Of the works of other surviving authors, the oldest is a sketch probably made by Raphael before 1505 (he was also present in Florence at the time), although it is difficult to think of it as a copy, since at the time Leonardo was still working on his work: more likely, therefore, that Raphael's drawing was simply inspired by the Battle of Anghiari, but does not represent a faithful copy. Then there are other drawings that may have been taken from the original cardboard: We have one in The Hague (which according to Zöllner could be the closest to Leonardo's original), and another in the Louvre, made by an anonymous copyist of the sixteenth century and then reworked and enlarged by Pieter Paul Rubens in the following century, at the time of his trip to Italy (the Flemish artist added some details, such as the saber in the hand of Ludovico Scarampo, the flag on Orsini's shoulder, the tail of the last horse on the right).If it is true that the Tavola Doria and the panel in Palazzo Vecchio can be attributed to Poppi and the painter from Casentino made them before Vasari painted the frescoes in the Salone del Cinquecento, we could consider the latter as the copies painted most chronologically close to Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari (Zöllner himself, who has long dealt with the problem of copies of the Battle of Anghiari, already in 1991 believed that the two panels were made by looking directly at the wall: the key clue would be the figure of Orsini, not defined, which would suggest that at that point the wall painting of Leonardo was not complete or had been damaged).
- Close to the wall painting could be the so-called "Copia Rucellai", so-called because it was once in the collections of the Florentine family (and now in a private collection in Milan): it is a very detailed work, which however presents a difference with many other copies, or the soldier who is crushing his rival on the ground in the lower part does not fight with bare hands but is armed with a dagger (probably an invention of the author of this copy).
Another important sixteenth-century copy is the Lotta per lo Stendardo of the Museo Horne in Florence, the subject of a recent reconnaissance by Elisabetta Nardinocchi for the exhibition Arte di Governo a la Battaglia di Anghiari (Art of Government at the Battle of Anghiari): was bought by the art historian and collector Herbert Percy Horne (London, 1864 - Florence, 1916) in 1890, who identified it as "my copy of the Battle of the Stardardoll of Leonardo" and who had bought it precisely because he intended to own a work linked to the enterprise of Leonardo da Vinci.
The work refers to Giovanni Antonio Bazzi's circle known as the Sodom (Vercelli, 1477 - Siena, 1549): Horne, in fact, believed that it was not a direct copy, but rather a derivative of a copy made by Sodom, even for those whom Horne and Berenson considered elements taken from the Stories of Alexander the Great that the Piedmontese painter had painted at Villa Farnesina in Rome. Nardinocchi, however, related the Horne copy to a scene from the cycle of the Villa Farnesina painted not by Sodom, but by his main help, Bartolomeo di David (Siena, 1482 - 1545 circa), who painted the scene of the Battle of Isso on a wall of Agostino Chigi's room: the marine landscape we see in the background of the Horne copy, therefore, derives from that of the Battle of Isso di Bartolomeo. The interesting fact is that Sodom himself, for the frescoes of the Villa Farnesina, was probably inspired by Leonardo, as the two horses, the fighters and the soldiers on the ground would suggest in the scene of the Battle of Isso (we must remember, however, that the drawing is due to Giovanni Antonio Bazzi): the value of the Horne copy is therefore also in this singular game of references.
Finally, it is necessary to mention at least two other sixteenth-century copies, probably made directly by observing Leonardo's mural painting: an oil on wood transferred onto a canvas known as "Copia Timbal" because it was once in the collection of the painter and collector Charles Timbal (today it is the property of a collector who in 2014 won it for $257,000 at an auction at Sotheby's), which stands out, like the Horne copy, for the presence of the landscape, and finally an engraving on copper by Lorenzo Zacchia il Giovane (Lucca, 1514 circa - 1587), dated 1558 and openly inspired by a panel by Leonardo da Vinci. It is assumed that the panel in question is the one that, according to ancient sources, the painter from Vinci made in the Sala del Papa in Santa Maria Novella for the final execution on the wall. In any case, Zacchia the Younger introduced many variations on the model: the weapons (Scarampo, for example, has an ax), the proportions of the horses, the tail of the equine covering one of the two soldiers who fight roughly on the ground (as was the case in the drawing retouched by Rubens).
All these copies (the numerous seventeenth-century copies have been deliberately kept silent: Rubens, as mentioned, also made one) testify to the great fortune of the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci. The Tavola Doria fits into this groove, and certainly among the copies of the original Leonardo is the one that had the most "adventurous" life, although in public it was exhibited for the first time only in 1939, on the occasion of the great exhibition on Leonardo strongly desired by the fascist regime and animated not by scientific objectives, but by the declared purpose of "celebrating the universal and unparalleled genius of Leonardo da Vinci, taken almost as a symbol of all Latin and Christian civilization.
As mentioned above, his first attestation dates back to 1621: at the time it was in the hands of Giovanni Carlo Doria, who probably obtained the table from the Medici, with whom he had close contacts (as well as exchanges, also of works of art). Giovanni Carlo had to give great importance to the work, if the inventory was valued at 300 shields, a very high figure, and if it was included in the group of works that, at his death, should have passed directly to his heir, Marcantonio Doria, who would have taken care to preserve it in the most appropriate way possible. When the Dorias, through their marriage policies, acquired fiefdoms in the South, the Table moved to the south, so much so that the work is listed among the assets of the Doria d'Angri.
The rest is recent history: from the transfer of ownership (including the illegal exit from Italy) to the highly invasive restoration that removed the background of the painting to replace it with the current gold background probably inserted to highlight the figures, from international negotiations to the return of the work to Italy. Among the painted copies of the Battle of Anghiari, the Tavola Doria is probably also the best quality one: the fact remains that, even if it is not perhaps the most faithful copy of the original, it is a very precious document to understand the ideas of the genius of Vinci.