The Certosa Monastery outside Pavia, the cenotaph of Il Moro and Beatrice of Este

The Carthusian monastery of Certosa lies north of Pavia. It was put up largely in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century by the Visconti of Milan and their successors, who were upset with the Fabbrica of the Duomo who had refused Gian Galeazzo’s request that Milan Cathedral be home to his elaborate tomb. No expense was spared for the monastery, as we can see in the elaborate façade.

Galeazzo’s tomb is by Gian Cristoforo Romano (1456-1512); the extensive sculpture and reliefs narrate the Duke’s life, his battles being the most prominent. The tomb was made 90 years after the Duke’s death, courtesy of Ludovico Maria Sforza (“il Moro”)(1452-1508).

Il Moro had a notorious career as the Duke of Milan, ruthlessly consolidating power over all of Northern Italy. In 1491 he married the young and beautiful Beatrice of Este. She died in childbirth in 1497, aged just 21, humiliated by Il Moro’s liaison with her lady in waiting, with whom he had a child. Beatrice was buried in the choir at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Ludovico commissioned Cristoforo Solari to create an elaborate funeral monument for Beatrice and himself. The effigies on that tomb may have been completed only in 1512.

Il Moro was captured by the French in 1500, and died in 1508, a prisoner in the dungeon of the French castle of Loches. He was buried in the church of St. Ours in Loches. His son Maximilian later retrieved the Duke’s body for burial in the family tomb at Milan. Beatrice was never moved from the choir into the new tomb Il Moro had commissioned. Under Charles Borromeo that tomb at the Grazie was broken up, only the lid with the lying statues of the Beatrice and Il Moro survived, to be placed in 1564 in the left transept of the church at the Certosa. It is not clear exactly what happened to the body of Il Moro, perhaps it is at the Grazie, but perhaps it made its way to the Certosa!