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ANGHIARI - Museums
The Battle of Anghiari
Both Anghiari and its neighbor Sansepolcro had, at the time, to do with the family Fortebraccio's. Handed down by Sigismondo Malatesta to the Pope, in 1431 Sansepolcro finished under Niccolò Fortebraccio of Montone, who recieved the village from Pope Eugene the IV in exchange for the restitution of the territory occupied by him in the Viterbase.
Seeing the difficulty of conquering Sansepolcro, fortified with a double castle wall surrounded by a large moat, the army sent by the Pope diverged towards Poppi, and the with the rapidness of which the nearby castles fell, indured Francesco of Battiflolle, with the mediation of the Florentines, to make a pact with the Pope.
The village of Sansepolcro therefore returned to the Papal State until 1438 when it became occupied by Francesco Piccinino, son of the captain of venture Niccolò Piccinino under the service of the Duke of Milano.Loyal to Niccolò, the village of Sansepolcro was taken seige by the army of the Pope, allying with the Florentines.
The military leader hurried to save it after his son Francesco recieved a death threat for all those who might have surrendered. Piccinino returned to the village to prepare the seige of the City of the Castle and conquered if from Umbria but soon found itself averting danger by the Pontiff troops and the Florentines encamped in Anghiari.
On June 29th, 1440, hearing that the enemy troops had distanced themselves from Anghiari to forage the horses, Niccolò thought that maybe it was a good time to attack. The dust raised by the cavalry of Piccinino attracted the attention of Michelotto Attendolo and soon called the other captains, including Gian Paolo Orsini and Baldaccio. The encounter was violent and lasted four hours with sudden overturns on one side or the other of the small moat that still flows today at the foot of Anghiari. Towards sunset a strong wind gust blew dust into the faces of the soldiers of Niccolò Piccinino who tired and disadvantaged, turned back toward Sansepolcro. Of this battle, Machiavelli said that the life of only one soldier was lost because while retreating he was thrown off his horse and stampeded by other horses. Machiavelli, on the other hand, asserter of the republican army and against the use of venture companies ( enlisted by various lords always ready to change flags) probably intended to use the Battle of Anghiari and the troops of Picconino as an example of his theories. In reality what happened was much more ferocious and some chronicles say that the battle saw 12,000 cavalieres and 6,000 infantry go onto the field. Among these, on the side of the Duke, 60 men lost their lives and on the side of the Lega only 10. At least 1,500 excellent men were taken prisoner from the lines of Piccionino who later left for Lombardia where there were called back by Filippo Maria Visconti. This event made history above all for the fact that the government of Florence, illustrating the fact, appointed Leonardo da Vinci to paint the "Battle fo Anghiari". Leonardo worked on it for two years, when his decided to leave for Milano. Unfortunately, when he returned his work had been ruined and he never continued on it. During his absence, however, the "Battle of Anghiari" went to school and this way was it lived on, in some ways, through the incisions and designs of various painters, including Rubens. Today a small chapel situated along the borderline between Anghiari and Sansepolcro in Maestà delle Forche, once a place of capital executions, reminds us of this historical event which marks the long submission of the Valtiberina to the Government of Florence. Another fact follows, as we will illustrate, which is the birth of and for a good reason called... the smallest Republic in the world.
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