In the middle of the fifteenth century, all of Italy was divided into city-states, principalities, and duchies, which waged territorial wars among themselves. In June 1440, one of many battles took place - the Battle of Angiari, which gave a temporary truce to Milan and Florence. She brought victory to the Italian League, which was headed by the Florentine Republic. This victory was attached great importance. Seventy years later, the Great Leonardo was asked to paint the wall of the Great Council of the Signoria Palace. The theme was chosen by da Vinci himself. The battle of Angiari interested him. Michelangelo painted another wall and watched the progress of work by Niccolo Machiavelli - a young, promising official.
Battle preparation
It was one of the stubborn and bloody battles for the freedom of Tuscany. Coalition troops concentrated near the small town of Angiari. They included about four thousand soldiers. The forces of Milanese more than doubled the league army. There were about nine thousand of them. In addition, two thousand more allies joined them. The Milanese believed that the guarantee of their victory would certainly be the surprise of the attack. Therefore, they planned to start the battle on June 29. But the dust on the road, raised by their army, warned the head of the Florentines Attendolo about the offensive. He began to prepare for a decisive battle. Subsequently, it will be called the Battle of Angiari.
Battle progress
The vanguard of the Milan army, consisting of Venetian knights, blocked the bridge over the canal. And, namely, the water barrier served as protection for the Tuscans. But the Milanese were advancing. And the fierce battle of Angiari began. The Florentines frantically defended their freedom. Four hours later, they cut off a third of the Milanese from the main army. Further, the battle lasted all night. And ended with the victory of Florence.
Mural Placement
In 1499, Leonardo once again left Milan and moved to Florence. He will stay in it intermittently for seven years: until 1506. In these years, starting from 1503, he worked on a large order of the Florentine seigneur - a fresco for the Council Hall. The drawing was called “The Battle of Angiari.” He was supposed to depict the victory won by the Florentines over the Milanese about 70 years ago. The wall of the Great Council Hall was huge, larger than the one on which da Vinci wrote The Last Supper.
"The Battle of Angiari." Leonardo da Vinci
She stayed only on cardboard. Looking at him, Pushkin recalls Poltava: “Stomp, neigh, moan, and death, and hell from all sides.” The Battle of Angiari portrayed by Leonardo represents a tangle of people and horses. They are so intertwined that the work became like a sketch for a sculpture. The horses that reared are reminiscent of those that amaze in the early work of the Adoration of the Magi master. But there was joy, and here - frenzy and rage. The hatred of warriors who rush at each other is transmitted to horses, these fighting vehicles. And they bite people and horses of the enemy, kick.
It can be assumed that Leonardo’s idea was not to portray a mass battle scene, but to visually reproduce blood-drunk, brutalized, lost their human form and blinded by rage people. The “Battle of Angiari” by Leonardo da Vinci is regarded by himself as an accusation of war. He remembered too well the military campaigns of Cesare Borgia, which he called "the most brutal madness." This is topical and important to this day, almost five hundred years later. The “Battle of Angiari” as an indictment of the war is quite modern, as it responds to timeless problems.
Battle of Angiari: Description
There are no scenery, landscapes. And the costumes of the warriors are fantastic. They cannot be associated with any particular time. Trying to summarize the apotheosis of the battle, so that it would make an even greater impression, Leonardo applied an interesting compositional technique - all lines are collected inside a simple geometric shape of a rhombus. In the vertical line, where the swords cross, one center of composition passes. The second goes along a horizontal line that divides the cardboard in two. It is impossible to look away, and even the genius himself removed everything superfluous from the center, where in all their unsightly nudity the chaos that brings death and unbridled rage is revealed to us. Her faces and bodies are distorted.
The facial expressions of the depicted people are worked out to the details. The motions are frantic. Horses are cut, people are crushed ... And nobody cares about them. Whether Leonardo depicted the apogee of battle or the whole course of the battle seemed to him as such, it is already difficult to judge. It is known that he worked a lot with historical sources and wrote a message from the Signoria, which did not survive. In it, he expressed his thoughts related to the future fresco. Remained his "Treatise on Painting", in which Leonardo writes that he wanted to create a large-scale work. It was supposed to consist of a series of episodes. The huge wall space made it possible to place on it a large number of people participating in the battle. But the plan was not realized.
Two geniuses
Michelangelo wrote his cardboard “The Battle of Cachine” in his own workshop. Two geniuses did not seek to compete with each other. They worked at different times and did not want to compete. However, the competition in a sense still took place. When da Vinci portrayed horses, he realized that they were the best at him. And Michelangelo also took advantage of his most powerful skill - showing naked male bodies. Like da Vinci, Michelangelo did not complete his work. She stayed only on cardboard. And for several months, two cardboards were in the same room. At this time, both of these creations were a school for all artists: both young and experienced. They came to them and made copies of them.