Late Middle Ages · Europe · Culture

1480

Leonardo Offers Sforza His Services

1480

Leonardo wrote a famous letter to Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, listing his skills: designer of bridges, siege engines, armored wagons, mortars, catapults. Only at the end did he mention that he could also paint. He was hired. Milan acquired a military engineer who moonlighted as the age's supreme artist.