Palazzo Vecchio
Art historian Maurizio Seracini got permission from the city of Florence to prove his theory that the most significant masterpiece by Leonardo Battle of Anghiari is intact behind frescos by Giorgio Vasari in Palazzo Vecchio. Numerous sketches (below) are scattered around the world museums, although no one knows where the final work is. Telegraph – Italian palace fresco may hide Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.
Leonardo, The Battle of Anghiari, 1503-05, Black chalk, pen and ink, watercolour on paper, Musée du Louvre, Paris
“The Battle of Anghiari (Wikipedia) was fought on June 29, 1440, between Milan and the Italian League led by Republic of Florence in the course of the Wars in Lombardy. The League’s army concentrated on Anghiari, a small centre of Tuscany, and comprised: 4,000 Papal troops, under Cardinal Lodovico Trevisan; a Florentine contingent of around the same size, and a company of 300 men-at-arms (knights) from Venice, led by Micheletto Attendolo. Other men joined for the occasion from the Anghiari itself. The numerically superior Milanese force was led by the famous condottiero Niccolò Piccinino in the name of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and reached the area on the night of June 28. Some 2,000 men from the nearby town of Sansepolcro joined the Milanese. Confident in his superior manpower, and on the element of surprise Piccinino ordered an attack in the afternoon of the following day. However the dust lifted by the Milanese on the Sansepolcro-Anghiari road was noticed by Micheletto and the League’s forces were made ready for battle.”
In 1503 Florence deposed the Medici mafia and proclaimed a Republic. They commissioned The Battle of Anghiari to Leonardo. 57 years later in 1560 the Medici family returned to power and allegedly asked Giorgio Vasari to cover the most significant art commission of the Republic.
Telegraphs reports that “Prof Seracini thinks he [Giorgio Vasari] left a clue to what was beneath by depicting a military banner which bears the words “Cerca Trova” – seek and you will find.”
Study of battles on horseback and on foot, Pen and ink on paper, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Study of battles on horseback and on foot, Study of battles on horseback and on foot 1503-04 Pen and ink on paper, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Study of battles on horseback, Pen and ink on paper Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Study of horses for the Battle of Anghiari, Traces of black and red chalk, pen and ink, wash on paper, Royal Library, Windsor
Rearing horse, Red chalk and pencil, Royal Library, Windsor
Head studies, Metalpoint, black and red chalk on paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Head of a Warrior ('The Red Head'), Red chalk on brownish paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Images published with permission from the Web Gallery of Art