A short history of Milan

CAPITAL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE Only a few traces of the Roman period remain in the city. The Columns of San Lorenzo, the ruins in Via Circo and under the Stock Exchange, and those in the Monastero Maggiore are, nevertheless, evidence of the fact that the public buildings were those of a large city. With the subdivision of the Roman Empire, Milan became the capital of its Western part, in 286 AD. It was a very important center for the consolidation of the new Christian religion. Many Milanese churches (e.g. Sant'Ambrogio, Sant'Eustorgio and San Lorenzo) have Early Christian origins.

SACKING AND DECLINE One of the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was the barbaric invasions from Northern Europe and Asia. Milan was sacked in 539 AD and its role of capital was lost. The capital of the dynamic Roman-Barbaric kingdom of the Longobards (569-774) - from whom Lombardy, the region surrounding Milan takes its name - was instead Pavia.

A NEW ROLE AS AN AUTONOMOUS CITY A remarkable independence movement - called the Comuni - developed in many towns of 12th century Northern Italy. The Comuni fought against the hegemony of the German emperors. Milan had regained its economic predominance in the region, and played a major role in the Comuni movement. During this period the city was governed by democratic laws, and built the Palazzo della Ragione as a seat for its political self-rule.

THE VISCONTI AND SFORZA FAMILIES The period of democratic government came to an end when power was seized by the old Milanese Visconti family, who were to be 'lords' of Milan from 1277 to 1447. The Viscontis gave the city a political and cultural supremacy which brought international renown, and it is under their rule that the construction of the Duomo and of the Castle. began. After 1447 there were three brief years of republican rule. Then in 1450, Francesco Sforza, son-in-law of the last Visconti duke and captain of the Milanese army, took over command of the city. The Sforza family's rule coincided with the Renaissance years in Italy and with one of Milan's moments of major artistic creativity. Among others, Donato Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci came to work for the city. It was during this period that the Duomo and the Castle were being built, along with the hospital which is today's the State University, and with the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

The Palazzo della Ragione before its 18th century enlargment

THE SPANISH DOMINATION In the last years of Sforza rule, in the early 16th century, Northern Italy became one of the territories contested by the French and the Spanish monarchies. The Spanish prevailed, and the city was governed by them for nearly two centuries (1535-1706). This was not a time of development. The city was oppressed by the scourge of the plague in 1630; but it was at least enlivened by the cultural initiatives of the Borromeo family, especially cardinals Carlo and Federico. The Ambrosiana was founded in this period, and seminaries and the palazzo of the Jesuit order (today's Brera) were built.

THE HAPSBURGS The great European wars of the late 17th and early 18th centuries brought Milan under the domination of the Austrian Imperial dynasty of the Hapsburgs. The period when Maria Theresa held sway, during the second half of the 18th century, was characterized by a strong revival operated by lay forces in all sectors of society. The city experienced a recovery which encompassed its economy, the functioning of its public administration, arts and culture, education and scientific development. The Brera Academy was founded in this period and the Scala Opera theater, the Palazzo Reale, and the Villa Reale were built, as well as many other private palazzi, in the neo-classical style which was to continue throughout

THE NAPOLEONIC ERA In the course of the wars that followed the French Revolution of 1789, Milan came under French control. At first it became capital of the Cisalpine Republic and, thereafter, of the so-called 'Regno Italico', which was governed by relatives of Napoleon and comprised nearly the whole of Northern Italy. This was a brief period characterized by great artistic and ideological zeal, which bequeathed the city with its first town-planning schemes, together with major public works such as the Arena and some of the new 'Porte' (city gates).

THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN PERIOD The Austrians returned to Milan after Napoleon's defeat in 1815, but they were no longer enlightened reformers. Their minister Metternich described Italy as 'a mere geographic expression' when, in fact, Milan had been introduced, during the Napoleonic era, to the ideas of Italy's national unification. In 1848 the city rebelled against the Austro-Hungarians, and in 1859 it became part of the Savoy Kingdom, which was to become, in 1861. Ê

THE KINGDOM OF ITALY With the unification of Italy, Milan could broaden its reach for new markets and it rapidly became a financial and industrial center. The city attracted workers from other Italian regions, but its growth also sowed the seeds of social tensions which did erupt in 1898 and were fiercely repressed by cannon fire. Milan's city center was soon taken over by banks and insurance companies, causing great changes in the urban landscape. Elegant residential districts were built, along with a model prison (San Vittore) and the Cimitero Monumentale.

FASCISM The Fascist party was founded in Milan in 1919. With the exception of industrial workers and a few groups of intellectuals, the city itself did not oppose the birth of the dictatorship. It was during Fascism that a series of pompous works such as the Stazione Centrale were built, but there were also some examples of innovative architecture; the Triennale was one of them.

THE POST-WAR PERIOD Milan headed the national reconstruction, since it had been devastated by Allied bombardments (it had, in fact, been on the front line of the partisan war against the Nazis who had occupied Italy in 1943.) The city has emerged as Italy's major center for commerce, finance, publishing and, recently, as the Italian capital of the media, design, fashion and advanced service sectors.

By courtesy of "a key to Milan", published by UlricoÊHoepliÊSpA. Copyright 2001 © Ulrico Hoepli SpA

Il Duomo

The cathedral, dedicated to Mary, was actually begun in 1387 over the site of the 9th century basilica of St. Maria Maggiore. Built on the express wish of Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo, the initiative found favor with Gian Galeazzo Visconti (then ruler of the city) and the whole MiIanese population. For that year the chief engineer was Simone da Orsegnigo who was aided by several Campionese (Swiss) masons. Nevertheless, the overall design of the cathedral was undoubtedly conceived by a sole mastermind, an artist definitely from beyond the Alps since, despite the fact that numerous architects had a hand in it, the cathedral never lost its amazing cohesiveness - a characteristic so typical of the work of Northern masters. It must be said, however, that the Gothic schemes in the hands of the Italian architects lost much of their Northern flavor and acquired a more typically Italian feeling. Simone da Orsenigo was, surrounded by a crew of great stonemasons: Marco "de Frixeno" of Campione. Matteo da Campione, and greatest of all, Giovannino de' Grassi. In 1389 da Orsenigo was dismissed and Nicola di Bonaventura was summoned from Paris. Nicola designed the huge pierced windows of the apse after his arrival in Milan on May 7, 1389 but he too was dismissed (on July 31 , 1390). Italian and foreign master craftsmen followed one another; amog them we may cite the Germans Johann from Freiburg, Heinrich Parler from Gmunden, Ulrich from Fussingen, Hans von Fernach, and the Italians Bernardo da Venezia, Gabriele Stornaloco, Marco da Carona, Giovannino de' Grassi and Giacomo da Campione. The latter two worked permanently in the cathedral workshop from 1392 on and left their imprint in the use of the so-called "Fowery Gothic" style known for its flamboyant decorative patterns.

After the death of the great masters de' Grassi, the Parisan Jean Mignot, sharply critical of what had been previously done, was put in charge, but opposed by Bernardo da Venezia and Bertolino da Novara, he was soon fired, and from then on the building of the Cathedral of Milan was supervised exclusively by Italian masters. In 1400 Filippino degli Ugoni became supervisor of the project; the capitals, vaulting, and terraces are of his design. Work went on at such a fast pace that by 14I8 the main altar could be cousecrated by Pope Martin V. When Francesco Sforza came to power in the mid 15th century, art in Milan was absorbing French and Tuscan influences. 15th century Milanese architecture and thus also that of the cathedral was strotigly influenced by three generations of the Solari family: Giovanni Solari, his son Guinforte, and Guinforte's son Pier Antonio. Guinforte's son-in-law', the great Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, won the competition called in 1490 for the building of the drum. Despite the new Renaissance turn art had taken, Amadeo was a strenuous defender of the structure's Gothic unity. He completed the drum by 1500. Ten years later the first of the four adjacent spires was put up it too in the Gothic style. Meanwhile the great surge of "Flowery Gothic" was gradually losing momentum, beaten by the new more plastic treatment of form advocated by Filarete, Luca Francelli, Francesco di Giorgi, and Leonardo, summoned from all over Italy to give fresh advice and up-to-date opinions on how the cathedral should be built. After a brief German intervention, a master called by Gian Galeazzo Sforza from Strasburg in 1482, Pellegrino Pellegrini, also known as Tibaldi, the favorite architect of Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, was named mastermason. Pellegrini immediately threw himself into the job and designed the patterns for the flooring and choir stalls. In 1572 Borromeo reconsecrated the cathedral. In 1585, when Pellegrini left for Spain, he got Martino Bassi and then later Lelio Buzzi, who had earlier designed the Ambrosian Library, to take over. When the other great Borromeo, Federico, was archbishop, Fabio Mangoni was put in charge of the cathedral building, followed by Richini and the Quadrios, but the 18th century was ushered in and it was still incomplete. The great spire was erected between 1765 and 1769 and the facade, based on Pellegrini's idea, was put up between 1815 and 1813. Work went on right through the 19th century, during which time the spires and the towers with stairways inside were completed. The whole complex construction, however, was badly in need of restoration: the first campaign was undertaken in 1935 and the second - even more complicated and painful - after the bombardments of 1943. During the latter restoration project, the flooring was restored and the statues and decorative elements which had suffered the greatest war damage were replaced. Finally, on December 8, 1966, the new churchyard was dedicated. ~reference~ Secoli/Duomo

Santa Maria della Grazie

Leonardo da Vinci

~Excerpts from Vasari~

All the animal creation, which he treated with wonderful love and patience, gave him great pleasure. Often when he was walking past the places where birds were sold, he would pay the price asked, take them from their cages, and let them fly off into the air, giving them back their lost freedom.

"[Leonardo] did many architectural drawings both of ground plans and other elevations, and, while still young, he was the first to propose reducing the Arno to a navigable canal between Pisa and Florence." I-256

He made designs for mills, fulling machines and engines that could be driven by water power; and as he intended to be a painter by profession he carefully studied drawing from life." I-256

"His brain was always busy on such devices, and one can find drawings of his ideas and experiments scattered among our craftsmen today, I myself have seen many of them." I-257

"When he was still young Leonardo entered the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. Verrocchio was working on a panel picture showing the Baptism of Christ, for which Leonardo painted an angel; and despite his youth, he executed it in such a manner that his angel was far better than the figures painted by Andrea. This was the reason why Andrea would never touch colours again." I-258

"I must mention another habit of Leonardo's; he was always fascinated when he saw a man of striking appearance, with a strange head of hair or beard; and anyone who attracted him he would follow about all day long and end up seeing him so clearly in his mind's eye that when he got home he could draw him as if he were standing there in the flesh." I-261

"Leonardo executed in Milan, for the Dominicans of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a marvellous and beautiful painting of the Last Supper. In it Leonardo brilliantly succeeded in envisaging and reproducing the tormented anxiety of the apostles to know who had betrayed their master." I-262

~Excerpts from Vasari~

Leonardo da Vinci was a Florentine artist, one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, who was also celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavors. His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studiesÑparticularly in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulicsÑanticipated many of the developments of modern science.

Early Life in Florence

Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the small Tuscan town of Vinci, near Florence. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In the mid-1460s the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, the intellectual and artistic center of Italy, could offer. He rapidly advanced socially and intellectually. He was handsome, persuasive in conversation, and a fine musician and improviser. About 1466 he was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo was introduced to many activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was entered in the painter's guild of Florence, and in 1476 he is still mentioned as Verrocchio's assistant. In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ (circa 1470, Uffizi, Florence), the kneeling angel at the left of the painting is by Leonardo.

In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master. His first commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, was never executed. His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi (begun 1481, Uffizi), left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence. Other works ascribed to his youth are the so-called Benois Madonna (c. 1478, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg), the portrait Ginerva de' Benci (c. 1474, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), and the unfinished Saint Jerome (c. 1481, Pinacoteca, Vatican).

Years in Milan About 1482 Leonardo entered the service of the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, having written the duke an astonishing letter in which he stated that he could build portable bridges; that he knew the techniques of constructing bombardments and of making cannons; that he could build ships as well as armored vehicles, catapults, and other war machines; and that he could execute sculpture in marble, bronze, and clay. He served as principal engineer in the duke's numerous military enterprises and was active also as an architect. In addition, he assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione (1509).

Evidence indicates that Leonardo had apprentices and pupils in Milan, for whom he probably wrote the various texts later compiled as Treatise on Painting (1651; trans. 1956). The most important of his own paintings during the early Milan period was The Virgin of the Rocks, two versions of which exist (1483-85, Louvre, Paris; 1490s to 1506-08, National Gallery, London); he worked on the compositions for a long time, as was his custom, seemingly unwilling to finish what he had begun. From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Unfortunately, his experimental use of oil on dry plaster (on what was the thin outer wall of a space designed for serving food) was technically unsound, and by 1500 its deterioration had begun. Since 1726 attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to restore it; a concerted restoration and conservation program, making use of the latest technology, was begun in 1977 and is reversing some of the damage. Although much of the original surface is gone, the majesty of the composition and the penetrating characterization of the figures give a fleeting vision of its vanished splendor. During his long stay in Milan, Leonardo also produced other paintings and drawings (most of which have been lost), theater designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan Cathedral. His largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco. In December 1499, however, the Sforza family was driven from Milan by French forces; Leonardo left the statue unfinished (it was destroyed by French archers, who used it as a target) and he returned to Florence in 1500.

Return to Florence

In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, duke of Romagna and son and chief general of Pope Alexander VI; in his capacity as the duke's chief architect and engineer, Leonardo supervised work on the fortresses of the papal territories in central Italy. In 1503 he was a member of a commission of artists who were to decide on the proper location for the David (1501-04, Accademia, Florence), the famous colossal marble statue by the Italian sculptor Michelangelo, and he also served as an engineer in the war against Pisa. Toward the end of the year Leonardo began to design a decoration for the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The subject was the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory in its war with Pisa. He made many drawings for it and completed a full-size cartoon, or sketch, in 1505, but he never finished the wall painting. The cartoon itself was destroyed in the 17th century, and the composition survives only in copies, of which the most famous is the one by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1615, Louvre). During this second Florentine period, Leonardo painted several portraits, but the only one that survives is the famous Mona Lisa (1503-06, Louvre). One of the most celebrated portraits ever painted, it is also known as La Gioconda, after the presumed name of the woman's husband. Leonardo seems to have had a special affection for the picture, for he took it with him on all of his subsequent travels.

Later Travels and Death

In 1506 Leonardo went again to Milan, at the summons of its French governor, Charles d'Amboise. The following year he was named court painter to King Louis XII of France, who was then residing in Milan. For the next six years Leonardo divided his time between Milan and Florence, where he often visited his half brothers and half sisters and looked after his inheritance. In Milan he continued his engineering projects and worked on an equestrian figure for a monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, commander of the French forces in the city; although the project was not completed, drawings and studies have been preserved. From 1514 to 1516 Leonardo lived in Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X: he was housed in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican and seems to have been occupied principally with scientific experimentation. In 1516 he traveled to France to enter the service of King Francis I. He spent his last years at the Ch‰teau de Cloux, near Amboise, where he died on May 2, 1519.

Paintings

Although Leonardo produced a relatively small number of paintings, many of which remained unfinished, he was nevertheless an extraordinarily innovative and influential artist. During his early years, his style closely paralleled that of Verrocchio, but he gradually moved away from his teacher's stiff, tight, and somewhat rigid treatment of figures to develop a more evocative and atmospheric handling of composition. The early The Adoration of the Magi introduced a new approach to composition, in which the main figures are grouped in the foreground, while the background consists of distant views of imaginary ruins and battle scenes.

Leonardo's stylistic innovations are even more apparent in The Last Supper, in which he re-created a traditional theme in an entirely new way. Instead of showing the 12 apostles as individual figures, he grouped them in dynamic compositional units of three, framing the figure of Christ, who is isolated in the center of the picture. Seated before a pale distant landscape seen through a rectangular opening in the wall, ChristÑwho is about to announce that one of those present will betray himÑrepresents a calm nucleus while the others respond with animated gestures. In the monumentality of the scene and the weightiness of the figures, Leonardo reintroduced a style pioneered more than a generation earlier by Masaccio, the father of Florentine painting.

The Mona Lisa, Leonardo's most famous work, is as well known for its mastery of technical innovations as for the mysteriousness of its legendary smiling subject. This work is a consummate example of two techniquesÑsfumato and chiaroscuroÑof which Leonardo was one of the first great masters. Sfumato is characterized by subtle, almost infinitesimal transitions between color areas, creating a delicately atmospheric haze or smoky effect; it is especially evident in the delicate gauzy robes worn by the sitter and in her enigmatic smile. Chiaroscuro is the technique of modeling and defining forms through contrasts of light and shadow; the sensitive hands of the sitter are portrayed with a luminous modulation of light and shade, while color contrast is used only sparingly.

An especially notable characteristic of Leonardo's paintings is his landscape backgrounds, into which he was among the first to introduce atmospheric perspective. The chief masters of the High Renaissance in Florence, including Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, and Fra Bartolommeo, all learned from Leonardo; he completely transformed the school of Milan; and at Parma, Correggio's artistic development was given direction by Leonardo's work.

Leonardo's many extant drawings, which reveal his brilliant draftsmanship and his mastery of the anatomy of humans, animals, and plant life, may be found in the principal European collections; the largest group is at Windsor Castle in England. Probably his most famous drawing is the magnificent Self-Portrait (c. 1510-13, Biblioteca Reale, Turin).

Sculptural and Architectural Drawings

Because none of Leonardo's sculptural projects was brought to completion, his approach to three-dimensional art can only be judged from his drawings. The same strictures apply to his architecture; none of his building projects was actually carried out as he devised them. In his architectural drawings, however, he demonstrates mastery in the use of massive forms, a clarity of expression, and especially a deep understanding of ancient Roman sources.

Scientific and Theoretical Projects

As a scientist Leonardo towered above all his contemporaries. His scientific theories, like his artistic innovations, were based on careful observation and precise documentation. He understood, better than anyone of his century or the next, the importance of precise scientific observation. Unfortunately, just as he frequently failed to bring to conclusion artistic projects, he never completed his planned treatises on a variety of scientific subjects. His theories are contained in numerous notebooks, most of which were written in mirror script. Because they were not easily decipherable, Leonardo's findings were not disseminated in his own lifetime; had they been published, they would have revolutionized the science of the 16th century. Leonardo actually anticipated many discoveries of modern times. In anatomy he studied the circulation of the blood and the action of the eye. He made discoveries in meteorology and geology, learned the effect of the moon on the tides, foreshadowed modern conceptions of continent formation, and surmised the nature of fossil shells. He was among the originators of the science of hydraulics and probably devised the hydrometer; his scheme for the canalization of rivers still has practical value. He invented a large number of ingenious machines, many potentially useful, among them an underwater diving suit. His flying devices, although not practicable, embodied sound principles of aerodynamics.

A creator in all branches of art, a discoverer in most branches of science, and an inventor in branches of technology, Leonardo deserves, perhaps more than anyone, the title of Homo Universalis, Universal Man.

Monograph reproduced from: © Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Kren and Daniel Marx.