EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “When Good Murals Go Bad: Leonardo da Vinci’s Lost Battle of Anghiari”
Presented by Dr. Sally J. Cornelison
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint a fifteenth-century battle that took place between Florence and Milan near the Tuscan town of Anghiari in the Hall of the Great Council in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. The celebrated artist began painting a portion of the skirmish in oil on plaster, rather than in the more durable medium of fresco that most Renaissance artists employed for large-scale mural paintings. He never finished the painting before leaving Florence permanently in 1505, and any trace of what by all accounts was a magnificent, if incomplete and damaged, work disappeared when Giorgio Vasari renovated the council hall in the 1560s. This webinar delves into the technical history of Leonardo’s unfinished Battle of Anghiari and its afterlife, including the controversial search for remnants of the painting under Vasari’s later frescoes.

The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.

Please note:

• Your participation is confirmed once you have purchased your ticket. You will receive the Zoom link to join the presentation circa 30 minutes before the start time.
• VIDEO RECORDING of the webinar will be available for unlimited streaming at your convenience for one week after the event.

Dr. Sally J. Cornelison is the director of the Florence Graduate Program in Italian Renaissance art for Syracuse University and a specialist in the history of Italian late medieval and Renaissance religious art. She teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels on the history of sacred, as well as secular, art and architecture in early modern Italy. Many of her publications concern art, devotion, ritual, and patronage as they relate to the cult of saints and relics in Renaissance Florence. More recently, the focus of her research has been the sacred art of Giorgio Vasari, and she is currently completing a book on Giorgio Vasari’s work at the prestigious church of the Pieve in his hometown of Arezzo.