According to a new book, the lost Leonardo‘s fable “The Battle of Anghiari” is not hidden in other works in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence because he has never painted it here.
Francesca Fiorani, a lecturer in art history at the University of Virginia, said in the new study: “Leonardo has never painted this battle on that wall.” This book does not say where the “Battle” that we learned from other painters’ works was actually drawn. Fiorani said that the existence of preparatory sketches and comics was “proven by literature,” but that was not the case.
Until now, the painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari (Giorgio Vasari) was commissioned to carry out another fresco at the municipal headquarters of Florence. He still considered the fresco to be the holy grail of art research. In March 2012, the discovery of black paint similar to Mona Lisa inspired people’s new hope that the mural might be hidden behind the wall.
Florence commissioned the Battle of Anghiari Battle on June 29, 1440 to celebrate its famous victory over Milan. The sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) described it as a “groundbreaking masterpiece” that any artist only needs to watch and study. In a letter to a friend in Venice in 1549, the Florentine painter Anton Francesco Doni called it a “magical thing.” The work has already been known from the sketches and copies.
However, the original prototype was thought to be lost forever-a victim of Leonardo’s often unconventional decision to abandon the traditional technique of applying paint to wet plaster. Leonardo (1452-1519) needed time for hard work, so he directly applied oil on the plaster of Palazzo Vecchio, which is said to be a symbol of the pride of the citizens of Florence.
