da Vinci’s Lost Painting
I’m sure there are a lot of da Vinci’s paintings that have been lost over the years but there is one notable work that people love to speculate about. Titled The Battle of Anghiari, could it still exist somewhere? Did it ever even get created? Let’s explore.
The Battle of Anghiari
This painting was commissioned by gonfaloniere Piero Soderini, a contract signed by Niccolò Machiavelli, to decorate the Palazzo Vecchio's Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) in 1504. Leonardo da Vinci planned this fresco painting to depict the Battle of Anghiari which happened in 1440, specifically a violent scene in which soldiers and war horses are battling for possession of a standard.
Some preparatory sketches and studies for this painting still exist so we know what it may have looked like. In 1504 da Vinci started work in the Hall of the Five Hundred, directly across from his rival Michelangelo, who had just finished David. This is the only time that these two artists ever worked on a project together. Michelangelo sketched out his painting on the opposite wall to da Vinci. He also chose a battle scene, from the Battle of Cascina, where soldiers are surprised by the enemy while bathing. He sketched out his composition and had only just begun the painting process when he was called away to Rome to build the Pope’s tomb.
Da Vinci drew his composition on the east wall of the chamber. From a book about the lives of painters and sculptors this drawing (from a surviving paper copy of the composition) was praised, “it would be impossible to express the inventiveness of Leonardo's design for the soldiers' uniforms, which he sketched in all their variety, or the crests of the helmets and other ornaments, not to mention the incredible skill he demonstrated in the shape and features of the horses, which Leonardo, better than any other master, created with their boldness, muscles and graceful beauty” (Vasari, 1767).
He did so much preparation because this would be da Vinci’s biggest and most substantial work. He also had very little experience with fresco painting he tried a number of different techniques such as applying oil paints to the wall, and applying a thick undercoat. Unfortunately this method caused the paint to drip so da Vinci brought over charcoal braziers to try and dry the paint and salvage the work. Only the lower part of the painting could be salvaged, in the upper portion of the painting the colours mixed together because they didn’t dry fast enough. Da Vinci then decided to abandon the project.
Both Michelangelo and da Vinci’s unfinished paintings stayed on display together in the Hall of the Five Hundred for almost a decade, until 1512. That year Michelangelo’s work was cut to pieces by Bartolommeo Bandinelli (another artist) out of jealousy. Da Vinci’s work, on the other hand was always greatly admired and many copies and recreations were made and drawings and paintings inspired by the piece were created.
Then, during the mid-16th century the hall was being renovated and during the course of the remodelling the remnants of both da Vinci’s work and Michelangelo’s work were lost. New frescoes were then painted on the new walls.
Where did The Battle of Anghiari go?
This is the million dollar question, where did da Vinci’s unfinished fresco go? In 2006 an Italian expert in high tech art analysis, Maurizio Seracini, voiced his belief that da Vinci’s The Battle of Anghiari was hidden behind the new fresco Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana by Vasari. In the upper part of the fresco a soldier waves a green flag with the words “Cerca trova” (he who seeks, finds). These words, Seracini suggested, are a hint from the artist who had always praised The Battle of Anghiari in his writings. It’s believed that he would not have willingly destroyed da Vinci’s work. Additionally, in another painting he concealed and preserved the artwork that had been on the wall previously. This was cited as a precedent and justification for testing the site to see if The Battle of Anghiari lay beneath. Sensors found a gap between the old walls of the hall and the new walls created in the renovation of 1-3cm, large enough for da Vinci’s fresco to be preserved.
In early 2007 the city council of Florence and the Italian Minister of Culture approved further testing and investigation. Seracini and his team tried unsuccessfully to raise money to pursue a non-invasive investigation so in the end they drilled small holes through the areas of the Vasari fresco where its believed the da Vinci is concealed. An endoscopic probe camera was inserted into the holes and the team discovered fragments of pigment and indications of fresco plaster on the inner (old) wall. Samples were taken for testing.
In 2012 the results from the testing were finally announced. “The material found behind the Vasari wall shows a chemical composition similar to black pigment found in brown glazes on Leonardo's Mona Lisa and St. John the Baptist, identified in a recently published scientific paper by the Louvre, which analyzed all the da Vinci paintings in its collection” (Kington, 2011). This shows that there is a possibility of the painting, or at least traces of it, still existing behind the new wall.
Following this announcement, in March 2012, efforts to investigate the cavity were discontinued due to conflicting opinions on how to proceed. There was also criticism levelled at Seracini and his team for drilling holes in the Vasari fresco in the first place.
In October, 2020 a group of art historians came out and said that the painting had never actually existed because da Vinci failed to invent a technique for it. Seracini has not accepted this conclusion. What do you think?
Works Cited
Kington, Tom. "Lost Leonardo Da- Vinci battle scene sparks row between art historians". The Guardian. 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/dec/05/lost-leonardo-da-vinci-scene?INTCMP=SRCH
Vasari, Giorgio. “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects”. 1767.