LEONARDO DA VINCI 1452-1519

RETURN TO FLORENCE On 2 September 1494, Charles VIII of France crossed the Alpine pass of Mont Genèvre, sparking the period known as the Italian Wars. The Medici, rulers of the Florentine republic since 1434, were driven from Florence on 9 November. The republican constitution was then restored around a Great Council with 3,000 members, entailing the construction of a new assembly hall on the eastern side of the Palazzo della Signoria (or Palazzo Vecchio). In 1502, it was decided that the leading figure of the Council – the ‘gonfalonier of justice’ – should have lifetime tenure; Piero Soderini was elected to this new position. This was the political situation in Florence when Leonardo, who had returned to the city in 1500, produced his paintings of Saint Anne, Salvator Mundi and possibly Saint John the Baptist – guardian figures of the liberty of Florence. In the autumn of 1503, he also started work on the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. Soderini commissioned Leonardo in 1503 – and Michelangelo in 1504 – to decorate the walls of the Council’s assembly hall with two huge paintings, each commemorating a famous Florentine victory: for Leonardo, The Battle of Anghiari against the Milanese and for Michelangelo, The Battle of Cascina against the Pisans. Leonardo never completed the project, but painted a remarkable scene known as the Battle of the Standard; this work, and the cartoon (preliminary sketch) produced by his rival Michelangelo left a lasting artistic impact before finally disappearing.