The Battle of Cascina

historical

In the autumn of 1504 Michelangelo was given the commission to paint a battle scene for the Palazzo della Signoria as a companion piece to Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari. This grand project came to nothing: the cartoon was finished - at least in part - by February 1505, but the urgent summons from Pope Julius II prevented Michelangelo from continuing with the work, for which only some drawings survived. Bastiano da Sangallo's painting is a copy of the central section of Michelangelo's cartoon.

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About the Artist

Bastiano da Sangallo

1481 – 1551

Bastiano (Aristotile) da Sangallo, Italian architect, painter, draughtsman and stage designer, nephew of Giuliano da Sangallo and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder. His nickname derived from his serious way of talking and a supposed resemblance to an antique portrait bust of Aristotle. He was a pupil of Perugino, whom he assisted in his work on the main altarpiece for Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Around 1505 he made a copy (untraced) of Michelangelo 's cartoon of the Battle of Cascina (destroyed), presenting an oil painting (Holkham Hall, Norfolk) based on it to Francis I, King of France, in 1542. In 1508 Bastiano was called to Rome, where he was among the five artists who assisted Michelangelo during the first phase of the decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and who taught him the technique of fresco painting. He also became a regular visitor at the house of Raphael, whom he may have met in Florence, and became acquainted with Bramante; he was also an occasional assistant to the fabric of St Peter's in 1526-28.

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