The Tavola Doria is one of the oldest copies of the Battle of Anghiari and depicts the central moment of the clash, the fight for the banner, the Milanese banner contended by two knights of the Florentine army and two of the ranks of the Duchy of Milan, then ruled by Filippo Maria Visconti (Milan, 1392 - 1447).
The facts date back to 29 June 1440 and are part of the aggressive policy of expansionism of the Milanese, who tried to expand their dominions in central Italy at the expense of the neighboring powers: after losing Verona, regained by the Venetians (enemies of Milan) and failed to take Brescia, the Milanese turned their sights to Romagna and Tuscany. Found little resistance in Romagna, the Milanese army, led by the Umbrian mercenary captain Niccolò Piccinino (Perugia, 1386 - Milan, 1444), crossed the Apennines, sacked Mugello taking several villages, while Florence was preparing for the clash and received help from the Papal State, which had sent its ranks to the aid of its Florentine ally, led by the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ludovico Scarampo Mezzarota (Venice, 1401 - Rome, 1465), Prefect of Papal Arms. The Florentine army, led by its commander-general, the nobleman from Abruzzo Pietro Giampaolo Orsini, began to stand up to the Milanese and regained some of the forts it had lost, while in the meantime the army of Venice, also allied with the Florentines, defeated the Milanese on the Lombard front, in Soncino.
As the situation turned to the disadvantage of the Milanese, the latter decided to withdraw, but not before attempting to launch a last and impressive attack on the Florentines. This happened, as anticipated, in Anghiari on 29 June 1440, but the battle was won by the Florentines, who defeated the army of Milan and managed to take possession of their banner, as the chronicles of the time tell us. Giusto Anghiari writes, a local notary who wrote a Diary that was re-examined on the occasion of the Anghiari exhibition: "Thursday to June 30, the morning to third came in Fiorenza the novella as our people that de 'Florentines had broken her that was the day of St. Pity the field of the Duke of Milan, that is Niccolò Piccino, Anghiari at the foot of the city to el Borgo, and take away about 3000 horses and taking 16 team leaders and other men of arms very and 1456 prisons by size of the village, and other prisons every other place. It was a great victory, and I took away their banners. It was a great feast and meritoriously because it was the health of Tuscany. Niccolò Piccino escaped with about 1500 horses in the village and the same night he escaped and passed the Alps with great damage and shame. It was a decisive victory for the Florentines since it sanctioned the end of the Milanese aims in central Italy.
- The episode told by Leonardo is known only through copies: there are no longer the original cartoons, nor complete drawings made by Leonardo (there are only studies of portions of the composition, which will be discussed below).
From the copies we can see that the scheme is more or less the same: in the upper register we see the four main commanders of the two armies, who from left to right are Francesco Piccinino (Perugia, about 1407 - Milan, 1449), son of Niccolò, head of the militia from Umbria, then his father Niccolò, and then, one next to the other, the commanders of the Florentine forces, namely Ludovico Scarampo Mezzarota and Pietro Giampaolo Orsini. The four are contending for the standard: the faces of the two Milanese captains are contracted in almost wounded grimaces (and Francesco Piccinino is caught in a rather uncomfortable twist: it almost seems that he is fleeing, and probably Leonardo wanted to allude to the flight to which the young leader gave himself in 1446 after being defeated by the Venetians in Mezzano, near the Po), while calmer, but still gritty and determined, appear Scarampo and Orsini.
Also noteworthy are the decorations of the characters: The Milanese are negatively connoted, since Francesco Piccinino wears an armor decorated with goat horns that allude to the devil (his father wears nothing but a cap, but his expression full of violence and ferocity is already sufficient in itself), while the opposite happens to the leaders of Florence, since Scarampo has had his helmet decorated with a dragon (according to the art historian Frank Zöllner, who studied the Battle of Anghiari for a long time, it is a symbol of military value but also of prudence), and Orsini's helmet recalls the helmet with the visor and plume of the goddess Athena. Below, other soldiers: in the Tavola Doria we have one on the left, with a shield, and in the middle two who fight furiously with bare hands (alluding to the soldier who, in the Renaissance, often followed the captains of fortune: armed to the goodness and better, if not even disarmed, rough, animated by the lowest instincts and boorish, prone to crimes against property and against the person). At the center, the horses, also involved in the battle: they look terrified, however, as if they wanted to disassociate themselves from the fight to which their masters have forced them.
To be continued.