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Story and context
Rubens's drawing after the central fight for the standard in Leonardo's lost mural for the Florentine council hall. The original paint began to run and the work was abandoned.
In 1503 Florence commissioned Leonardo to paint the victory of Anghiari of 1440 on a wall of the great council hall. Michelangelo was given the battle of Cascina on another wall. The two greatest artists in the city would be compared side by side.
Leonardo worked on the cartoon from October 1503. He painted the central scene, horsemen fighting for a standard, men and horses locked in rage. He tried an oil-based method on the wall, and the colours ran or would not dry. In May 1506 he left for Milan, and the painting was eventually covered when the hall was remodelled.
What we know comes from copies. Rubens made this one about a century later, working from an earlier copy, and it keeps the fury of the knot of riders.
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by Mei Lin 