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Leonardo vs. Michelangelo: The Battle Between the Masters
A masterpiece above all others In the early days of the sixteenth century, when Florence was the epicentre of the political, cultural and artistic spheres of Italy, there resided within its walls two prominent men of arts. One was Leonardo da Vinci, a self assured and highly honoured artist, still straight-backed and strong although he was in his fifties. The other was Michelangelo Buonarotti, a taciturn, unpredictable minor nobleman, just beginning his artistic career, yet already recognised as a rising star and a prodigy. In a closely-knit community as Florence, the two artists had crossed paths a number of times before, and had developed a strong dislike of each other that would rapidly become legend. There are many anecdotes describing their encounters, the cutting remarks said in each other’s presence, the snide comments tossed off at each other’s backs. They were two lions competing for space in the confines of the city, and all who knew them took note and waited for the outbursts. A few men did more than wait, eager to take advantage of the rivalry. Piero Soderini, the recently elected Gonfaloniere, was one of them. The Commissioning of the Artists In 1503, Soderini commissioned both artists to work, side by side, on the walls of the newly built Council Hall, with instructions to create two masterpieces depicting victories the Florentine Republic had achieved over its rivals. Leonardo was to paint the Battle of Anghiari (pictured above), immortalizing the war with Milan; Michelangelo was to paint the Battle of Cascina, commemorating an episode in the war against neighbouring Pisa. Soderini has good reason for commissioning this work: the competition took place at a time when Florence was experiencing a rebirth of its identity as a Republic, and the spirit of civic pride was strong. Lest anyone think that the commissions were accidental, the contract the Gonfaloniere had drawn up specified the artists were to work ‘in competition with each other’, in order to push them both to produce their best works. The city fathers fully expected their leading artists to produce masterpieces of patriotic grandeur, as well as the entertainment of a public rivalry; unfortunately, they were destined to be disappointed. Working on the walls
What the finished works would have been like will never be known, but from the cartoons and studies both artists prepared, the final forms can be guessed — and they would have been magnificent. There was little similarity between the works: the styles of the two masters were as different as night and day. Leonardo was known for the shadowy softness and ambiguity of his work; Michelangelo was rapidly becoming known for imbuing his work with a sense of vibrant energy and dynamism. These sketches were the first representations of war from either artist, and were arresting for the way they captured the emotions of the figures portrayed. Leonardo’s sketches captured the unbearable heat of the battle, in a horrific clash of desperate men and screaming horses; Michelangelo’s drawings showed the bizarre ordinariness and chaos swirling around the edges of the battle, as complacent soldiers were caught by the attacking enemy while bathing in a stream. Contemporary artists were astounded and proclaimed that both works would be masterpieces — when completed. The Quiet End to the Competition Unfortunately, despite their many differences, both artists had one devastating trait in common: neither were very good at finishing anything they started. This fact was well known about to da Vinci — he had left too many commissions hanging in the past to be able to escape the assessment. What would only later become evident was the Michelangelo, already a difficult, strong-willed and temperamental man, would also develop the same habit. The unkind might even suggest that he picked up the habit from Leonardo. It is more likely to be due to the unusually high number of commissions he accepted in this period of his life, which made it inevitable that he leave some uncompleted. Ultimately, however, the halt in the competition was due to changes in political fortunes: In 1504, the Pope called Michelangelo to Rome to begin work on some previously commissioned pieces; Leonardo soon turned his attentions elsewhere; and most irrevocably, in 1512 Soderini was overthrown by a Papal army and the Republic fell. In those circumstances, continuing work on a painting dedicated to the glories of the Republic would have been somewhat imprudent. After 1530, Republicanism was a dead hope in Florence, and when Vasari deliberately painted over the remnants of Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari, he was removing all traces of the Republic, and its ideals. So ends one of the greatest ‘What If — ’ episodes of art history. The only remaining traces of what might have been masterpieces from two celebrated artists of the Renaissance are painted-over walls and fragments of copied and uncompleted drawings. The legendary battle between Leonardo and Michelangelo never reached its culmination as the city fathers desired. Its failure is one of the greatest losses to the cultural history of the city; but its ghost still haunts the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, conjuring up undying visions of the glory that might have been.
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Article Information
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In the Council Hall of the
Palazzo Vecchio, the legislative heart
of the Republic of Florence, there stands the throne of the
Gontaloniere, the chief executive of the Florentine state. Flanking
this magnificent seat are two vast walls, covered by the
unremarkable paintings of Vasari, a mediocre painter more noted for
his chronicles detailing the lives of other, greater, artists.
Despite their unprepossessing appearance today, these plain walls
were once the location of a remarkable battle between two of the
most celebrated artists in the heydays of the Renaissance.
Leonardo progressed further than Michelangelo did; he at least
managed to put up the cartoon, or the initial drawings, on the walls
of the hall. Unfortunately, Leonardo’s own innovations did him in,
as he attempted to use a new painting technique disastrously
combining plaster and oils (based apparently on a recipe by roman
writer Pliny the Elder). Michelangelo never got past the drawing
stage (pictured right), though his tardiness might have been due to the fact that he
was commissioned a year after Leonardo.