equestrian monument from Leonardo. This was to consist of a bronze horse and rider, on a marble architectural framework housing Trivulzio’s sarcophagus, flanked by sculptures of tethered captives.