Pala Sforzesca

We do not know who painted this altarpiece, so historians simply call him the Master of the Pala Sforzesca, after this very panel. It was made in Milan in 1494 for the church of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus, and the year is the key to it. That was when Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the rightful young duke, died, and his uncle Ludovico il Moro took the dukedom for himself. So Ludovico had himself, his wife and their small children painted kneeling in a row before the enthroned Virgin, watched over by four great Doctors of the Church. It is a claim to legitimacy dressed as devotion. The style mixes the older, stiffer Milanese manner with softer touches picked up from Leonardo, who had by then been working at Ludovico's court for years.