Battle of San Romano

It’s pasI The time is well past midnight but sleep evades Bernardo. He turns on his back and looks up at the night sky, staring thoughtfully at the stars that look like tiny jewels. He thinks of home and how he celebrated his seventeenth birthday just a few days ago. Looking around at the small forested area he feels a sudden shudder as he realizes there are just a few hours left before he  joins the other foot soldiers and goes into battle.

On the 1^st of June 1430, Bernardo fought in the Battle of San Romano. This battle was fought between Florence and Sienna, about thirty miles outside Florence, it lasted the entire day and the outcome is generally considered favorable to the Florentines.

The events of that day from dawn to dusk, have been portrayed in a set of three paintings each over six feet high and ten feet wide in the famous painting known as the, ‘Battle of San Romano’. This masterpiece was created by the much respected artist of the early Italian Renaissance, Paolo Uccello. These panels were commissioned by the Bartolini Salimbeni family in Florence, who obviously had very deep pockets and a very large house. This set of paintings is considered very significant as it shows the development of linear perspective during this period. At a time when religious art was the most sought after subject matter, this was an unusual secular commission.

Painted in egg tempera on wooden panels, these paintings were much admired in the fifteenth century. Egg tempera is a permanent fast drying painting medium where colored pigments are mixed with egg yolk which works as a binding agent. These paintings last very long and it was the primary method of painting until after the sixteenth century when oil painting replaced tempera.

These paintings were so coveted that Lorenzo de Medici popularly known as 'Lorenzo the Magnificent ' a powerful statesman and de facto ruler of Florence during this period, purchased one and had the other two forcibly removed to the Palazzo Medici  (Medici Palace) and had them put up in his room known as ‘Lorenzo’s Room’. Lorenzo the Magnificent was a great patron of the arts and commissioned a lot of paintings in his time.

 

 

This is the first painting in the series. Believed to be at the break of dawn, we see the Florentine mercenary general Niccolo  Mauruzi  da Tolentino on his white charger leading the cavalry, he can be identified by the motif of ‘Knot of Solomon’ on his banner.

He wears a large gold and velvet brocade patterned hat. He has a reputation for recklessness and doesn’t even wear a helmet. On the top towards the centre of the painting we can see that he has sent two messengers to his allied army led by Micheletto da Cotignola, to ask for reinforcements as he is badly outnumbered by the Sienese army.

 It’s interesting to notice that in none of the three paintings do we see the sky, we the viewers are seeing this battle close up. In all the three panels the battle scene is packed with action in a chaotic clash of horsemen, lances and debris shown through a series of superimposed intersecting perspective planes. Many areas of the painting are covered in gold and silver leaf and these would have shone when the paintings were viewed in candlelight, as they must have been at that time. The middle ground is occupied by a hedge bearing oranges and roses; one of Uccello’s several decorative and stylized details.

 

 

The central panel chronicles the events at midday; it shows the decisive combat between the two armies. Bernardino della Ciarda, leader of the Sienese mercenaries is the central figure on a white horse. He is wounded by an enemy spear.

The composition is very crowded; we can see young soldiers barely in their teens on the battlefield. Uccello understood that the young are usually the main casualties in any battle. This second panel is also special because it is the only one that Uccello signed. His signature appears on the lower left hand side on a shield. The colors are very unreal and the use of light gives the composition a feeling of a knight’s fairy tale. The figures tend to look a bit wooden and toy like, but the strong sense of narrative design and attention to decorative detail give the painting a beautiful visual appeal.

 

The third and final panel believed to be at dusk shows us that the reinforcements have arrived and the counterattack by Florence’s ally Micheletto da Cotignola. On the right side the stationary warriors wait for orders. In the centre Micheletto da Cotignola gives the signal for the attack, leading the Florentines to victory.

 

 

This painting features strong decorative elements the hosiery of different colors worn by the soldiers, the arrangement of the lances forming a series of patterns all set against the beauty of the Tuscan countryside.

 

 

 

Unfortunately Bernardo did not survive that day and neither did six hundred others. This battle was one of the many that were fought during those troubled times and there were many young soldiers like Bernardo who lost their lives. But it is this visual depiction of the’ Battle of San Romano’ by the great master Paolo Uccello that still holds us captive so many centuries later.

Today an art lover would have to travel to Florence, London and Paris to see the entire painting. Like three siblings living in three different cities, the first panel is displayed by the Uffizi Gallery, the second and third were sold by art dealers to the National Gallery and the Louvre and are displayed there.

Paolo Uccello: (1397- 1475) Paolo Uccello’s real name was Paolo di Dono. He was born in Pratovecchio in Italy. His father was a barber surgeon and his mother was a high born aristocrat. Paolo Uccello is known for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art, which he used to create a feeling of depth in his paintings. His nickname ‘Uccello’ came from his fondness for painting birds.

References:

 Private life of a Masterpiece

Uffizi Gallery,

 National Gallery, Louvre