|
Leone's last major commission from an Italian patron was from Vespasiano Gonzaga, Duke of Sabbioneta, for his portrait statue. Probably executed between 1574 and 1577, the life-size seated bronze shows Vespasiano armed and extending his right arm outward in a gesture directly related to that in the Marcus Aurelius.
The statue was erected in the central square of Sabbioneta in 1588 and served as the symbolic centrepiece of Gonzaga's ideal city.
The funereal monument to Vespasiano, in polychrome marble, was built in 1592 by Giovanni Battista della Porta.
| 
