Lodovico Maria il Moro Sforza (or Ludovicus Sforza), Duke of Bari, Duke of Milan and uncle of Isabella of Aragon
This fantastic portrait of Lodovico il Moro Sforza was not painted by Hans Memling, as the art historians still claim, but by the most talented court painter of Bianca Maria Visconti and Francesco Sforza, Zanetto Bugatto, who was sent to Flandern to the famous master Rogier van der Weyden in 1463 to learn the Burgundian-German style of painting. Because of the death of the latter in 1464, Zanetto Bugatto spent at least the next two years in the workshop of Hans Memling, one of the students of Rogier van der Weyden. As you can see at this portrait, Zanetto Bugatto did not only copy his second master very well, he was even a better painter than both of his teachers.
22. September 1451
17. May 1508 (in French captivity in the castle of Loches)
Francesco Sforza (1401-1466), Duke of Milan
Bianca Maria Visconti (1425-1468), daughter of the Milanese Duke Filippo Maria Visconti († 1447)
Beatrice d'Este (1475-1497), daughter of Ercole I., Duke of Ferrara, Reggio and Modena, and Leonora of Aragon, daughter of King Ferrante of Naples († 1494)
see: Beatrice d'Este
- his daughter Maddalena, born c. 1478-1480, deceased in 1520; since 1494 married to Matteo, Count of Litta d'Arese († 1513)
- his daughter Bianca, in 1482 born of his mistress Bernardina de Corradis, deceased on 22. November 1496; on 31. December 1489 Bianca was married to a distant relative of her father, the Milanese military commander Galeazzo da Sanseverino († 1525); being very young, she stayed with her father until early 1496
- his son Leone (c. 1488/89-after 1530), who allegedly was born of an unknown Roman woman or more likely of Cecilia Gallerani; in 1495 he became the Abbot of the Monastery of San Vittore in Piacenza
- his son Cesare, born on 21. March 1491 of his mistress Cecilia Gallerani; in 1498 he was promoted to become the abbot of the Milanese monastery San Nazaro Maggiore and in 1503 to become the Canon of Milan; he died after 1525
- his daughter Bona, born c. 1496, deceased c. 1555, her mother was Lucrezia Crivelli; Bona married Giovan Pietro Carminati Bergamini († after 1536), third Count of San Giovanni in Croce, who was a son of Cecilia Gallerani († after 1535) and Lodovico Bergamini, second Count of San Giovanni in Croce – no children
- his son Gian Paolo (1497-1535), who again was born to the mistress Lucrezia Crivelli; in 1532 Gian Paolo was promoted by his half-brother, the Milanese Duke Francesco II. Maria Sforza († 1535), to become Margrave of Caravaggio and Count of Galliate; since 1520 he was married to Violanta Bentivoglio († c. 1550), a daughter of Alessandro Bentivoglio and Ippolita Sforza – they had a daughter Lodovica and a son Muzio I. († 1553); the decendants of the latter died out in 1697 with the death of Margrave Francesco III.
- his daughter Isabella, again born of his mistress Lucrezia Crivelli in 1500; she married Francesco Carminati Bergamini († after 1519), the second son of Cecilia Gallerani and Lodovico Carminati Bergamini
Reading Suggestions:
- Maike Vogt-Luerssen: Who is Mona Lisa? – In Search of her Identity (in German). Norderstedt 2003
- Maike Vogt-Luerssen: The Sforza I: Bianca Maria Visconti – The Mother of the Sforza (in German). Norderstedt 2008