The term forgotten history can have many meanings, but sometimes it's intended quite
thoroughly. There are pieces of history that were literally forgotten and then rediscovered,
or pieces so nearly forgotten that historians are trying to recreate events from the barest
of bones. There is this important piece of history that is almost a ghost, it's only
recalled by echoes, copies of copies, and yet it shouldn't be forgotten. I mean after all,
doesn't what many consider to be the single greatest work of art, by what many consider
to be one of the greatest artists in all of history, deserve to be remembered.
There are a few artists in history who can claim to have had more influence in the world of art
than Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. His small portrait of an obscure florentine gentlewoman,
painted on a thin panel of poplar, and commonly called the Mona Lisa, is generally acknowledged
to be the most famous work of art in the world. Regarded as a revolutionary masterpiece
by Leonardo's contemporaries, more than 500 years after it was painted, an average of 1,500 visitors
an hour still flock to view the painting. It is the most copied, most written and sung
about painting in history. Made even more famous when it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, by
an Italian patriot who wanted to return the work to Italy. The publicity for the paintings theft,
which was recovered and returned in 1914, moved the works' fame beyond the art world, establishing
it as the best-known work of art in history. Although truly priceless, the roughly 30 inch
by 21 inch painting has an insurance valuation of some eight hundred million dollars. His mural of
the Last Supper, housed by the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan,
is among the most famous paintings in history, and the most reproduced religious painting of
all time. His work Salvator Mundi, or Christ Savior of the World, the only acknowledged work
of Leonardo in private hands, sold at auction in 2017 for four hundred and fifty point three
million dollars. The highest amount ever paid for a painting, nearly half again more than the
second most expensive painting in history. A former co-chairman of old master paintings at
Christie's auction house, who now runs his own Manhattan gallery, described the painting as,
“The most important Old Master painting to have been sold at auction, in my lifetime.”
Leonardo was recognized as a master in his time, but he actually only painted a few works,
and completed only a few of those. He was renowned for many reasons,
starting with his painting technique. He was the master of sfumato, an Italian word derived from
the word for smoked, and roughly translating as, soft or vague. Leonardo described the
technique as without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke. The soft blending of colors,
without lines, creates a much more realistic image that appears to have three dimensions,
as can be seen in the detail to face in his most famous work. The technique required layers and
layers of paint, and brushstrokes so fine that they cannot be individually identified, even
under a microscope. His scientific mind allowed an exceptional knowledge of anatomy, botany, geology,
and the play of light. This allowed an exceptional ability to convey human emotion, as in the
famous enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa. And the contrasting emotions of the disciples, who in the
Last Supper, are displayed reacting to Christ's announcement that one of them will betray him.
But as much acclaim as there is for the few remaining Leonardo works,
some of the most famous paintings in history, there is a surprising story. Because what was
at the time described as Leonardo's greatest work, has disappeared. The lost Leonardo.
Leonardo was born in 1452 in the Republic of Florence in the part of northern Italy
called Tuscany, right at the end of the three decade period of conflict called,
The Wars in Lombardy. The wars represented a complex conflict of often shifting alliances,
often fought using free companies, or mercenaries, led by often famous mercenary generals that were
called condottieri. One of the results of the war was the rise of the political dynasty of
the Medicis, who as great patrons of the arts and the humanist tradition,
were key to driving the great period of change and achievement called the European Renaissance.
Leonardo was, as many historians argue, the prime exemplar of the period. The true Renaissance Man.
One of the decisive battles of the wars in Lombardy was fought outside the town of Anghiari
in Tuscany, between forces representing the Duke of Milan led by a famous condottiero named Niccolo
Piccinino, and forces representing the Republic of Florence and its allies, The Papal States and the
Republic of Venice, fought on June 29th 1440. The battle was typical of battles of the era.
Largely fought by mercenaries, these professional soldiers had worked war into an art form, but had
little incentive to risk their own lives. In fact, they had limited incentives to win, as the end of
the war would mean loss of their business. The battle was one of maneuver and skirmishing, in
which knights in heavy armor showed their battle prowess, but were quick to surrender to preserve
their own lives. Famous Italian politician and historian Niccolò Machiavelli claimed that,
“In the entire four hour battle, only one man died. And him, from falling off his horse.” The
records of the battles losses are not clear, but Machiavelli is likely exaggerating his point. It
is conceivable that only one of the mounted Knights might have died, as they could expect
to surrender, and have their life spared for ransom. Likely however, some hundreds of foot
soldiers died in the fighting. The battle and defeat of Piccinino on the Milanese helped to
establish the Florentine Domination of Central Italy, a domination that was largely preserved
in the Treaty of Lidi that ended the war in 1454. And it was into Florence that Leonardo was born.
In the fall of 1503, 63 years after the battle, the 51 year old Leonardo was one of the most
famous artists of the era. And he was back in Florence, the epicenter of the Renaissance,
when he was offered a commission to do a painting of the Battle of Anghiari, with the
contract signed by the same Niccolò Machiavelli who had written the history of the battle. This
was no ordinary commission. The painting was to decorate the imposing Salone dei Cinquecento,
or the Hall of 500, the new chamber that had been constructed to be the seat of the Grand
Council of Florence inside the Palazzo Vecchio, the great town hall of Florence. It was to be
Leonardo's largest painting, a massive 54 foot by twenty one foot work. Even more exciting,
Leonardo's great rival, Michelangelo di Lodovico, 23 years Leonardo's junior, was commissioned at
the same time to paint the opposite wall, depicting the 1364 Battle of Cascina.
Two of the greatest artists of the renaissance, in fact generally recognized today as two of the
greatest artists in history, were commissioned to do what would almost certainly be amongst their
greatest masterpieces, on the massive walls of the Great Hall of Florence.
As the newspaper The Telegraph describes it, “This was to have been the place where
the two giants, and great artistic rivals of that extraordinary period,
came face to face across the political fulcrum of the most important city of the Renaissance.”
It is truly an interesting story, how that managed to become forgotten history.
Leonardo's design was a truly powerful scene that epitomized his great talents
for representing emotion and action. It was a testament to his knowledge
of musculature and anatomy. It changed the art world as artists to change their entire
perspective on representing motion and human struggle. It represented unbridled power,
the feeling of movement, and men caught in the most intense moments of struggle. It was the
opposite of the serene works of his painting that are so famous today. Giorgio Vasari,
considered the father of the discipline of art history, wrote of the work in 1550. “It would
be impossible to express the inventiveness of Leonardo's design for the soldiers' uniforms,
which he sketched in all the variety. Or the crests of the helmets, and other ornaments. Not
to mention the incredible skill he demonstrated in the shape and features of the horses, which
Leonardo, better than any other master, created with their boldness, muscles and graceful beauty.”
But the work had a fatal flaw. Leonardo's great work, The Last Supper,
had deteriorated quickly because it was placed on a thin wall that faced the outside,
and so was more subject to humidity and the elements. And so for the Battle of Anghiari,
Leonardo decided to try something different, something experimental. Instead of using the
traditional process of fresco, where dry pigments are applied to wet plaster, he
decided that he was going to apply oils directly to the wall, on specially prepared plaster.
In fact Leonardo, with his scientific mind, frequently experimented with new techniques.
With the result that his works often did not last. It is one of the reasons his paintings
are so rare today. Leonardo did a trial run of the technique and it worked well, but when
he went to do the great painting, utilizing an ingenious folding scaffold of his own design,
that allowed him to be raised and lowered, the weather turned. With a long rainstorm that
increased the humidity. This liquefied the paste on which Leonardo was painting. The paint did not
dry quickly enough, and started to run. He used braziers to quickly dry the work, but only the
lower part could be saved. Of the massive work only an outline, or cartoon of a central piece,
four horsemen fighting over standard, remained. Frustrated, Leonardo abandoned the project. Like
so many of his works, it was never completed. Michelangelo's work was likewise unfinished;
he barely had done an outline sketch when he was called away to Rome by Pope Julius II to paint
the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's drawing was destroyed in 1512, torn apart by a rival painter.
Leonardo's unfinished work remained for nearly 50 years, where it was much admired and copied.
Many artists of the Renaissance considered the work to be Leonardo’s greatest work,
but it degraded quickly due to the failed process with the plaster. Starting in 1555,
the hall was renovated and enlarged, and Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari was lost,
replaced by frescoes done by Giorgio Vasari. All that we know of Leonardo's masterpiece comes from
some preparatory sketches and copies, or more likely, copies of copies, done by other artists
when it was displayed. The most famous of the copies is a drawing made by Flemish painter,
Peter Paul Rubens in 1603. But all those copies are different, and we cannot know
which most accurately represents the great work. It has been lost. It is now…forgotten history.
In one of the most surprising twists in art history, art diagnostician Maurizio Seracini,
used high-tech diagnostic tools like surface penetrating radar, and thermographic imaging,
and determined that there's a gap of between 1 and 3 centimeters behind the Vasari fresco, part
of the wall upon which the Battle of Anghiari had been painted. Seracini hypothesized that Vasari,
who was a great admirer of Leonardo, had preserved the Battle of Anghiari behind a
false wall. Vasari had actually preserved another couple of paintings behind false
walls in places where he had been asked to do renovations in the 1500s. In 2007,
the City Council of Florence and the Italian Minister of Culture, gave Seracini permission to
drill a small hole through a part of the Vasari painting that had been damaged and repaired,
and so it was thought to be not part of the original painting. Using an endoscopic camera,
he discovered fragments of pigment, that when analyzed, were chemically similar to pigments
used by Leonardo on the Mona Lisa. In an announcement in 2012, Seracini presented
the analysis as evidence that Leonardo's work still existed, behind Vasari’s fresco.
But Seracini’s work was the subject of quite a lot of criticism, not the least for drilling
holes in famous works of art. In 2012, it was announced that the entire process was suspended,
as the parties involved could not agree on how to proceed. We still don't know what,
if any of the Masters great work is preserved behind the frescoes in the Hall of the 500.
And so this great work that was never quite lost, but hasn't quite been found,
remains a piece of nearly forgotten history. History that deserves to be remembered.
I'm the History Guy, and I hope you enjoyed this edition of my series of short snippets
of forgotten history about ten minutes long. And if you did enjoy it, please go ahead and click
that thumbs up button which is there on your left. If you have any questions, or comments,
feel free to write those in the comment section, I will be happy to personally respond. And
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