Battle Scene (Main View)

These fighting knights carry the banners of ancient feuding empires--SPQR, the banner of ancient Rome, at the left, and the dragon, that of Gaul, at the right--yet they wear contemporary gold and silver Florentine armor and joust like Florentine knights of the 1400s. The brilliant colors and simplified geometric shapes make the armored steeds look much like rocking-horses, creating a resplendent yet artificial, fairy-tale battle scene. Despite the flatness of the sumptuous painted fabrics and the mere outlines of the horses' bodies--aside from the elegantly foreshortened white horse at the right--their hooves appear to exist in three-dimensional space.



Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi knew about battles, for he was once a mercenary soldier, but he did not intend this scene as a realistic depiction of warfare. The panel originally formed the front of a cassone, or wedding chest.