A Warrior Subduing Another (recto); Warrior Seen in Bust-Length with Fantastic Helmet (verso) 1460 - 1464

Maso Finiguerra made this pen and brown ink drawing in Florence, sometime in the mid-fifteenth century. It depicts a warrior standing over another whom he has subdued. The city of Florence in this period was a republic in which civic identity was closely tied to military strength. The Arte della Lana, the powerful wool merchant's guild, was charged with funding the city's defense. The guild also commissioned a cycle of sculptures representing the patron saints of Florence, each of whom was figured as a warrior. Finiguerra’s drawing contributes to the period's fascination with the aesthetics of military might. Although it may seem at first glance to be merely a study of human anatomy, the drawing may also reflect a certain ambivalence about violence. While the standing warrior is rendered with careful attention to his musculature, the artist leaves the figure of the defeated warrior incomplete. The historian consults a wide range of sources in order to understand the place of a drawing such as this in its original social context. Documents such as guild records, tax rolls, and inventories can help us to understand the complex relationship between art and society in Renaissance Florence.