Volume Volume2\Sculpture
Entry# 710. Notes on the casting of the Sforza monument (710-715).
Contents: Vol. 1 | Vol. 2
Three braces which bind the mould.
If you want to make simple casts quickly, make them in a box of
river sand wetted with vinegar.
When you shall have made the mould upon the horse you must make the
thickness of the metal in clay.
Observe in alloying how many hours are wanted for each
hundredweight. In casting each one keep the furnace and its fire
well stopped up. Let the inside of all the moulds be wetted with
linseed oil or oil of turpentine, and then take a handful of
powdered borax and Greek pitch with aqua vitae, and pitch the mould
over outside so that being under ground the damp may not damage
it?
To manage the large mould make a model of the small mould, make a
small room in proportion.
Make the vents in the mould while it is on the horse.
Hold the hoofs in the tongs, and cast them with fish glue. Weigh the
parts of the mould and the quantity of metal it will take to fill
them, and give so much to the furnace that it may afford to each
part its amount of metal; and this you may know by weighing the clay
of each part of the mould to which the quantity in the furnace must
correspond. And this is done in order that the furnace for the legs
when filled may not have to furnish metal from the legs to help out
the head, which would be impossible. Cast at the same casting as
the horse the little door
Footnote: The importance of the notes included under this number is
not diminished by the fact that they have been lightly crossed out
with red chalk. Possibly they were the first scheme for some fuller
observations which no longer exist; or perhaps they were crossed out
when Leonardo found himself obliged to give up the idea of casting
the equestrian statue. In the original the first two sketches are
above l. 1, and the third below l. 9.
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