BIANCA SFORZA 



artist who stood high in the Moro's favour, and was 

 employed to paint portraits of the ducal family between 

 1482 and 1500. Ambrogio was one of Leonardo's 

 most capable assistants, and when the Franciscan friars 

 refused to give the Florentine master a sufficient sum 

 for his " Vierge aux Rochers," he was employed to 

 execute a replica of the altar-piece for their church. 

 Leonardo's painting, as we all know, was bought by 

 Francis I, and now hangs in the Louvre, while his 

 pupil's copy remained in S. Francesco of Milan, until 

 in 1796 it was bought for thirty ducats by Gavin 

 Hamilton and eventually passed from Lord Suffolk's 

 collection into the National Gallery. Since Morelli 

 recognised the same hand in the Ambrosiana portraits, 

 the war of attributions has waged fiercely round these 

 pictures. While the ascription to Ambrogio de Predis 

 has been accepted by Dr. Frizzoni, Mr. Berenson, and 

 other leading critics, it is hotly contested by Dr. Bode 

 and the Milanese historian, Signor Beltrami, who still 

 maintain the " Lady of the Ambrosiana " to be Leon- 

 ardo's work. 



The absurdity of identifying these pictures as the 

 portraits of Lodovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este has, 

 however, been generally acknowledged. We have 

 only to compare them with well-known portraits, 

 busts, and medals of the Duke and Duchess to recog- 

 nise the fallacy of the old legend. The strongly 

 marked features of Lodovico, which are familiar to us 



