uary, 1497, saw and admired the
work of Leonardo, and conversed with the painter, who laughed, Bandello
tells us, at his Eminence's ignorance for thinking his salary of 2000
ducats a large one and expressing surprise at the duke's liberality.
Lodovico was now anxious to see the life-sized portraits of himself and
Beatrice with their children painted by the great master's hand on the
opposite wall. The Dominican historian, Padre Pino, writing in the last
century, says that the convent retained a life-sized portrait of that
most excellent and famous lady, Duchess Beatrice, in which the sweet
gentleness of her nature and majesty of her bearing were faithfully
reproduced; and Padre Gattico, a very accurate and careful writer of the
sixteenth century who wrote the history of the convent from its
foundation, describes how Leonardo da Vinci was employed by Lodovico to
paint portraits of himself and Beatrice, with their children kneeling at
their feet, on the wall opposite the Cenacolo, but adds that these
portraits, being painted in oil, were already in a ruinous condition.
The Dominican father's words were all too true, and only the merest
fragments of these portraits, which Vasari described as works of sublime
beauty, now remain on the wall, where the Lombard artist Montorfano had
already painted his fresco of the Crucifixion. That of Beatrice is a
mere ghost, but enough remains of Lodovico's figure to show how nobly
Leonardo treated his subject, and is of the deepest interest as an
example of the great Florentine's art and a faithful likeness of his
illustrious patron. A distinct reference to Lodovico's wishes on the
subject may be found in the paper of directions which he drew up on the
30th of June, 1497, for his minister the Marchesino Stanga.

"_Memorandum of the things which Messer Marchesino is to do._

"In the first place, he is to place the ducal arms in gold letters on a
marble slab on Porta Ludovica, together with ten bronze medals bearing
the duke's head.

"_Item_: to see that similar tablets are placed on all the public
buildings, excepting those in the Castello, which are in charge of
Messer Bernardino di Corte, and that medals are placed between them.

"_Item_: to see that _El Gobbo_ carves the reliefs for the altar this
year, and that he has sufficient marble, and if more is needed, send to
Venice or Carrara.

"_Item_: to see that the sepulchre is finished without delay, and to
desire _Gobbo_ to work at