Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano

In 1432 Florence was at war with Lucca, and the campaign was run from the city by a war council known as the Ten. One of its officials was a Florentine named Lionardo Bartolini Salimbeni. Probably around 1438, he had Paolo Uccello paint the battle of San Romano across three large panels for the main room of his own town house, with arched tops shaped to fit under the vaulted ceiling. This one shows the Florentine commander, Niccolò da Tolentino, on a white horse, wearing a huge round hat of red and gold instead of a helmet.

For centuries the set was taken for a Medici commission. After Lionardo died in 1479, his sons fell out over his will, and Lorenzo de' Medici acquired the pictures. One son gave up his share. The other, Damiano, refused, and the panels were removed from his house against his will. Probably around then, a craftsman cut away the arched top and painted in the dark corners of foliage you see now, so the three could hang side by side in Lorenzo's palace.