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The Battle of Anghiari
Leonardo painted the giant mural in 1440, in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. Da Vinci was 53, and at the height of his powers. At the time it was regarded as the greatest painting of the Renaissance. But then, mysteriously, it disappeared. Using military grade technology, Seracini set out on a remarkable detective story. The Da Vinci Detective believes he is now within a hair's breadth of finding the painting's hiding place...Dr Seracini's second case is the culmination of a thirty-year quest, to find the lost Renaissance masterpiece Leonardo began work on The Battle of Anghiari.
Commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republican army of Florence over Milan in 1440, it was to be Leonardo da Vinci's biggest and most substantial work – three times the size of The Last Supper.
At the age of 53, and at the height of his powers, Leonardo began work on The Battle of Anghiari, a huge mural in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. It was heralded as an artistic triumph. A visceral depiction of the savagery of war, nothing so realistic had been seen before. One description tells of "Fury, hate and rage are visible in the men and the horses… which, with their bold spirit and muscles and shapely beauty, Leonardo portrayed better than any other artist."
For almost 60 years, people from the courts of Europe came to admire it.
But in 1563 the Medici hired the architect Giorgio Vasari to restructure the Palazzo Vecchio and change the decoration. They wanted a painting more in keeping with their bloodthirsty conquests. The anti-war The Battle of Anghiari disappeared. Some believe it was destroyed, others that it was damaged: but Seracini thinks otherwise...
Using military grade technology, Seracini set out on a remarkable detective story. The Da Vinci Detective believes he is now within a hair's breadth of finding the painting's hiding place...
