Sala delle Asse

The Sala delle Asse is a room in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan whose vault and walls were decorated by Leonardo da Vinci around 1498 for his patron Ludovico Sforza. The elaborate decorative scheme depicts an interlocking canopy of mulberry trees (gelsi, a pun on Ludovico's nickname Il Moro) with their roots and branches forming an intricate lattice across the entire ceiling. The paintings were whitewashed over in later centuries and only rediscovered in 1893, subsequently undergoing multiple restorations. The room represents Leonardo's most ambitious surviving decorative project.

Leonardo's design transforms the vaulted ceiling into a verdant arbor through masterful trompe l'oeil, with sixteen mulberry trees whose interlacing branches form a complex geometric pattern of golden ropes and knots. The naturalistic rendering of bark, leaves, and roots reflects Leonardo's botanical studies, while the overall design demonstrates his ability to integrate architecture, nature, and decorative art into a unified spatial experience.