Knights in Combat

This large fresco fragment – removed from the palace that now houses the tribunal – depicts a battle between knights on horseback, a rare secular subject compared to the vast production of religious works that decorated local churches. It has recently been identified as an episode from the tales of Lucretia taken from Ab urbe condita by Titus Livius. It is contemporary in date with the fresco cycles (now lost) of historical subjects known to have been executed for the same palaces by Altichiero, the most advanced practitioner of the Giottesque style in northern Italy.