Images of War

   Times of war often lead to the creation of many works of art. Proof of this is evident in the paintings of both Michelangelo Buonarotti and Leonardo da Vinci. These two rivals painted on opposite walls within the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Both paintings depict vivid images of warfare the Florentine Republic had been involved in and won - Michelangelo painted the battle of Anghiari against Milan while Leonardo focused on the Battle of Cascina against Pisa. As you can imagine, working in the same room as their rivals pushed both masters to create, arguably, the most influential masterpieces of the time.

   Piero Soderini, the recently elected Gonfaloniere (a highly prestigious communal post in medieval and Renaissance Italy), appointed Michelangelo to paint the Battle of Cascina. Although he was never able to put the cartoons up on the wall, we have images of what the painting would have looked like through his sketches, shown at the bottom . In these drawings, he depicted the ordinariness of war in the middle, with chaos surrounding the perimeter of the battle. He also showed soldiers being caught off guard by the enemy as they bathed in a stream. This is comparable to King Darius being attacked from behind by Alexander the Great in The Battle of Issus mosaic. In both works of art, the enemy of the creator's commissioner is shown in a humiliating moment.

   Unlike Michelangelo, Leonardo was able to draw the cartoon of his work, the outline of the painting, on the walls of the Council Hall. Though it was eventually painted over, we have knowledge of what it looked like through the other artists at the time's reproductions of the cartoon. 

In his work, Leonardo captured the climax of the battle as men and their horses collide. The stress and fear caused by the war is evident in both the men's faces and the rearing horses. Although this painting's purpose was to commemorate a victorious battle, like King Narmer's Palette, the emotions and down sides of war are clear.

   Through art, we are able to tell a lot about a society and their beliefs. In both these works of art, we are able to see how Michelangelo and Leonardo's society felt about war - although they wanted to celebrate their victories, they couldn't forget the many deaths and pain inflicted by the battles.