Michelangelo
With the completion of the "David" came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint "The Battle of Anghiara" in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the "Battle of Cascina". The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by Rubens and Michelangelo's by Bastiano da Sangallo.
Raffaello Romanelli
Raffaello's next pieces of work to emerge around this time were centred around Ubaldino Peruzzi, Mayor of Florence and one of Italy's first ministers, a reputed political figure Raffaello had known well. Raffaello portrays him in four bas-reliefs which document notable moments in his political life. One of which was the inauguration of the positioning of Michelangelo’s the statue David in Piazzale Michelangelo in 1875. The piece shows important figures of Florentine society gathered to honour the great renaissance artist, among them Peruzzi. Following a similar theme, in 1899 Raffaello completed the bronze of the Marquess Cosimo Ridolfi, which stands in Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence. The Marquess was an agronomist and politician, deemed one of the most learned Tuscan men of his era, heralded as the man responsible for spreading modern agriculture in Italy. In 1829 he had founded the Municipal Savings Bank of Florence and was president of the historic Accademia dei Georgofili for 23 years. He was an ambassador in both London and Paris. Raffaello portrays him standing with a book in his hands. The unveiling of the statue took place in 1898, 50 years since the proclamation of King Carlo Alberto’s constitution and the 32nd anniversary of the Marquess Ridolfi's death.