LEONARDO DA VINCI 1452-1519

After Leonardo da VINCI Vinci, 1452–Amboise, 1519 The Battle of Anghiari Oil on panel 16th century On 29 June 1440, the Battle of Anghiari was fought between the Milanese army of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and the combined forces of Florence, Venice and Pope Eugenius IV. Commissioned to produce a wall painting of the battle for the Great Council Chamber of the Palazzo della Signoria, Leonardo began to work on the central section which came to be known as the Battle of the Standard; this scene, depicting the animal savagery of war, has come down to us through copies. With its silvery light and strong contrasts of light and shade, it is almost a nocturne (painting of a night scene) – and in effect, the battle is known to have continued into the night. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, inv. 1890 n. 5376. On long-term loan to the Palazzo Vecchio Aristotile da SANGALLO, after Michelangelo Florence, 1481–Florence, 1551 The Battle of Cascina Oil on panel About 1542 On 28 July 1364, a battle was fought near the town of Cascina, near Pisa. As the Florentine soldiers were cooling off in the river Arno, they were called to arms by their vigilant leaders Galeotto Malatesta and Manno Donatio, who thereby thwarted the tactics of John Hawkwood, the English mercena- ry captain of the Pisan army. Pisa had rebelled against Floren- tine rule in 1494, so the Battle of Cascina stood as a symbol of contemporary political and military events. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the battle in 1504 but only completed the cartoon (full-scale preliminary sketch). Earl of Leicester and Trustees, Holkham Estate 139 140