Michelangelo returned to Florence from Rome, where he had worked for Pope Julius II. His return to Florence unnerved Leonardo, who, on the wall opposite Michelangelo’s work on the Battle of Cascina, was having difficulty completing the Battle of Anghiari, once again due to his insistence on using tempera and oil, which easily deteriorate. But Leonardo soon returned to Milan, and Michelangelo himself was recalled to Rome to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The result: neither the Battle of Cascina nor the Battle of Anghiari were finished by their authors. Sixty years later, Vasari covered both paintings with his own. Only in the 21st century, with modern techniques, was evidence of Leonardo’s painting discovered beneath Vasari’s.
