A little larger than the Tavola Doria (and therefore this could be a preparatory study according to Waldman), the Battle of Anghiari of the deposits of the Uffizi, Waldman points out, "is unique among the existing copies because it makes the subtle gradation of tone in the area is not the model of Leonardo, corresponding to the profile of the knight on the white horse at the far right of the composition, also includes detailed information of the fragmentary profiles omitted by other previous copyists and that are only mentioned in the Tavola Doria. It is a painting whose finish is so high that it is likely that its author worked directly on the original cardboard before its destruction (and especially before Vasari began to decorate the Salone del Cinquecento, i.e. from 1563). Waldman himself had proposed to attribute this copy of the Battle of Anghiari to Francesco Morandini known as Poppi (Poppi, 1544 - Florence, 1597), one of the leading artists of the second half of the sixteenth century in Tuscany.
The American scholar has noted in the two works that reproduce the battle (and therefore also in the Tavola Doria) some of the characteristics of Poppi's manner: "the pearly splendour of the modelled forms, the liquid brilliance of the brushstroke, and (irrefutable signs of the artist's hand) the stylization of Leonardo's naturalistic faces in cold Mannerist masks, which bear the signature of the young Casentino painter: painted with indifferent and detached expressions, at the same time giving the flesh fresh tones and rubies". And again: "in both plates [...] the same chiseled faces recur, with blocked lines, similar to elegant and graceful masks, with an opaque and reddish complexion, according to the custom of the Casentino painter".
Elements that, Waldman pointed out, can be found with precision in some works by Francesco Morandini: for example, in the canvas with the Lamentation over the Dead Christ preserved in his hometown (the face of St. John resembling that of Francesco Piccinino, the first knight on the left, as will be seen later), or in the work The House of the Sun preserved at the Museum of Casa Vasari in Arezzo (the way to paint the arms), or even in Tobias and Raphael in the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio in Prato (the characteristic elongated figures). It is also known that Poppi was, in his youth, a prolific copyist: it should not be surprising, therefore, that he also copied the famous mural by Leonardo da Vinci. There is another interesting circumstance: Morandini was one of the artists who collaborated with Vasari in the creation of the frescoes in the Salone del Cinquecento between 1563 and 1570, and it can, therefore, be assumed that the artist copied Leonardo's work in the context of this important undertaking. The two plates are, however, copies subject to the interpretation of their author (in the Tavola Doria, for example, there is on the left the soldier on the ground with the shield, absent instead in the plate of Palazzo Vecchio) who, Waldman concludes, we must imagine as "the last painter who was about to copy a masterpiece of Leonardo", and to whom we must be grateful "for what he saw and diligently copied with such sensitivity and attention to detail, while infusing in the two plates the vivid imprint of his graceful and elegant mannerism of the late sixteenth century". The assignment to Poppi has already gained approval: for example, at the same Anghiari exhibition, the work was exhibited with this attribution, even though it was marked by a question mark.
Although the hypothesis of an autograph by Leonardo is no longer accepted, the Tavola Doria remains a painting of considerable importance, and to understand it it is first necessary to know the history of the painted episode.
The original work by Leonardo da Vinci dates back to the period between 1503 and 1506: the Republic of Florence had decided to have the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio decorated, the largest room in the building (54 metres long, 23 metres wide and 18 metres high): housed the Grand Council of the Republic, a governing body created at the time when Florence was governed by Girolamo Savonarola, who was composed of five hundred members), with scenes of battles in which the Florentines were victorious: Michelangelo was commissioned the Battle of Cascina, while Leonardo took care of the Battle of Anghiari. Neither project was completed: Michelangelo left it before completing it, while Leonardo left it after the failure of the painting on the wall of the hall.
According to the version long considered the most probable, Leonardo would have liked to experiment with the technique of encaustic: instead of frescoing the wall, he would have painted it in oil on the already dry plaster, then having the painting dried with the heat released by two large pots fed by wood. The story of the Anonymous Magliabechiano states that "the lower the fire added and dried up [the painting, ed], but up there, due to the great distance, the heat was not added and the material dripped". In essence, the room would have been so large that the heat would not be enough to dry the upper part of the painting, so the colors at the top would be poured on the lower part irreparably ruining the whole painting.
However, recently a hypothesis of the scholar Roberto Bellucci has questioned this version of the facts: the encaustic provided for the use of waxes, which with a direct source of heat would dissolve equally harming the work. According to Pliny the Elder's description of this technique, the heat was used to heat the support to encourage the adhesion of the colors dissolved in the wax.
- So, underlines Bellucci, if Leonardo had used a similar technique, the heat would have made the lower part drip more than the upper one, farther away from the fire. It is, therefore, more likely that the operation was not successful because of an incompatibility between the support and the colors, as noted by the humanist Paolo Giovio (Como, 1483 - Florence, 1552): "in the Council Chamber of the Florentine Seignory there remains a battle and victory over the Milanese, magnificent but unluckily unfinished because of a defect in the plaster that rejected the colours dissolved in walnut oil with singular obstinacy". In any case, the failure certainly convinced Leonardo to give up: it was probably the autumn of 1505.
To be continued.