The hunt for a missing painting -The Battle of Anghiari.

On 29^th June 1440 at a small center of Tuscany in Italy named Anghiari, a battle was fought. The battle was in between the forces of Milan and the league of some Italian states led by The Republic of Florence.

 The battle lasted for a day and the victory of the Florentines lead them to dominate central Italy.

 In the year1503 around October,  a contract was signed by a senior official, Niccolo Machiavelli (may,1469- June 1527) on the behest of  Piero Soderini ( March 1451-June,1522).
Piero Soderini was a Gonfalon ere and also a  respected statesman of Florence.

The contract was to decorate the newly built Grand Council 
Hall of the Palazzo Della Signoria by painting “The Battle of Anghiari”. 

The hall is now known as Palazzo Vecchio or Hall of Five Hundred.

  This was assigned to Leonardo da Vinci. The opposite wall 

 was designated for another famous painter and  sculpture 

Michelangelo” to depict an episode from the “ Battle of Cascina” fought on 28^th July 1364 between the troops of Pisa and Florence with a decisive win of the latter.

It was perceived that Agostino Vespucci provided a detailed description of the battle to Leonardo.

Agostino Vespucci was the cousin of Amerigo Vespucci and  the assistant of Niccolo Machiavelli. 

The detailed description of the battle was translated from a Latin elegy entitled  “ Trophaeum Anglaricum ( Victory of Anghiari) “and was  originally written by  Poet “ Leonardo  Dati.”

The central theme of the painting is four warriors with raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a Standard.

 The composition can be well understood by the drawing of  “Sir Peter Paul Rubens”  ( June 1577 – May 1640).

Sir Rubens was a famous Flemish artist, a diplomat, and also a great admirer of Leonardo. 

This drawing is presently at louver, Paris and is believed to be based on an engraving of 1553 by Lorenzo Zacchia.

Alternatively, it may be derived from the cartoon of Leonardo.

 Sir Rubens was successful in translating the intense fury, emotions, and the power which was presumed to be in the original painting. For this, it is highly respected by art lovers.

 Giorgio Vasari ( 30^th July 1511 – 27^th June-1574), was a famous Renaissance art historian, painter, and architect. In  his monumental collection of biographies, “The Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors & architect " he had expressed the painting as 

“A work that was held to be very excellent and of great mastery---- seeing that in its rages, fury, and revenge are perceived as much in the men as in the horses, among which two with the forelegs interlocked are fighting no less fiercely with their teeth than those who ride them are fighting for that standard---- while an old soldier in a red cap, crying out , grips the staff with one hand, and, raising a scimitar with the other, furiously aims a blow to cut off both the hands of those who, gnashing their teeth in the  struggle, are striving  ----- to defend their banner “

It is to note that the first edition was published in the year 

1550  that is 31 years after the death of Leonardo. The second edition of this book was published in 1568.

 

Since the inception of the project, Leonardo was totally engaged in preparing the vast cartoon and transferring the design to a Fresco painting.

 This became more complicated as he intended to apply an oil-based glaze. He had revolutionized the art of portraiture instead of applying quick-drying tempera based pigments on wet plaster. 

According to some anonymous, Leonardo created a concoction based on Pliny the Elder’s book, Natural History, using Greek pitch to seal the plaster wall. 

But the experiment failed to achieve the desired result as the wall refused to accept the pigments mixed in-wall nut oil. This began to drip and run. By the end of 1506, he recognized that his crowning achievement was ruined. This caused Leonardo to abandon the project.

During the mid 16th century ( 1555- 1572), the hall was enlarged and reconstructed by Vasari. This was done on the instruction of Cosimo1, almost after 40 years of the death of Leonardo.

 During the renovation the remnants of the famous ( but unfinished ) artworks as were in the previous plan were lost. In this way, both the painting from Michelangelo and Leonardo get lost. 

Vasari himself painted Large and Expansive Frescos on the walls which itself depicts the victory of Florence over Pisa and Siena.

In the year 2007 Maurizio Seracini, an Italian experts in high

technology art analysis had made a survey of the hall.

He had used surface penetrating high-frequency radar technology and thermographic camera.

This discovered that Vasari had created a curtain wall in front 

of the original east wall and painted his Fresco in the new wall. 

The sensor found a gap of 1 to 3 cm which was enough to keep the creation of Leonardo concealed beneath the new painting of Vasari. 

In the upper part of Vasari’s fresco “Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana " is existent. 

The fresco portrayed a Florentine soldier waves a green flag 

with the words “Cerca Trova”.This means “He who seeks, 

finds ".This gives us an impression about the painting may be hidden somewhere in the hall. 

Being a great admirer of Leonardo, It is very difficult to make sense that willingly he had destroyed the painting.

In 2011 holes are drilled at some locations of the existing fresco. The material found behind Vasari's fresco was similar to the pigment found in brown glazes on Leonardo’s Monalisa and St John The Baptist.

Due to conflict in views between the concerned parties, no further investigation was continued and the mystery remains unresolved.

Sudipto Roy

References

1) Monalisa Organisation

2) Wikipedia Organisation

3) Google Images.