About
The 500-year-old equestrian statue of Da Vinci.
Due to the efforts of Duke Ludovico Sforza and legendary artist Leonardo Da Vinci, the monumental Cavallo dello Sforza would not become reality until a retired airline pilot from Pennsylvania took it on as his own personal mission. Ludovico ‘Il Moro’ (“The Moor”) Sforza was an unlikely patron of the arts. He was the fourth son of the mercenary Francesco Sforza who had taken control of Milan in 1450 in the wake of famines and riots, and who was described as a general bad-ass in Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. Upon taking the throne in 1481, Ludovico and his beautiful young wife Beatrice d'Este ruled over a period of extraordinary artistic and cultural growth in Milan, against a looming threat of bloody violence.
