"Under the Shade of the Mulberry Tree": Reconstructing Nature in Leonardo's Sala delle Asse - Brill
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168 Pederson
Chapter 7
“Under the Shade of the Mulberry Tree”:
Reconstructing Nature in Leonardo’s Sala delle Asse
Jill Pederson
Painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the last decade of the fifteenth century
while in the service of Duke Ludovico Maria Sforza of Milan, the Sala delle
Asse, or the “Room of the Wooden Boards” as it is known,1 prominently dis-
plays Visconti and Sforza coat of arms and four plaques with laudatory inscrip-
tions set against an elaborate pattern of branches and verdant leaves (Fig. 7.1).2
* I would like to thank Raffaella Fabiani Giannetto and Anatole Tchikine for the opportunity to
present the original version of this paper during their session at the annual meeting of the
Renaissance Society of America in New York, 2014. Earlier iterations of this essay were gener-
ously read by Carlo Catturini, Allie Terry Fritsch, David Young Kim, Lia Markey, and Timothy
McCall. Research was made possible by fellowships from the Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies at UCLA and the American Philosophical Society.
1 Recent bibliography on the Sala delle Asse includes: Claudio Salsi, “Riflessi düreriani e tedeschi
nella Sala delle Asse del Castello di Milano,” in Dürer e il Rinascimento: tra Germania e Italia,
ed. Bernard Aikema and Andrew John Martin (Milan: 24 Ore Cultura, 2018), 115–123; Michela
Palazzo and Francesca Tasso, eds., Leonardo da Vinci: La sala delle Asse del Castello Sforzesco,
La diagnostica e il restauro del Monocromo/ Leonardo da Vinci: The Sala delle Asse of the Sforza
Castle, Diagnostic Testing and Restoration of the Monochrome (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2017);
Carlo Catturini, “Leonardo da Vinci nel Castello Sforzesco di Milano: una citazione di Luca
Pacioli per la ‘Sala delle Asse’ ovvero la ‘camera dei moroni’” Prospettiva 147/148 (2012): 159–166;
Maria Teresa Fiorio and Anna Lucchini, “Nella Sala delle Asse, sulle tracce di Leonardo,”
Raccolta Vinciana 32 (2007): 101–140; Maria Teresa Fiorio, “‘Infra le fessure delle pietre’: la Sala
delle Asse al Castello Sforzesco,” in Il codice di Leonardo da Vinci nel Castello Sforzesco, ed.
Pietro C. Marani and Giovanni M. Piazza (Milan: Electa, 2006): 21–29; Maria Teresa Fiorio, in
“‘Tutto mi piace’: Leonardo e il castello,” in Il Castello Sforzesco di Milano, ed. Maria Teresa
Fiorio (Milan: Skira, 2005), 163–179; Patrizia Costa, “The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in
Milan” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2006); Patrizia Costa, “La Sala delle Asse di Luca
Beltrami,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 127 (2001): 195–217; Dawson Kiang, “Gasparo Visconti’s
Pasitea and the Sala delle Asse,” Achademia Leonardi Vinci 2 (1989): 101–9.
2 In the center of the vault is a large armorial shield bearing the joint stemmi of Ludovico Sforza
and Beatrice d’Este, including the eagle of the Este and the viper of the Visconti (the ruling
predecessors of the Sforza). This desire to promote the union could have been strengthened
through the sudden death of Ludovico’s young wife Beatrice. Furthermore, this Sforza-Este
device was surrounded by four painted plaques, adorning the central axis of each of the four
supporting sides of the vault, each describing important events in the 1490s. One importantly
glorified the Sforzas’ new alignment with Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg—attained
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“under The Shade Of The Mulberry Tree” 169
Figure 7.1
Leonardo da Vinci, Sala
delle Asse, ca. 1498.
Fresco. Milan, Castello
Sforzesco.
Source: Castello
Sforzesco, Milan.
© Comune di Milano, all
rights reserved (Photo:
Saporetti, ca. 1990)
through the political guile of Duke Ludovico, who hoped the alliance would strengthen his
fight against the encroaching French. Ludovico solidified the alliance through the marriage
of the duke’s niece Bianca Maria Sforza to Emperor Maximilian in 1494, a union described on
one of the plaques. For more information, see Evelyn S. Welch, Art and Authority in Renaissance
Milan (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), 233. Another plaque mentions
the legitimate right of the Sforza to inherit the duchy after the death of Filippo Maria Visconti
and describes the proclamation of this event by Maximilian in 1495. Kemp interestingly sug-
gests that the Roman capitals on the inscriptions on the plaques may have been inspired by
Luca Pacioli’s writings on the formation of Roman lettering in his De divina proportione (1497).
See Martin Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man, rev. ed. (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006), 169. Yet another plaque has been defaced, leaving us only to
speculate on its original contents, while a final plaque describes Ludovico’s 1495 victory
against the French at the Battle of Fornovo. See Kemp, Marvellous Works (2006). Notably, all
three remaining inscriptions bear reference to Ludovico’s new ally Maximilian I, perhaps not
surprisingly as the Milanese defense against the quickly advancing French relied almost en-
tirely on Sforza relations with the Habsburg emperor. Kemp has also pointed out that the
motif of a tree with roots was one of Ludovico Sforza’s personal imprese, which represented
strength and security due to the tree’s unfaltering presence even in adverse conditions. It was
used twice in the roundels in the Piazza Ducale in Vigevano, but unfortunately their inscrip-
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170 Pederson
For this reason, the room generally has been interpreted as a promotional tool
of the sovereign, painted by an artist with a unique interest in botany and na-
ture studies.3 While this reading provides one explanation for the room and its
decoration, the function and meaning is certainly more multivalent and the
natural motifs of the garden pergola still warrant deeper consideration. Al-
though the room was not unique in presenting an interior arboreal setting, it
was rare in late Quattrocento Italy, and therefore many questions remain.4
Why did Leonardo choose to paint an elaborate natural setting inside the
tions are no longer legible. See Kemp, Marvellous Works (2006), 168–73. On the Vigevano
roundels, see Constance J. Moffatt, “Merito et tempore: The Imprese of Lodovico Sforza at
Vigevano,” Emblematica 3 (1988): 236–38. Moffatt also persuasively relates the theme of the
sturdy tree to Leonardo’s designs in the Sala delle Asse in her dissertation, “Urbanism and
Political Discourse: Lodovico Sforza’s architectural plans and emblematic imagery at
Vigevano,” Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1992, 255–57. She also offers a
convincing political argument (drawing on Kemp [Marvellous Works 2006, 173]) that the trees
referred to the motto “Stare saldo e congiungersi” (to stand firm and united), and that this
motto referred to Ludovico’s court and its devotion to the duke. This interpretation comple-
ments the argument put forth here that the Sala represented a collective space for the gather-
ing of the Sforza court. I thank Constance Moffatt for making this dissertation available to me.
On the promotion of the absolute power of the duke, see Jane Black, Absolutism in Renaissance
Milan: Plentitude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza, 1329–1535 (Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 2009).
3 For example, Daniel Arasse, echoing the sentiments of early scholars, argued that Leonardo’s
designs represented a “ducal exaltation” as well as his interest on geology and biology. He
believed the iconography “glorified the alliance of nature and man.” See Daniel Arasse,
Leonardo da Vinci: The Rhythm of the World, trans. by Rosetta Translations (Old Saybrook, CT:
Konecky and Konecky, 1998), 136–43.
4 Although not common at the time, other examples of fictive painted pergolas on the interior
of palaces existed in northern Italy at the time. These examples may have been known to
Leonardo, even if he did not see them first hand. In particular, Marin Sanudo (1525) describes
the medieval decorations in a room in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice known as the Sala dei
Pregadi, which, like the Sala delle Asse, was symbolically painted with an arbor of trees.
Describing the room, Sanudo writes, “…fu fata al tempo di Missier Piero Gradenigo doze.
Vedestu questi arbori grandi, mezani e piccoli…li piccoli impara, poi vien mezani, poi grandi,
cussì è le tre età; zoveni, mezani e vecchi, et a questo modo si governa urben institutae repu-
blicae.” See Marin Sanudo, Diarii, vol. 24 (25 luglio 1525). See also Fiorio [Il Castello Sforzesco
di Milano, 176] drawing on Wolfgang Wolters, Storia e politica nei dipinti di Palazzo Ducale.
Aspetti dell’autocelebrazione della Repubblica di Venezia nel Cinquecento (Venice: Arsenale,
1987), 18–19. Another example is the oratory of San Galdino a Zelo Surrigone in Milan. For
information, see Saverio Almini, “L’oratorio di San Galdino a Zelo Surrigone: proposte di ri-
cerca,” Rassegna di Studi e di Notizie 36 (2013): 13–44; Leonardo’s knot patterns also appear on
the related vault of the sacristy of Santa Maria delle Grazie, sometimes attributed to Bramante
(and noted by Beltrami [“La Sala delle Asse”], 33). Knots are also present on the vaults of in
the former Casa Aliprandi (then Ponti), and now the home of the publisher Sonzogno at via
Bigli 11, Milan.
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“under The Shade Of The Mulberry Tree” 171
Figure 7.2 Leonardo da Vinci, Sala delle Asse (northeast corner), ca. 1498.
Milan, Castello Sforzesco. © Comune di Milano, all rights reserved (Photo: Mauro
Ranzani)
confines of the castle? To what extent can the interests of the courtiers, artists,
and intellectual figures in Ludovico Sforza’s cultural ambit help to explain the
specific iconography on the walls of the Sala delle Asse? The premise of this
article is that the appearance of the room evolved not only as part of a promo-
tional program by the duke, but also as part of Leonardo’s involvement with
the flourishing group of intellectual personalities at the Sforza court and the
sophisticated perceptions of nature that were promoted in their realm. If we
remove Leonardo from his usual isolation in art-historical studies and inte-
grate him into a wider sodality of literati and scientists, we are then able to not
only challenge prevailing ideas about his autonomous genius, but also arrive at
a more complete picture of the Sforza court. In other words, this article ac-
knowledges the important role the room played in promoting signorial power,
but also goes further in considering the way in which the duke, along with his
circle of poets and painters, fashioned natural imagery as a means of con-
structing not only identity, but also the poetic ideal of the locus amoenus.
The Sala delle Asse occupies a large ground floor room in the northeast cor-
ner of Milan’s Castello Sforzesco (Fig. 7.2). The decoration, now heavily dam-
aged, extends over all four walls, as well as the expansive central vault. There
are two large windows in the room, facing the northeast and northwest. Near
these windows in the lower portion of the walls (now visible on the northeast
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172 Pederson
Figure 7.3 Leonardo da Vinci, Sala delle Asse (detail of rocky base), ca. 1498.
Milan, Castello Sforzesco. Source: Castello Sforzesco, Milan. © Comune di Milano,
All rights reserved (Photo: Mauro Ranzani)
end) is the remnant of a depiction of a rocky outcropping that provides a base
for the massive system of trees that spring forth from its weighty roots (Fig.
7.3).5 Extending up from this rocky stratum are the sixteen trees that provide
the main “framework” for the fantastical arbor (Fig. 7.4). On each wall reside
three large painted tree trunks, with the windowed walls displaying four trunks
that eventually merge upon arrival at the upper vault, marked in the center by
a heraldic shield (Fig. 7.5).6 At each of the corners of the room, a larger tree
spans the adjacent walls, ascending to the central apex of the room, appearing
like architectural ribs on the traditional Gothic vault. Additional “ribs” extend
5 Recent interventions in the room have also uncovered traces of underdrawings on the south-
ern and western walls. “Sala delle Asse. The Restoration,” Castello Sforzesco, Comune di
Milano, accessed June 2, 2015, .
6 Traces of charcoal underdrawings at the base of each painted tree provide new evidence that
indicates that the intention for the room was to have the painted tree trunks extend fully to
the floor (with no boards). It is likely that the paintings were not complete when Leonardo
left Milan in 1499. For this recent evidence of additional tree trunks, see “Sala delle Asse.
The Restoration,” Castello Sforzesco, Comune di Milano, accessed June 5, 2015, . Information on the location of these
underdrawings was also shared with me in conversation with Carlo Catturini and Luca Tosi
on 22 May 2015.
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“under The Shade Of The Mulberry Tree” 173
Figure 7.4 Leonardo da Vinci, Sala delle Asse (details), ca. 1498.
Milan, Castello Sforzesco. Source: Author
Figure 7.5 Leonardo da Vinci, Sala delle Asse (detail of central heraldic
shield), ca. 1498. Milan, Castello Sforzesco.
© Comune di Milano, all rights reserved (Photo: Haltadefinizione®)
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174 Pederson
Figure 7.6 Leonardo da Vinci, Sala delle Asse (detail of golden cords), ca. 1498.
Milan, Castello Sforzesco. Source: author
from the central trunks on each wall, to create a joining mass of branches at
the central apex. This primary structure is embellished with a latticework of
intertwined branches covered by a lush canopy of leaves laden with crimson
fruit and adorned by an elaborate golden cord that meanders amidst the green
foliage (Fig. 7.6).
To some degree, difficulties in understanding the Sala delle Asse are attrib-
utable to the deteriorated state of the paintings. Early twentieth-century resto-
ration campaigns sought to remedy this situation, but actually further damaged
the paintings, leaving only a remnant of Leonardo’s original hand. Leonardo
likely completed work on the room in 1498—a date known through a letter
written by the ducal chancellor Gualtiero da Bascapè on April 21 of that year.
Writing to Duke Ludovico il Moro, Gualtiero explains:
On Monday the “large room of the boards,” that is in the
tower, will be cleared out. Maestro Leonardo promises to
finish it all by September, and with this [going on] it will
still be possible to avail oneself of it, because the scaffolding
which he will make will leave room underneath for everything.7
7 Translation is taken from Martin Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature
and Man (London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1981), 181–82. Original note reads: “Lunedì si
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“under The Shade Of The Mulberry Tree” 175
This letter supplies the terminus post quem for the work, indicating that it was
underway in 1498 and projected to be finished by September of that year. It has
also been used to cite Leonardo as the singular designer or “master” for the
project, though it is likely that he must have relied on assistants to complete
such a monumental painting project.8
In 1499, only shortly after the completion of the project, French forces in-
vaded and Ludovico Sforza fled Milan, after which point the room began to fall
into a state of disrepair.9 Later occupants of the Castello Sforzesco covered
over the decorations, resulting in extensive damage to Leonardo’s already deli-
cate paintings.10 In 1893, Paul Müller-Walde conducted an investigation of the
original paintings on the walls of the Sala.11 A year later, the Milanese architect
Luca Beltrami published his account of the state of the room, explaining that
the background of the vault had been painted in a very fine manner and in-
cluded what he determined to be an “arbor of roses.”12 Thus ensued a highly
desarmarà la camera grande da le asse, cioè da la tore. Magistro Leonardo promete finirla
per tuto Septembre, et che per questo si potrà etiam goldere: perché li ponti ch’el farà
lasarano vacuo de soto per tuto.” Archivio di Stato di Milano, Autografi, cart. 102, fasc 34,
21 aprile 1498, Gualtiero Bascapè a Ludovico Maria Sforza. The document was first pub-
lished by Gerolamo Luigi Calvi in Notizie sulla vita e sulle opera dei principali architetti
scultori e pittori che fiorirono in Milano, durante il governo dei Visconti e degli Sforza rac-
colte ed esposte da Girolamo Luigi Calvi. Pt. III. Leonardo da Vinci, con nuovi documenti
(Milan: Tip. Borroni, 1869), 92; Correct transcription of the document was published by
Edoardo Villata [ed.] in Leonardo da Vinci I documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee,
Ente Raccolta Vinciana (Milan: Castello Sforzesco, 1999): 111. See also Fiorio, “Tutto mi
piace,” 172. For information on Gualtiero da Bascapè, see Anna Paola Arisi Rota, Stefania
Buganza, and Edoardo Rossetti, “Novità su Gualtiero Bascapè committente d’arte e il can-
tiere di Santa Maria del Brera alla fine del Quattrocento,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 134
(2008): 47–92.
8 John F. Moffitt, “Leonardo’s ‘Sala delle Asse’ and the Primordial Origin of Architecture,”
Arte Lombarda n.s., no. 92–93 (1990): 76.
9 Carlo Catturini has argued that Leonardo’s decorations in the Sala delle Asse persisted
until 1535. See Carlo Catturini, “Dopo Leonardo: la Sala delle Asse al tempo di Francesco
II Sforza e Cristina di Danimarca,” Rassegna di studi e di notizie 38, XLII (2016), 15–30.
10 Over the centuries, the Castello Sforzesca had been used as a military fortress and army
barracks. Therefore, by the time of Beltrami the Sala delle Asse bore little resemblance to
its once great splendor. See Laura Basso, “Traccia per una ricostruzione delle pitture
scomparse nel Castello Sforzesco,” in Il Castello Sfrozesco di Milano, ed. Maria Teresa Fio-
rio (Milan: Skira, 2005), 269–97.
11 See Paul Müller-Walde, “Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Leonardo da Vinci, I, Ein neues Doku-
ment zur Geschichte des Reiterdenkmals für Francesco Sforza. Das erste Modell Leonar-
do’s” Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 18 (1897): 116–17.
12 Beltrami writes, “il fondo della volta era tutto dipinto, con una finitezza veramente ec-
cezionale, in modo da rappresentare, cogli intrecci già accennati, un pergolato di rose.”
Luca Beltrami, Il Castello di Milano [Castrum-Portae-Jovis] sotto il Dominio dei Visconti e
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176 Pederson
visible, but largely undocumented, restoration campaign.13 In 1901, Beltrami
initiated a large-scale repainting of the Sala, which was executed by Ernesto
Rusca and supported through funds provided by the Milanese lawyer Pietro
Volpi (Fig. 7.7).14 This program has been much criticized as it was said to con-
form to Beltrami’s intentions to reinvigorate the cultural life of the Castello,
rather than to adhere to the integrity of Leonardo’s original designs.15
Following the tremendous damage incurred during World War II, the con-
servator Costantino Baroni attempted to restore the Sala delle Asse. In 1955,
Ottemi Della Rotta adjusted Rusca’s repainting in an effort to bring the room in
line with the more subdued colors likely originally found by Beltrami at the be-
ginning of the century.16 Baroni uncovered the rocky base in the northeast cor-
ner of the room, which Beltrami had previously considered to be part of a later
Spanish intervention, but that Baroni recognized as original.17 This important
degli Sforza MCCCLXVIII-MDXXXV (Milan: V. Hoepli, 1894), 696. Beltrami, however, did not
have full access to Müller-Walde’s findings at this time as the latter was still in the process
of gathering information on the room (which continued until the following year). This
does not, however, account for the lack of photographic documentation of the room. This
gap in the study of the Sala was pointed out later by Costantino Baroni in “Tracce pit-
toriche leonardesche recuperate al Castello Sforzesco di Milano,” in Istituto Lombardo di
Scienze e Lettere. Rendiconti 88 (1955): 25.
13 For a discussion of the photography related to the room, see Silvia Paoli, “La Sala delle
Asse: Fotografia e memoria fra le trame di un archivio,” in Rassegna di Studi e Notizie 37
(2014–2015): 13–32. For a full account of Beltrami’s involvement in the restoration of the
room, see: Carlo Catturini, “La Sala delle Asse di Luca Beltrami: alcunti riscontri docu-
mentari dalle commissioni di Ludovico Maria Sforza ai restauri novecenteschi,” in Luca
Beltrami, 1854–1933: Storia, arte, e architettura a Milano, exh. cat. Castello Sforzesco, ed.
Silvia Paoli (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2014), 211–19; “La Sala delle Asse di Luca Beltrami:
alcune novità documentarie sull’attività di Ernesto Rusca decoratore e restauratore, con
qualche nota sull’allestimento di questo ambiente nella prima metà del Novecento,”
Rassegna di Studi e di Notizie 36 (2013): 63–76.
14 The fundamental publication on this subject is Luca Beltrami, Leonardo da Vinci e la Sala
delle ‘Asse’ nel Castello di Milano (Milan: U. Allegretti, 1902). See also, Luca Beltrami, “La
Sala delle ‘Asse’ nel Castello di Milano decorata da Leonardo da Vinci nel 1498,” in Ras
segna d’ Arte 2 (1902): 65–68, 90–93.
15 Beltrami, “La Sala delle ‘Asse’ nel Castello di Milano,” 65–68, 90–93. Adolfo Venturi ac-
cused Beltrami of having transformed the Sala delle Asse “quasi in Gambrinus Halle.” See
Adolfo Venturi, “Bibliografia artistica,” L’Arte 11–12 (1902): 395–404, in particular p. 403.
16 One of the more interesting findings of the preliminary restoration campaign taken up in
2006 was that Rusca’s paintings were not mostly removed by Della Rotta, but in fact were
lightened and repainted in an effort to make them look more in line with other work by
Leonardo. Fiorio and Lucchini, “Nella Sala delle Asse,” 109.
17 Joseph Gantner, “Les fragments récemment découverts d’une fresque de Léonard de Vinci
au Chateau de Milan,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 53 (1959): 27–34. Earlier, Gustavo Frizzoni
had also recognized the monochrome area as part of Leonardo’s original work in the
room. His position is particularly valuable as he was one of the few scholars to see the
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Figure 7.7
Leonardo da Vinci, Sala
delle Asse (detail of
overpainting in Sala
delle Asse by Ernesto
Rusca). Fresco. Milan,
Castello Sforzesco.
Source: author
segment has played a critical role in the current conservation program.18 As
part of this program, specialists have supplied extensive technical diagnostics
on the walls and renewed their archival research on the room. Both campaigns
have begun to yield exciting new findings, which can now be integrated into
our understanding of the room.19
One of the most important of these recent findings comes from Carlo Cat-
turini, who has uncovered a contemporary reference to the Sala delle Asse, in-
dicating that at the time the room was commonly known as the “camera dei
moroni,” or the “room of the mulberries.” The citation comes from the 1509 trea-
tise De divina proportione by the Sforza court mathematician Fra Luca Pacioli,
who looking back on his days at the Sforza court describes a meeting between
the duke and some of his closet associates and family members in the room
called “de’ moroni” (relying on the Lombard word for mulberries). In expos-
ing this passage, Catturini has confirmed the identity of the trees that sprawl
across the interior of the Sala. The recent suggestion that these trees represent
room during Beltrami’s intervention. See Fiorio and Lucchini, “Nella Sala delle Asse,” 106,
108.
18 The restoration of the Sala delle Asse has evolved out of the collaboration between many
organizations, including the Comune di Milano, the Direzione Regionale per i Beni Cul-
turali e Paesaggistici della Lombardia, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici, Artistici ed
Etnoantropoligici di Milano, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici
di Milano and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze.
19 I am grateful to Francesca Tasso, Carlo Catturini, Luca Tosi, and Ilaria De Palma for meet-
ing with me at the Castello Sforzesco in September 2014 and for sharing the preliminary
findings of the restoration campaign with me. Another meeting in May 2015 helped to
inform me of further interventions in the Sala delle Asse. A full description of the cam-
paign and its findings can be found in the recently published volume: Palazzo and Tasso,
Leonardo da Vinci.
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mulberry comes only after centuries of speculation that they might depict Eu-
ropean hornbeam, laurel, oak, or even, as we saw with Beltrami, roses.20 Thus,
the trees alluded to the duke himself because they supplied a cunning pun on
his appellation “Il Moro,” which referred both to Ludovico’s dark complexion
and “gelsomoro,” meaning “mulberry.”21 By the time of the painting of the Sala
delle Asse, Ludovico’s adoption of the mulberry as an impresa was pervasive.
Based on a reading of Pliny the Elder, the mulberry was considered the “wisest
of trees” (morus sapientissima arborum) because it takes much time to flower
but its red fruit ripens quickly and dramatically.22 This may have been an al-
lusion to Ludovico’s skill as a statesman because the tree was associated with
natural wisdom, prudence, and economy of action.23
The long-standing dispute over the type of trees reflects their importance to
understanding the decorations in the room. On the one hand, the inclusion of
the mulberry alludes to the duke’s power and his economic successes during
his reign. The mulberries referred to Milan’s prosperous silk industry brought
on partially through the wide planting of white mulberry trees (morus alba),
whose berries turn a very dark purple when ripe and are the main source of
nourishment to the silkworm.24 However, the mulberry had associations be-
yond the promotion of the duke and his economic industries as well. It also
reflects the thriving literary and philosophical culture at the Sforza court.
20 I would like to thank Carlo Catturini for making his findings available to me in advance of
their publication. See Carlo Catturini, “Leonardo da Vinci nel Castello Sforzesco di Mila-
no: una citazione di Luca Pacioli per la ‘Sala delle Asse’ ovvero la ‘camera dei moroni’”
Prospettiva 147–48 (2012): 159–66. Constance Moffatt has identified the trees in the Sala as
mulberry. See Moffatt, “Merito et tempore,” 238 and Moffatt, “Urbanism and Political Dis-
course,” 254–58.
21 Elizabeth McGrath has suggested that although Ludovico Sforza’s “Moro” nickname even-
tually became associated with the “virtues of the mulberry tree” and Milan’s thriving silk
industry, it originated at a young age due to Ludovico’s dark complexion, eyes, and hair.
See Elizabeth McGrath, “Ludovico il Moro and His Moors,” Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 65 (2002): 70–71. Prior to McGrath’s interpretation, Constance Moffatt
argued that the appellation had more to do with Ludovico’s baptismal name, Lodovicus
Maurus, as well as the association with Pliny the Elder. Moffatt, “Urbanism and Political
Discourse,” 253–54 and n. 271.
22 This nature of the mulberry provides the basis for Pier Luigi Mulas’ interpretation of the
room as an allegory of ‘Prudence.’ See Pier Luigi Mulas, “La Sala delle Asse: une allégorie
de la Prudence à la cour de Ludovic le More?” Chroniques italiennes 60 (1999): 117–28.
23 Arasse, Leonardo da Vinci, 138; for a full summary of Pliny’s description and its association
with statecraft, see Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (London: Faber and
Faber Limited, 1958), 98–99.
24 Richard Schofield, “Ludovico il Moro and Vigevano,” Arte Lombarda 62 (1982): 93–140; Ki-
ang, “Gasparo Visconti’s Pasitea,” 101–8.
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Importantly, the identification of the space as the “camera dei moroni”
comes from Leonardo’s close friend Luca Pacioli, who occupied a prominent
position in the intellectual life of the Sforza court. The centrality of the rela-
tionship between Leonardo and Pacioli deserves further attention as it played
a fundamental role in the former’s artistic development in Milan. Additionally,
it is through Pacioli that we learn much about the culture at the court. For in-
stance, in his De divina proprtione, Pacioli described a type of “praiseworthy
and scientific duel” that took place in 1498 at the Castello Sforzesco between
some of Milan’s most prominent scholars, theologians, astrologers, and artists,
including Leonardo.25 This passage has often been cited as evidence of the
lively disputations that entertained Milan’s courtly elite and that characterized
the nature of intellectual exchange in the duke’s inner circle.26
Within this circle was also the duke’s collection of court poets, including
Gaspare Visconti. Leonardo’s own book lists indicate that he owned copies of
sonnets by Visconti, and he certainly must have encountered the poet in the
context of the court.27 Between 1494 and 1498, while in the service of the Sforza
court in Milan, Visconti authored the theatrical comedy Pasitea. The story fol-
lows Ovid’s tale of Pyramus and Thisbe (Metamorphoses IV, 55–166), which
unfolded largely under the shade of a mulberry tree. Visconti appropriates this
setting, allowing him to promote his Milanese patria and supply encomiastic
reference to his patron, Ludovico Sforza, by incorporating the established pun
on his nickname “moro”—or “gelsomoro,” meaning mulberry.28 This clever
25 Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione, intro. Augusto Marinoni (Milan: Silvana, 1982).
26 See Monica Azzolini, “Anatomy of a Dispute: Leonardo, Pacioli and Scientific Courtly En-
tertainment in Renaissance Milan,” Early Science and Medicine 9 (2004): 115–35.
27 Ladislao Reti, The Library of Leonardo da Vinci (Los Angeles, 1972), 21.
28 In their study of North Italian theatre in the Quattrocento, Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti and
Maria Pia Mussini Sacchi call Pasitea “the jewel of Milanese theatre.” They also provide a
modern publication of the play in their Teatro del Quattrocento: Le corti padane [(Turin:
Cane Tipografia Litografia, 1983), 337–96]; prior to this, Cynthia Pyle submitted a thor-
ough discussion and a diplomatic reproduction of Pasitea in her doctoral dissertation,
which was followed by a later series of essays. See Cynthia M. Pyle, “Politian’s Orfeo and
other favole mitologiche in the Context of Late Quattrocento Northern Italy” (Ph.D. diss.,
Columbia University, 1976), and also, Cynthia M. Pyle, “The Birth of Vernacular Comedy:
Gaspare Visconti’s Pasithea,” in Milan and Lombardy in the Renaissance: Essays in Cultural
History (Rome: La Fenice Edizioni, 1997), 139–50; See also the benchmark study by Paolo
Bongrani, “Lingua e stile nella Pasitea e nel teatro cortigiano Milanese,” Interpres 5 (1983–
1984): 163–241, which was reprinted in Lingua e letteratura a Milano nell’età sforzesca, Una
raccolta di studi (Parma: Università degli studi, 1986), 87–158. The original text is con-
tained in Gaspare Visconti’s zibaldone (Cod. Triv. n. 1093), 75 v–100. This is an autograph
manuscript including Visconti’s sonnets written in dedication to Beatrice d’Este. Visconti
may have relied on a secretary or copyist for some parts of the manuscript. Corrections in
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conceit was crafted by another Milanese court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, who
was also a friend and associate of both Leonardo and Visconti. Bellincioni
created the pun in a previous poem in which he describes a group of artists
(including Leonardo) as having been “nourished under the shade of the mul-
berry tree.”29 The motif served to promote the idea that Milan flourished under
the protection of the duke. By the 1490s, this motif had become common in
courtly imagery, and is seen in works such as in the right border of the frontis-
piece for the Paris copy of Giovanni Simonetta’s Sforziada (1490), where the
illuminator Giovan Pietro Birago included an image of Ludovico in the form of
a tree—his leafy branches reaching out to protect his young nephew, Gian Ga-
leazzo (Fig. 7.8). A banderole extends across the two figures with the inscrip-
tion: “Dum vivis, tutus et letus vivo, gaude fili, protector tuus ero semper,”
making Ludovico’s role as guardian abundantly clear.30
Beyond the poetic associations of the mulberry, it is also worth considering
further the role that the natural environment played more generally in Vis-
conti’s tale of Pasitea, as it is critically important to this poetic genre itself and
reveals much about the perception of nature in the context of the Renaissance
court. Visconti’s Pasitea is one of the finest examples of what are known as the
favole mitologiche or mythological romances popular at Northern Italian courts
in the late Quattrocento. Written in the vernacular—typically in ottava rima or
terza rima—these poetic works were performed widely as convivial court en-
tertainment on special occasions. They combined Petrarchan love poetry with
classically inspired fictional prose and were set in pastoral landscapes, which
supplied a romantic alternative to the frequent urban enclaves of courtly life.
This genre of the favola mitologica helped to inspire the arboreal setting in
the Sala delle Asse. Indeed, it should be remembered that it was through the
Visconti’s hand, however, to the sheets of Pasitea confirm its authenticity. Pyle, “Politian’s
Orfeo,” 188–89.
29 Bernardo Bellincioni, Le Rime, ed. P. Fanfani (Milan: Filippo Mantegazza, 1876), 106. Intro-
ducing Sonnet LXXVII, Bellincioni writes, “In laude di quattro uomini famosi [Caradosso,
Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgio Merula, Giannino (a bombardier and armorer)] nutriti sotto
all’ombra del Moro: fatto in occasione che il Caradosso mostrava gioje legate.”
30 The motif of Ludovico’s protection is furthered at the base of the frontispiece for the
Paris Sforziada in the small passage depicting the young Gian Galeazzo in a ship steered
by a Moor. Thomas Kren, ed. Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the Brit-
ish Library (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), 107–12; Moffatt, “Merito et tempore,”
243n; Kiang, “Gasparo Visconti’s Pasitea,” 106 and 32n; Alison Cole, Virtue and Magnifi-
cence: Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995), 93;
Mark Evans, “The Politicized Page: The Sforza Succession and Humanist Book Decoration
in Milan,” in Manuscripts in Transition: Recycling manuscripts, texts, and images, ed. Bri-
gitte Dekeyzer and Jan Van der Stock (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), 350–51.
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literary realm of the pastoral that images of landscape started to emerge as an
independent artistic genre in the fifteenth century.31 Inspired by the writings
of classical authors, such as Pliny and Vitruvius, representations of indepen-
dent landscape gained a renewed legitimacy through Alberti, who viewed the
natural environment as an appropriate subject for the decoration of villas and
palaces. Landscape was often meant as background to spaces designed for the
pleasure of princes. Such settings were also considered suitable for the enter-
tainment of the prince and his court, and often drew on ancient literary de-
scriptions of sylvan scenes. In establishing the hierarchy of classical theater,
Vitruvius declared that more formal or domestic architectural settings best
suited tragedy and comedy, while the more spirited satyr plays were better
“decorated with trees, caverns, mountains, and other rustic objects delineated
in a landscape style.”32
Although Renaissance painters considered the beauty of nature essentially
superficial and low in the hierarchy of artistic subjects, Leonardo extolled the
importance of nature and helped to elevate landscape to a more noble level.33
He began to treat the visible wonder of natural settings in their own right, fill-
ing his notebooks with scenes of the natural world. Moreover, he translated
these nature studies into the more specific realm of architecture. For this, he
may have been inspired by the late-medieval writings on horticulture and agri-
culture by the Bolognese scholar Pietro de’ Crescenzi whose Opus ruralium
commodorum (“Book of Rural Benefits”) (1304–1309) circulated widely in fif-
teenth-century Italy and appears in Leonardo’s listing of books in his own li-
brary.34 Crescenzi’s treatise (first printed in Latin in 1471, and in the vernacular
in 1478) is often considered the first modern text on agriculture, and enjoyed a
particular popularity at the court of Milan. The book is divided into twelve
parts, including a section on pleasure gardens. Significantly in relation to the
Sala delle Asse, Crescenzi states that gardens were an important reflection on
the wealth and status of their owner, and should be made of enclosed woven
31 David Rosand skillfully addressed the intertwining of pastoral poetic themes and the
visual arts in the context of early Cinquecento Venice. See, David Rosand, “Giorgione,
Venice, and the Pastoral Vision,” in Robert C. Cafritz, Lawrence Gowing, and David
Rosand, Places of Delight: The Pastoral Landscape, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and
the Phillips Collection (Washington, DC: The Phillips Collection, 1988), 21–81.
32 Translation taken from Rosand, “Giorgione, Venice, and the Pastoral Vision,” 24; See also
Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architecture, trans. Morris Hicky Morgan (New York: Dover Publi-
cations, 1960), 150.
33 Rosand, “Giorgione, Venice, and the Pastoral Vision,” 23–24.
34 William Emboden, Leonardo da Vinci: On Plants and Gardens, foreword by Carlo Pedretti
(Portland, OR: Dioscorides, in cooperation with the Armand Hammer Center for Leon-
ardo Studies at UCLA, 1987), 26–29.
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hedges.35 Crescenzi also suggests that in noble and royal palace gardens it is
desirable to create “walkways and rooms made only from trees, where the king
or the queen may go with their lords or ladies in clear and dry weather.”36 It
seems Leonardo created exactly this sort of space in the expansive garden per-
gola sprawling across the interior vaults of the Sala delle Asse.
Leonardo’s production of this fictive canopy also allowed him to deliber-
ately draw on the tradition of the ancients, which would have been well known
to Ludovico Sforza and his learned circle at the court. In many ways, Leonar-
do’s arboreal setting referenced Vitruvius’s famous account of the origins of
architecture in which he claimed that humanity’s original temples and houses
were composed of tree branches and trunks.37 In Book One of De architectura,
Vitruvius states that primordial humans constructed their first dwellings out of
tree trunks, mud, leaves, and woven groups of sticks.38 And of course in Book
Four he goes on to describe how the ancients derived the orders of their col-
umn capitals from their observation of nature.39 These well-known passages
inspired Renaissance artists to model their own designs on these rudimentary
edifices. John Moffitt rightly posits that through Vitruvius this sort of simple
architecture serves as a sort of synecdoche for nature itself, it becomes an ex-
ample for all that is “natural” and “potentially best in architecture.”40 Such
ideas were widespread at the time of Leonardo, and take shape in the many
columns and pilasters that derive from arboreal forms.41 The theme was, in
fact, already prevalent at the Sforza court decades prior to Leonardo’s arrival.
35 Emboden, Leonardo da Vinci, 29.
36 See Pietro de’ Crescenzi, De agricultura vulgare (Venice, 1511), 159. Original text reads: “…
un palagio con caminate e camera di soli arbori nel quale possa dimorare il Re o la Reina
con suoi baroni o donne nel tempo asciuto e chiaro.” See also Emboden, Leonardo da
Vinci, 29.
37 For more scholarship on the idea of the “primordial origins of architecture” see the funda-
mental study by Joseph Rykwert, On Adam’s House in Paradise. The Idea of the Primitive
Hut in Architectural History (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1972). See also full bibli-
ography in Moffitt, “Leonardo’s ‘Sala delle Asse,’” 89, 24n.
38 Moffitt points out in his notes that André Chastel had previously noted Leonardo’s in-
debtedness to Vitruvius, citing passage from the Ten Books on Architecture “in passing.”
Moffitt, “Leonardo’s ‘Sala delle Asse,’” 89, 25n.
39 For example, the Corinthian form was derived from acanthus leaves growing in and
around a basket. Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architecture, 104–106.
40 Moffitt, “Leonardo’s ‘Sala delle Asse,’” 83.
41 As a reminder of Leonardo’s knowledge and dependence on Vitruvius, he reminds his
readers of the famous “Vitruvian Man” executed around 1490, slightly prior to the Sala
delle Asse. Moffitt, “Leonardo’s ‘Sala delle Asse,’” 82. Moffitt also includes a description of
a “first dwelling, made from four living trees and covered by a leafy roof-bower” from one
of Leonardo’s notebooks. This passage is used to demonstrate Leonardo’s familiarly with
the Vitruvian concept of “primordial architecture,” without claiming that it actually refers
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Filarete introduced the ideas to the court of Francesco Sforza through his Trat-
tato di architettura (1461–64), in which he illustrates the construction of primi-
tive huts (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale, Codex Magliabechianus II.I.140, fol.
5r-v) that he considers the basis for the development of all architectural struc-
tures. Filarete drew on Vitruvius as the source for his theories on the origins of
architecture and significantly dedicated his treatise to Francesco Sforza.42 The
original now lost manuscript once was part of ducal holdings and, thus, Leon-
ardo could have known it easily during his period working for the Sforza.43 The
vegetal motifs also owe much to Alberti whose Ten Books on Architecture is
named in Leonardo’s booklist.44 In this text, Alberti proposes that private
houses columns should have more pleasurable form and should have more ele
gance of style, particularly in gardens with playful elements such as columns
built to appear as living trees.45
A key member of Leonardo’s intellectual circle in Milan was Bramante, who
himself exhibited a similar knowledge of Vitruvian “primordial architecture”
in his late-Quattrocento columns that imitated tree trunks still visible in what
was the rectory of the basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan (Fig. 7.9). Bramante
may have developed an understanding of arboreal-inspired, proto-architectur-
al motifs through his own direct study of Vitruvius or through reading about
the “colonne fatte ad imitazione di tronchi d’albero” as described by Alberti.46
Bramante likely had access to the writings of Vitruvius, as his work is listed in
the library of Gaspare Visconti with whom Bramante stayed between 1487–92.47
He could have easily passed his ideas onto Leonardo as the two were very close
in the 1490s, and it is more than likely that the two artists exchanged ideas
to the Sala delle Asse, as it predates the actual decoration of the room. Moffitt, “Leonardo’s
‘Sala delle Asse,’” 86.
42 Moffitt, “Leonardo’s ‘Sala delle Asse,’” 83.
43 Ibid.
44 The Dawn of Modern Science as Illustrated by Rare Books, Prints, and Drawings from the
Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana and the Watson Library of the History of Science (Los Angles:
California Institute, 1949), 16.
45 The connection between Alberti and Leonardo’s Sala delle Asse was first astutely recog-
nized by Eva Börsch-Supan in Garten-, Landschafts- und Paradiesmotive im Innenraum:
Eine ikonographische Untersuchung (Berlin: Hessling, 1967), 243–45.
46 Alberti writes, “E molta leggiadria conferiva il fare ciò che solevano architetti brillantissi-
mi…e il collocare, soprattutto nei loggiati dei giardini, colonne fatte ad imitazione di tron-
chi d’albero cone le nodosità recise…” See Leon Battista Alberti, L’Architettura [De Re
Aedificatoria], vol. 2, edited by Giovanni Orlandi and Paolo Portighesi (Milan: Edizioni il
Polfilo, 1966), 786. See also Pietro C. Marani, “Leonardo e le colonne ad tronchonos: tracce
di un programma iconologico per Ludovico il Moro,” Raccolta vinciana 21 (1982): 103–20.
47 Luciano Patetta, Bramante: Architetto e pittore (1444–1514), I Protagonisti dell’Architettura,
vol. 1, directed by Stefano Piazza (Palermo: Caracol, 2009), 26.
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about Vitruvius’s writings on the origins of architecture. In terms of the design
of the Sala delle Asse, we should consider more closely Leonardo’s friendship
and resulting discourse with Bramante.
Explorations of classical ideas about natural settings also likely caused
Leonardo, Bramante, and their circle to investigate the central concept of the
locus amoenus, or as the Latin term indicates a “beautiful place,” an ancient
literary motif involving an idyllic space characterized by a secluded grove or
woodland.48 The locus amoenus connotes a pleasant environment designed for
the protection and comfort of its inhabitants. The concept dates perhaps first
to Homer and became a poetic convention by the time of Theocritus whose
shepherds retreat to the countryside to engage in dialogue—a model that initi-
ated the idea of the locus amoenus as a place for gathering and conversation.
While relying on the traditional pastoral conventions of Theocritus, Virgil fur-
thered the tradition of the locus amoenus most clearly in his Eclogues. In the
famous first line of his pastoral poems, Virgil describes the poetic inspiration
of the shepherd Tityrus reclining in a secluded grove of trees.49 Thus begins the
classical trope of creative inspiration during a moment of repose under the
shady protection of a tree.50
For Virgil, the locus amoenus provided a natural backdrop for pastoral mus-
ings. Yet for subsequent Latin poets, it becomes a source of rhetorical descrip-
tion itself warranting lengthy detail.51 By the late Quattrocento, the locus
amoenus formed much of the landscape motif in pastoral poetry.52 Therefore
the concept would not have been lost on Ludovico Sforza, who as a humanisti-
cally-inclined prince would have known its classical origins, as well as its early
modern reformulation in the favole mitologiche. This genre had enjoyed wide-
spread popularity at the courts of Northern Italy stretching back to Angelo Po-
liziano’s Orfeo, a work widely considered to be the first of its type, dating to
around 1480. Poliziano likely authored his work for Francesco Gonzaga, who
had a particular predilection for pastoral spectacles. Gonzaga helped satisfy
48 Rosand, “Giorgione, Venice, and the Pastoral Vision,” 48.
49 Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans., Willard R.
Trask (New York: Harper and Row, 1953), 190–91. The original Latin reads, “Tityre, tu patu-
lae recubans sub tegmine fagi/siluestrem tenui musam meditaris auena:/nos patriae finis
et dulcia linquimus arua./nos patriam fugimus: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra/formosam
resonare doces Amaryllida siluas.”
50 Curtius drawing on Virgil, see Curtius, European Literature, 191. See also Buc., III, 55 ff. and
V, 1 ff.
51 Curtius, European Literature, 195–98.
52 Ibid., 199–200.
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his love for the pastoral by filling his various residences with gardens surround-
ed by walls adorned with mythological scenes.53
Building on such a tradition, the Sala delle Asse offered an urban natural
respite for the Sforza duke.54 In January 1497, Ludovico’s wife Beatrice d’Este
tragically died in childbirth, after which time the duke renounced his rights to
his pleasure ground at Vigevano (in the countryside outside of Milan), giving it
over to the Dominican friars of the convent church of Santa Maria delle
Grazie.55 Martin Kemp and others have convincingly suggested that this loss
53 Nino Pirrotta, “Orpheus, singer of strambotti” in Music and Theatre from Poliziano to Mon-
teverdi, trans. Karen Eales (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 8.
54 In his 1972 article, “Leonardos Ausmalung der Sala delle Asse im Castello Sforzesco,” Volk-
er Hoffmann identifies the ducal space with the literary topos of Tempe, the legendary
river valley in Thessaly, Greece, located between Mount Olympus and Mount Ossa. The
ancients dedicated the valley to Apollo and the muses, erecting a temple in his honor on
the riverbank. Reportedly, Apollo plucked a laurel from the lush valley after defeating the
serpent Pytho, and then returned to Delphi. Subsequently, every nine years each healthy
youth processed from Delphi to Tempe to collect a branch of laurel (Aelian, Ael. VH 3.1;
Plut. Quaest. Graec. 100.11. p. 292) Traditionally, the scenery of Tempe is distinguished by
its wooded groves and rugged, rocky outcroppings. It was said that a large earthquake had
shifted the mountains, leading to the dramatic rock formations. (Hdt. 7.129; Strab. ix.
p.430.) For Hoffmann, the legendary rock formations were visualized in the stratified,
craggy rocks painted by Leonardo on the northeast wall of the Sala delle Asse. Found only
in 1954, Hoffmann maintained that the obvious interpretation of the room as a sort of
allegorical Tempe was overlooked due to the previous visual obstruction of this key fea-
ture of the overall design. He postulates that in Leonardo’s design, one sees a steep cliff
wall, whose stone breaks apart to looks as though it was created by an earthquake. Citing
Pliny, Aelian, and Strabo, Hoffmann believes that Leonardo modeled his decoration of the
Sala directly on descriptions he knew from ancient text. And because Leonardo moved in
“academic circles” he would have known these literary descriptions of Tempe. Interest-
ingly, Hoffmann also speculates that Ludovico il Moro may have known Spartianus’s Life
of Hadrian, and from that had known that Hadrian possessed his own locus amoenus
(based on Tempe) in his Roman villa, and thus Moro may have wanted his own version.
See, Volker Hoffmann, “Leonardos Ausmalung der Sala delle Asse im Castello Sforzesco,”
Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 16 (1972): 51–62.
55 Marie Aggházy importantly proposed that the room covered by Leonardo’s verdant ar-
bor represented precisely a locus amoenus, though this argument has now fallen from
favor. Aggházy, like other scholars, related the overall meaning of the room to the death of
Beatrice d’Este in 1497. Aggházy saw the room as Ludovico’s chosen venue for the duch-
ess’s funerary rite. She explains that in the Renaissance, the locus amoenus was consid-
ered the appropriate destination for saved souls and that in Milan there was a liturgical
practice that called for souls to be freed from their vinculum delictorum or “links of sin”,
thus connecting the prayers to the intricately woven knot patterns on the ceiling of the
Sala delle Asse. She argued that the funeral prayers for Beatrice actually took place in the
room itself. Marie G. Aggházy, “‘Locus amoenus’ et ‘vinculum delictorum’ dans l’art de la
Renaissance,” Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 51 (1978): 55–62. Costa (2006)
has astutely pointed out that such a sacred function for a secular room would have been
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prompted Ludovico to seek a sort of metaphorical place of retreat and to recre-
ate the natural space offered by his country estate within the confines of his
extensive urban castle and its vast surrounding enclosed gardens in Milan.56
By Ludovico’s time, the Castello was surrounded by a property that extended
for approximately 5,161 pertiche to the northwest arriving at the modern Mila-
nese district of San Siro.57 Closest to the castle were the elaborate cultivated
gardens that eventually gave way to the forested hunting park or “barcho.”58
Parts of this enormous tract of land were used for the cultivation of agricul-
tural crops, such as wheat, rye, millet, and oats, while other areas were used as
unlikely. It would have been more likely that Ludovico would have called for funerary-
themed paintings to adorn his private chapel—located near the Sala—or perhaps even
at Santa Maria delle Grazie, the burial place of his wife Beatrice. See Costa, “The Sala delle
Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan,” 164.
56 The changes to the Sala delle Asse were originally part of Ludovico’s larger campaign to
redecorate the Castello Sforzesco after the death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza.
Without the obstacle of the young prince, Ludovico enjoyed an unrestricted right to rule
the Milanese duchy, and his new authority likely inspired him to make a break with his
predecessors by initiating a new program of artistic patronage. See Welch, Art and
Authority, 231–32. In the 1490s, Ludovico, therefore, went about rearranging the Castello
in order to create a collection of personal apartments for use by himself and his wife
Beatrice. The new apartments included a covered bridge, the so-called “Ponticella”, com-
missioned from Bramante that was constructed on an existing double-arched brick struc-
ture that had been in place since 1455. The Ponticella extended from the Corte Ducale
over a large moat and contained three small, domestic rooms, known as the ‘camerini’,
each containing doors that led out onto a loggia. The Ponticella stretched over the moat
and eventually led into the expansive surrounding gardens around the Castello Sforzesco.
It may have been originally intended to lead to the Ghirlanda, the covered walkway that
allowed for the private passage of the ducal family to the nearby Sant’Ambrosio ad
Nemus—a church to which the Sforza were particularly devoted. See Luciano Patetta, “Il
castello nell’età sforzesca (1450–1499),” in Il Castello Sforzesco di Milano, ed. Maria Teresa
Fiorio (Milan: Skira, 2005), 84. The rooms in the Ponticella were meant to be a space for
quiet, personal contemplation, not unlike similar camerini in the ducal palaces of Urbino
and Mantua. Kemp has speculated that the loss of Beatrice d’Este prompted Ludovico to
seek a space of retreat and solitude. Kemp, Marvellous Works (2006), 167–68. Arasse and
others have suggested that the Sala delle Asse presented an urban “metaphorical equiva-
lent” to the Vigevano estate for the mourning Ludovico. Arasse, Leonardo da Vinci, 138.
57 Milan’s modern Parco Sempione is only a small remnant of the lands that once extended
behind the Castello Sforzesco. For size of the barcho, see also Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri,
La corte di Lodovico il Moro: La vita privata e l’arte a Milano nelle seconda metà del Quat-
trocento, vol. 1 (Milan: Hoepli, 1929), 281. For a full discussion of the lands surrounding the
Castello Sforzesco, see Damiano Iacobone, “La ‘progettazione paesaggistica’ in età viscon-
teo-sforzesca: i casi di Milano e Pavia,” in Ville e parchi storici: Strategie per la conoscenza e
per il riuso sostenibile. Atti del convegno internazionale, ed. Stefano Bertocci, Giovanni Pan-
cani, and Paola Puma (Florence: Edifir–Edizioni, 2006), 61–64.
58 Fiorio, “Tutto mi piace,” 168.
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