The Battle of Anghiari
Leonardo’s most ambitious painting was the Battle of Anghiari, commissioned in 1503 by the Florentine government for the Great Council Chamber of the Palazzo della Signoria.
The huge panoramic mural was to show a celebrated victory of 1440 over Milanese forces. The composition was to centre on a fierce cavalry skirmish, with opposing troops advancing from either side. Only the central portion, known as the Fight for the Standard, had been painted when Leonardo was called back to Milan in 1506, and that was obliterated fifty years later.
Leonardo prepared meticulously for the project, studying groups, individual figures and expressions, and surveying male nudes systematically from front, back and side.
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Recto: Studies of fighting horsemen and soldiers. Verso: A group of fighting horsemen
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Horses and horsemen in combat
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Recto: Horses, machinery, and an angel. Verso: Prancing horses, and the head of Nero
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Expressions of fury in horses, a lion and a man; (Verso:) Notes and diagrams on astronomy and geometry, and the head of a horse
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
A nude man from the waist down
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
The legs of a man lunging to the right, with notes
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
The leg muscles and bones of man and horse
Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
