Ceremonies Performed in Public Spaces: Ephemeral Architecture and Urban Itineraries in Sforza Milan

In 15th-century Italy, ephemeral structures complemented live performances representing court life and enabled ruling princes to project political and cultural messages. These events also offered unique opportunities for collaboration among architects, painters, sculptors, and woodcarvers. Except for one or two cases, this category of artefacts made in Milan has never been systematically studied, primarily because of a dearth of sources. This paper presents, with the help of documents recently discovered and published, some examples of the short-lived yet intensely programmatic use of public spaces by the Sforza family. Architectural Histories is a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Open Library of Humanities.