The battle of Anghiari.

Engraving, 45,5 x 61,5 cm, vellum paper, signed at lower edge "G. Edelinck sc." (paper toned, some sm. tears at upper and lower edge).

Copy in reverse of a drawing by Rubens executed ca. 1603 after Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari (1503-1506), in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The commission for the painting was given to Leonardo in 1504 by Pietro Soderini and Niccolò Macchievelli. At the same time his rival Michelangelo was painting the Battle of Cascina at the opposite wall, resulting in one of the most fascinating artistic feuds in Renaissance history. The painting is now lost, believed to be hidden beneath one of the later frescoes by Vasari in the Salone dei Cinquecento. In 1603 Peter Paul Rubens made an elaborate drawing which was based on an engraving of 1553 by Lorenzo Zacchia.
Ref. Schneevoogt 152.130. - Corpus Rubenianum (Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and Later Artists: Italian Artists) XXVI.2.III.165.