Brilliant pantomimes of the same kind were given at Bologna, at the
marriage of Annibale Bentivoglio with Lucrezia of Este. Instead of the
orchestra, choral songs were sung, while the fairest of Diana's nymphs
flew over to the Juno Pronuba, and while Venus walked with a lion--
which in this case was a disguised man--among a troop of savages. The
decorations were a faithful representation of a forest. At Venice, in
1491, the princesses of the house of Este were met and welcomed by the
Bucentaur, and entertained by boat-races and a splendid pantomime,
called 'Meleager,' in the court of the ducal palace. At Milan Leonardo
da Vinci directed the festivals of the Duke and of some leading
citizens. One of his machines, which must have rivalled that of
Brunellesco, represented the heavenly bodies with all their movements
on a colossal scale. Whenever a planet approached Isabella, the bride
of the young Duke, the divinity whose name it bore stepped forth from
the globe, and sang some verses written by the court-poet Bellincioni
(1490). At another festival (1493) the model of the equestrian statue
of Francesco Sforza appeared with other objects under a triumphal arch
on the square before the castle. We read in Vasari of the ingenious
automata which Leonardo invented to welcome the French kings as masters
of Milan.
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