Battle of Cascina Project

THE BATTLE OF CASCINA

The Battle of Cascina is a project that I've been working on and off for since '91. It is a painting that Michelangelo was commissioned to create on a wall of the Medici Palace while Leonardo was to paint another opposite him. Neither work ever got past the cartoon stage yet Michelangelo's was considered by all who saw it to be the finest work he had ever done. When the project was abandoned, overly enthusiastic fans attacked it in a Dionysian frenzy and stole fragments of it away until there was nothing left.

I'm intrigued by the project because I believe that we don't have anything that comes close to suggesting Michelangelo's original composition. I don't pretend that my version is anything approaching the Master's in terms of quality but I do know that I have a better understanding of the compositional principles of Michelangelo than a great many others.

What we do have remaining are some preliminary sketches from the Master and, perhaps more importantly, sketches done by contemporaries and near contemporaries that I believe may be done after fragments form the lost cartoon or from remembering what they'd seen on that wall.

Some preliminary sketches by Michelangelo suggesting the central composition

This is a screenshot from a movie or TV show called 'The Spring of Michelangelo' where they depict him painting it.

Some efforts of other artists to do the same

MY EFFORTS

An earlier dynamic endeavor of mine

My Original Cartoon done in '91 which I think was more successful than the paintings that followed

The painting as it stands now. I started painting it sometime around '93 and went back to it 10 years later. Its not working.

Some quick photo-shopping to explore an idea for changing the background. I'm loathe to put enemy horses in the back because both Michelangelo and I don't like horses as much as we like the Human Figure.

Sketchy guide to linear compositional elements. It also does a virtual horizontal clockwise rotation upon the center.

Going back to it in 2011, the first results are positive.

And 2012

In the Autumn of 2013 I undertake to did it again, to get back the drawing that worked and forget the painting that did not. As well, I finally commit to doing the thing on the correct proportions. The hall that was commissioned for the mural was 54' by 21' (2.57 to 1 ratio).

I have brown paper that is 2.5' high so put it on 6.5' width. This gets taped onto a 5' tabletop and I will do the center and right, complete it, and then move onto the left half.

Trying to fill in the right hand side

At this point it is a mess of materials ranging from pencil to graphite, pencil crayon, conte pencil and then finally charcoal pencil. I don't want to be afraid of black so the charcoal is forcing my hand toward the darkness.

Link to a page where I discuss THE COMPOSITION

Puttering puttering