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Orsanmichele

Other productions of workshops and the Leonardesque school are found in the Galleria Palatina at the Palazzo Pitti, in the Museo Horne and in Palazzo Vecchio (where they illustrate the current problems involved in searching for the great wall painting of the Battle of Anghiari). Among these may be included Rustici's sketches inspired by the warriors in Leonardo's Battle. Nor can it be excluded that Leonardo may have played some part in the bronze sculptural group representing the Preaching of the Baptist above the north door of the Baptistry of San Giovanni, unquestionably Rustici's masterpiece.
In the Museo del Bigallo are notable paintings from Florentine workshops executed within the sphere of the Leonardesque circle, which also included pupils of Verrocchio and Lorenzo di Credi: from Alunno di Benozzo to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, from the Master of the Johnson Magdalene to Agnolo di Polo. Study sessions presenting unpublished works and documents pertinent to "Leonardo in Florence" are held here on a regular basis.
In other Florentine museums, palaces and churches are works of fundamental importance for reconstructing the artistic and cultural context of Leonardo's time. In some cases these works date from the time of the master's youth, when he was still collaborating with Verrocchio.
In the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, for instance, are displayed (in the "Hall of Verrocchio and Late Fifteenth Century Sculpture") the David, the Dama col mazzolino and the Resurrection of Christ, works by Verrocchio in which the participation of Leonardo, or an iconography of his, has been suggested. Masterpieces by Donatello, Michelangelo, Sansovino, Benedetto da Maiano, Mino da Fiesole, Pollaiolo, Desiderio da Settignano, Luca and Andrea Della Robbia are also found here.
Other sculptures by Verrocchio are found in Orsanmichele (The Incredulity of St. Thomas) and in the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, where he built the Medicean tomb of Piero il Gottoso and his brother Giovanni, with bronze decoration that seems to anticipate the lectern in the Uffizi's Annunciation.
Works of applied art with documentary or iconographical references to Leonardo are found in the Museo degli Argenti (in 1502 he had been the expert consulted by Francesco Gonzaga in regard to some vases made of semiprecious stones and one of agate coming from the collection of Lorenzo de’ Medici) and in the Museo Stibbert (armour decorated with figures of knots and of horsemen recalling Leonardo's studies for equestrian monuments).

Texts by
Alessandro Vezzosi, in collaboration with Agnese Sabato / English translation by Catherine Frost
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