Palazzo Vecchio, War of Pisa “The Defeat of the Pisans at the Tower of San Vincenzo” by Giorgio Vasari and Giovanni Battista Naldini, Hall of the Five Hundred in Florence in Italy

Fresco - Water Pigments (7,60 x 13 metres) 1568-1571

War of Pisa, The Defeat of the Pisans at the Tower of San Vincenzo, by Giorgio Vasari and Giovanni Battista Naldini, Hall of the Five Hundred Palazzo Vecchio in Florence in Italy

Tower of San Vincenzo This episode of the war between Florence and Pisa corresponds to 17 August 1505, showing a battle around the tower of the city of San Vincenzo.

This battle was decisive in the war between Florence and Pisa, as indicated by Giorgio Vasari, the fresco author.

During this battle, the Pisan army composed of 300 soldiers and 500 mercenaries under the command of the condottiere Bartolomeo of Aviano was then on the road leading to Pisa near the tower of San Vincenzo.

It was there that the army of Pisa was attacked by surprise by Florentine troops led by Ercole Bentivoglio.

Taking advantage of the fact that most of the Pisan soldiers and mercenaries had already passed the tower near San Vincenzo's ruins, Commander Ercole attacked them from the rear and flank, using half of his troops.

So, the Pisan cavalry turned around to come to the rescue of its infantrymen in a particularly violent and fierce fight with the Florentines, as can be seen in Vasari’s fresco.

Tower of San Vincenzo To break this violent and dangerous counterattack, the Florentine commander, Ercole Bentivoglio, decided to use six small guns, called “falconetti”, that allowed him to repel the Pisans and win the battle.

The main group of horsemen of this battle scene is located in the very place where the fresco of the “Battle of Anghiari” painted by Leonardo da Vinci would have been.

Giorgio Vasari was a great admirer of Vinci’s work, and it is believed that he would have avoided destroying Leonardo’s work by covering it with a wall on which he would have painted his fresco.

But this remains of the conjecture order since none of the research carried out to find Vinci’s work under Vasari’s fresco has yielded a positive result.

However, Vasari painted this clash between the riders in the lost fresco style, in memory and out of respect for Leonardo da Vinci.

Tower of San Vincenzo