What humanoid machine did Leonardo da Vinci design for a 1495 court spectacle?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight for a court spectacle around 1495.

The machine was commissioned in the context of Ludovico Sforza’s court in Milan. Leonardo’s drawings and notes indicate a humanoid figure built with an internal system of pulleys, cables, gears, and levers. Those mechanisms could make the figure sit, stand, raise its visor, and move its arms.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot, although the word robot was not used in Renaissance Italy. No original mechanical knight survives, and the reconstruction unveiled in the modern period was based on Leonardo’s plans rather than recovered from his workshop. It should also be distinguished from the mechanical lion associated with a later French royal spectacle.