Study of Two Warriors Heads by Leonardo da Vinci Stone Coaster

Study of Two Warriors' Heads for the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci, black chalk on paper c. 1504, is an exemplary High Italian Renaissance drawing for a lost Leonardo masterpiece. Da Vinci and Michelangelo were commissioned to paint large frescoes of important battles in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, with Michelangelo painting the Battle of Cascina on the opposite wall. This study of a screaming warrior typifies Leonardo’s mastery of the human figure, expression and anatomy, as well as the classical grace and concision of his drawing. The finished Battle of Anghiari painting stood intact but is only known through copies made by Rubens and other artists. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was the greatest master of the High Italian Renaissance and quintessential "Renaissance Man" whose work as painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, anatomist and much more is without comparison. Born near Florence, Italy, and apprenticed to the painter Verrocchio, Leonardo invented many new ideas and extended the principles of perspective drawing, aerial perspective, the human figure and anatomy and much else to heights never seen since, during the period of rediscovery of the arts and philosophy of classical antiquity. Widely regarded as possibly the greatest artist who ever lived, Leonardo left very few completed paintings, due to either his restless experiments with painting technique that sometimes failed, or his infamous habit of procrastination.