Leonardo’s “The Battle of Anghiari” whereabouts

Peter Paul Rubens’ copy of “The Battle of Anghiari”

Leonardo’s “The Battle of Anghiari” whereabouts

Although the name of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) has been always related to dozens of enigmas and discoveries not yet revealed, the vast majority of these are simply trash with a complete lack of any historical or artistic rigor. However, an announcement made by the prestigious Italian scholar Maurizio Seracini could become one of the greatest artistic discoveries of the last decades: the discovery of the most important lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci: the fresco of “The Battle of Anghiari”.

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The two frescoes depicting “The Battle of Anghiari” and “The Battle of Cascina” were an order made by P. Soderini to Leonardo and Michelangelo for the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence , being Leonardo the author of the Anghiari fresco, with the younger Michelangelo creating the Cascina scene. But, due to diverse reasons, both works were not completed; although many writings – some of them by Leonardo himself- notices that Leonardo’s fresco (which Doni described as a “miraculous thing”) was more developed than Michelangelo’s one. Nowadays, the work is known only by several copies, among them the famous panel by Peter Paul Rubens ( Paris , Louvre) and the panel known as “Tavola Doria” (private collection), attributed to Leonardo by a few critics, but probably copied at the end of 16 th century.

Now, Seracini affirms to have found evidences that the famous fresco by Leonardo could be hidden under another work, in this case by Giorgio Vasari, in a room of the Palazzo Vecchio, though he expects to obtain more evidences about this subject. Will we finally assist to one of the greatest artistic discoveries of modern times, or will this be another deception to add to the already long list of hoaxes about da Vinci? Time will tell.