BATTLE OF ANGHIARI

(1503-1506; destroyed)

   The Battle of Anghiari was fought on 29 June 1440 by the Florentine army, led by Micheletto Attendolo and Gianpaolo Orsini, against the Milanese forces of Niccoló Piccinino, with the Florentines attaining victory. In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by the Florentine Republic to fresco the event in the Sala del Consiglio (Council Chamber) in the Palazzo Vecchio, the city's seat of government. At the same time, Michelangelo was asked to paint the Battle of Cascina on the opposite wall. Destroyed in 1557 to make way for Vasari's frescoes that glorified the Medici, Leonardo never completed the work because his experiments with new fresco techniques led to problems from the start. The central portion of the composition is known only through several copies, including one by Peter Paul Rubens (1615; Paris, Louvre). These reveal that the work captured effectively the chaos of war and the despair, fear, and hostility of the men involved. Though the work was never completed, it exerted tremendous influence throughout the Renaissance and well into the 19th century.