BIANCA SFORZA 



Bossi, near the Castello, and had been decorated by 

 the foremost artists of the day. Michelozzi is said 

 to have designed the noble portal adorned with 

 marble reliefs of Duke Francesco and his wife, 

 Bianca, now in the Castello Museum, and the 

 Brescian painter, Vincenzo Foppa, was certainly em- 

 ployed to paint the interior. The Etruscan architect, 

 Filarette, writing in 1464, devotes several pages of 

 his Trattato to a description of its splendid loggias, 

 marble halls, and richly carved and painted ceilings, 

 and ends by declaring that it is the " most beautiful 

 thing in Milan." l At that time Foppa was painting 

 the palace-walls with frescoes from Roman history, 

 including the favourite story of Trajan and the 

 Widow, and portraits of the ducal family. But the 

 work was interrupted by the death of Cosimo, and 

 twenty years later his grandson, Lorenzo, was com- 

 pelled by financial difficulties to sell the bank for 

 4000 ducats to Luigi da Tersago, Captain of the 

 Milanese Horse. The new owner, being a wealthy 

 man, spent large sums on the improvements of the 

 house, adding a stately loggia and laying out vast 

 gardens with terraces, fountains, and groves of palm 

 and cypress. Foppa, who had lately returned to 

 Milan, was summoned to resume his task, and 

 painted a new series of frescoes along the parapet of 

 1 A History of Milan under the Sforza^ by C. M. Ady, 268. 



'75 



