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 
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