Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood The Funerary Monument ( or Equestrian Monument ) to Sir John Hawkwood is a fresco by Paolo Uccello , commemorating English " condottiero " John Hawkwood , commissioned in 1436 for Florence ' s Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore . The fresco is an important example of art commemorating a soldier - for - hire in the Italian peninsula and is a seminal work in the development of perspective . The politics of the commissioning and recommissioning of the fresco have been analyzed and debated by historians . The fresco is often cited as a form of " Florentine propaganda " for its appropriation of a foreign soldier of fortune as a Florentine hero and for its implied promise to other " condottieri " of the potential rewards of serving Florence . The fresco has also been interpreted as a product of internal political competition between the Albizzi and Medici factions in Renaissance Florence , due to the latter ' s modification of the work ' s symbolism and iconography during its recommissioning . The fresco is the oldest extant and authenticated work of Uccello , from a relatively well - known aspect of his career compared to the periods before and after its creation . The fresco has been restored ( once by Lorenzo di Credi , who added the frame ) and is now detached from the wall ; it has been repositioned twice in modern times . John Hawkwood . Hawkwood had a long military career and a complicated relationship with Florence . He fought for England during the Hundred Years War and then with the " Great Company " which harassed the Avignon Papacy . After gaining command of the " White Company " from Albert Sterz in the 1360s , Hawkwood led the company across the Alps in 1363 in the employ of John II , Marquess of Montferrat , to take part in his war against Milan . Hawkwood and the " White Company " remained in Italy , accepting money from many city - states , both to wage war and to refrain from it . Hawkwood ' s reputation as one of the ablest " condottieri " in the peninsula developed in the ensuing decades , during which he was employed ( by both sides ) in the Pisan – Florentine War ( 1363 – 1364 ) , notably winning the Battle of Cascina ( 1364 ) for Florence , in the wars of Perugia against the Pope ( 1369 ) , and in the service of Bernabò Visconti in his war against a coalition that included Pisa and Florence , and even ( in 1372 ) the Marquis of Monteferrato . Hawkwood then entered the service of Pope Gregory XI in his wars against Milan ( 1372 – 1375 ) and in the War of the Eight Saints ( 1375 – 1378 ) , during which Hawkwood helped put down the Florentine - instigated rebellions in the Papal States . During the conflict , Hawkwood was paid 130 , 000 florins — which was extracted from local clergy , bishops , abbots , monasteries , and ecclesiastical institutions — to confine his activities to suppressing the rebellions in the Papal States , rather than directly attacking Florence . Hawkwood also received a 600 florin annual salary for the next five years and a lifetime annual pension of 1 , 200 florins . Hawkwood married Donnina , the illegitimate daughter of Bernabò Visconti , in 1377 . In that same year he defected to Florence . Hawkwood ' s 1377 massacre at Cesena during the twilight of his papal employment in the War of the Eight Saints continues to tarnish his legacy . Thus , until 1377 , Hawkwood had principally served the Visconti of Milan and their allies in Pisa , Lucca , and Siena , usually against the interests of Florence , making him an ironic candidate for a monument in the Duomo of Florence . At the bidding of Pisa , Hawkwood attacked the Brunelleschi family ' s Villa Petraia in Castello , burned Florentine subject territories around Incisa after defeating Florentine " condottiero " Ranuccio Farnese il Vecchio , and even taunted Florence from outside the city walls . However , Hawkwood was the de facto commander - in - chief ( Captain - General ) of Florence ' s military from 1377 until immediately prior to his death in 1394 . Hawkwood won many victories for Florence , including his suppression of the Ciompi revolt in January 1382 , but contemporary Florentines would have regarded Hawkwood ' s successful retreat from Milan late in his career , across three rivers — including the notorious Oglio — and across a barren countryside , as his " greatest military feat " . Hawkwood , now in his seventies , made preparations to return to England , where he had been sending money to acquire land , and set up a chantry . Just as he was liquidating his affairs in Italy , he died , on March 17 , 1394 . In 1395 , Richard II of England petitioned Florence for the return of Hawkwood ' s body , as he had done for Robert de Vere , Duke of Ireland , the local magnate to the Hawkwood family in England , in whose service he had begun his military career . Florence acquiesced to Richard II ' s request in a June 3 , 1395 letter : Our devotion can deny nothing to the eminence of your highness . We will leave nothing undone that is possible to do , so that we may fulfill your good pleasure . So , therefore , although we consider it reflected glory on us and our people to keep the ashes and bones of the late brave and most magnificent captain John Hawkwood , who , as commander of our army , fought most gloriously for us and who at public expense was interred in the principal church of Santa Reparata [ … ] nevertheless , according to the tenor of your request , we freely concede permission that his remains shall return to their native land . However , it remains an open question whether Hawkwood ' s remains were ever transferred to England , to the tomb prepared for him at St . Peter ' s in Sible Hedingham , or whether his remains were reburied in 1405 under the old choir of the Duomo , of which record has been lost since it was repaved in the 16th century . In any case , the tomb monument would have run into difficulty , as a ban on tombs above floor level in the Cathedral was passed on April 5 , 1400 . Context . In the Quattrocento , it was traditional for " condottieri " like Hawkwood to be buried in major public churches , even when their careers had produced mixed results for the city - state in question . The genre of the equestrian statue was revived during the Quattrocento for the purpose of commemorating " condottieri " ; Donatello ' s Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata ( c . 1447 – 1453 ) in Padua is the first surviving bronze equestrian statue since Ancient Rome . Tibertino Brandolino was interred at San Francesco in Venice ; Jacopo de ' Cavalli at SS . Giovanni e Paolo in Rome ; Paolo Savelli at Basilica dei Frari in Venice , along with a wooden equestrian statue on a marble sarcophagus , which — along with the bronze horses on the façade of St . Mark — may have inspired Uccello ' s " Hawkwood " ; and Konrad Aichelberg at a church in Pisa . When such burials were not possible , frescoes were an acceptable substitute : Guidoriccio da Fogliano was painted on horseback by Simone Martini in Palazzo Pubblico in Siena in 1328 ; Pietro Farnese was depicted in a papier - mâché equestrian monument atop a sarcophagus in the Florence Cathedral in 1363 . Holding ever more lavish funeral ceremonies for fallen " condottieri " was only one way in which Italian city - states competed with each other to attract the services of the most skilled mercenaries . Hawkwood ' s funeral was sandwiched between the funerals in Siena of Giovanni d ' Azzo degli Ubaldini — who had been poisoned by the Florentines in the Visconti wars — and Giovanni " Tedesco " da Pietramala . The commissioning of Uccello to repaint the fresco came at the " climax " of a war with Lucca , which had recently begun a monument to honor Niccolò Piccinino , in contrast to Piccinino ' s " pittura infamante " in the Palazzo della Signoria in 1428 , depicting him hanging upside - down in chains , which was " depaint [ ed ] " in April 1430 . Commissioning . Background . On August 20 , 1393 — when the Signoria , at the suggestion of Coluccio Salutati , voted to erect a marble statue of Hawkwood in the Duomo , " that brave men may know that the commune of Florence recompenses true service " — Hawkwood was liquidating his Tuscan properties and preparing to return to England . It was unprecedented for the Signoria to vote to erect a monument to a living person in the cathedral . The ambiguous plans of the Signoria — which likely was aware of Hawkwood ' s health status — might well have been for a tomb rather than a cenotaph ; Hawkwood died soon after , on March 17 , 1394 . The Signoria went to great lengths ( unsuccessfully ) to entice Donnina to remain in the city — voting to transfer various sums of money to her ( in exchange for Hawkwood ' s Tuscan fortress ) , despite " thorny legal issues " which required multiple acts of the city council — indicating to some extent the market value of Hawkwood ' s symbolic capital . Hawkwood ' s March 20 funeral began in the Piazza della Signoria , continued to the Battistero di San Giovanni , where his body was placed on the baptismal font for public viewing , and culminated in the Cathedral , at a cost of 410 florins , not counting the substantial expenses of the Guilds . The plans for Hawkwood ' s commemoration were modified on December 2 , 1395 , when it was decided to also rework the wooden monument of Pietro Farnese , the hero of the Pisan war , and to place marble tomb monuments to Farnese and Hawkwood on the north aisle , facing the high altar . Painters Agnolo Gaddi and Giuliano Arrighi were selected by a committee to sketch directly onto the Duomo wall models for the Hawkwood and Farnese tombs . Although neither tomb was realized , documentary evidence suggests that a painting of Hawkwood — with a figure of Hawkwood by Gaddi and a sarcophagus by Pesello — was completed by June 16 , 1396 . Historian Frances Stonor Saunders speculates that Uccello may have based his representation of Hawkwood on this early painting and that the earlier painting may have been based on a death mask of Hawkwood . The Hawkwood fresco is situated in the third bay of the northern wall , today flanked by paintings of Dante ( c . 1455 ) and a similar fresco monument to fellow mercenary Niccolò da Tolentino ( 1456 , by Andrea del Castagno ) ; fictive tombs in fresco of two humanist ecclesiasts — Bishop Corsini ( c . 1422 , probably by Giovanni dal Ponte ) and Fra Luigi de ' Marsigli ( c . 1439 by Bicci di Lorenzo ) , an Augustinian monk who founded a literary academy — are much smaller than those of the two " condottieri " . The fresco probably came to replace the tomb ( rather than serving as a place marker for it ) for reasons of expedience and frugality , although on these points there is little documentary evidence . Fresco . The fresco was initially commissioned , decades after Hawkwood ' s death , in May 1433 by the Albizzi government , just months before the regime ' s collapse . Perhaps the project was an attempt by the Albizzi to hearken back to a time when the oligarchic elite of Florence had been more aligned with their own conservative interests . On July 13 , 1433 , design competition notices for the new monument were placed at the Duomo , the Baptistry , and Orsanmichele . The instigators of the renewed project were the grandsons of Guido di Soletto del Pera Baldovinetti , one of the ambassadors who ( unsuccessfully ) pleaded with Hawkwood to return to Florence ' s service in 1389 , and Donato Velluti , a 14th - century military and political historian . It is almost inconceivable that the commissioners of the monument would not have regarded Hawkwood as a self - interested mercenary , knowing that he often acted against the interests of Florence . After the launching of the design competition , in September 1433 , Cosimo and Averardo de ' Medici were exiled from Florence , for — among other things — allegedly attempting to embroil Florence in a war with Lucca . Recommissioning . After Cosimo ' s triumphant return to Florence , rather than scrapping the project , in May 1436 the Medici regime hired Uccello to replace the Gaddi and Pesello fresco . Hugh Hudson suggests that it would have been too risky for the Medici to cancel the Albizzi project , so they instead shrewdly modified it to fit their interests . There is , of course , some weakness to attributing the commissioning and re - commissioning of the monument to Albizzi or Medici intrigues , as only two ( maybe three ) of the eight " operai " on July 13 , 1433 were members of the Albizzi faction and only one was a Medici when it was resumed on May 18 , 1436 ; yet the influences of both factions doubtlessly did not require blood relation . Around this time , documents attest to multiple repairs of a nearby window , opening the possibility that the original fresco had experienced water damage , and would have needed to be restored in any case . Others have suggested that the recommissioning was part of the " refurbishing " of the cathedral associated with its rededication as Santa Maria del Fiore by Pope Eugene IV in March 1436 . Yet , Borsi concludes that " undoubtedly under pressure from the Medici " the " operai " discarded their plans for a straightforward restoration of the Gaddi fresco and opted for a completely new monument . Uccello . The choice of Paolo Uccello ( born in Florence in 1397 ) , who had apprenticed for Lorenzo Ghiberti from June 1407 , busying himself polishing the " Gates of Paradise " , may have been an attempt to find a painter knowledgeable in bronze and statuary , which the fresco was to mimic . For centuries , art historians have regarded Uccello as a less - prominent artist at the time of the Hawkwood commission : he is not mentioned in the preface of Alberti ' s " De Pictura " , nor in Domenico Veneziano ' s 1438 letter to Piero di Cosimo de ' Medici listing the major contemporary painters ; nor have art historians even attempted to speculate that he studied the frescoes at the Brancacci Chapel . One difficulty for art historians attempting to gauge Uccello ' s reputation at the time of the " Hawkwood " ' s commissioning is the 10 - year blind spot in the reconstruction of Uccello ' s career between 1415 — when Uccello was made a member of the Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries ( " Arte dei Medici e Speziali " ) — and his trip to Venice in 1425 . Similarly , all the works of Uccello ' s Venetian period are either missing or else of uncertain attribution : Uccello is thought to have made a no - longer - existing mosaic of St . Peter on the façade of St . Mark ' s Basilica , to have collaborated on the design of architectural structures for the mosaics in the Mascoli Chapel of St . Mark ' s by Michele Giambono , and possibly to have made some geometrical pattern decorations for the interior of St . Mark ' s . Uccello was known to have been in Venice in 1427 and to have returned to Florence by 1431 , allowing a second window for historiographical speculation : some say he may have gone to Rome ; others say he went directly to Florence . Uccello probably painted the " Creation of the Animals and Creation of Adam " ( c . 1431 ) in the upper part of one of the bays of the Chiostro Verde ( the " Green Cloister " ) in Santa Maria Novella , which — like the " Hawkwood " , as specified in its commission — is in the " terra verde " grisaille manner . Perhaps Uccello worked on the stories from the life of the Virgin and St . Stephen in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption in the Prato Cathedral around 1435 , although Pope - Hennessy , Pudelko , and Salmi all dispute this attribution . Thus , the Florence Cathedral is the repository of all the extant works of Uccello whose attribution is firmly rooted in contemporary documents : two murals — the " Hawkwood " and the " Clock Face with Four Heads of Prophets or Evangelists " ( 1443 ) — and two stained glass windows — " Resurrection " ( 1443 – 1444 ) and " Nativity " ( 1443 – 1444 ) . The " Hawkwood " is Uccello ' s " earliest dated and fully authenticated extant work " . Modifications . Uccello ' s " Hawkwood " was completed , only to be ordered redone by the " capo maestro " of the Opera del Duomo , on June 28 , 1436 . Uccello was found not to have been at fault on July 6 , and paid for both his first and second versions , the latter of which was finished before August 31 . Incidentally , the second version — copied from the original , rather than direct observation — is the only true extant testimony to Hawkwood ' s appearance . The demanded redesign — which was ordered soon after post - Albizzi members secured a majority among the " operai " — is at the heart of any discussion about the political implications of the fresco . For centuries , art historians have argued that the rejection was rooted in questions of perspective and color , while more recent scholarship suggests it was the content of the fresco to which the " capo maestro " objected . The specific objections of the " capo maestro " are not documented — except that the fresco was " not painted as it should be " , but it is clear that only the portion containing the horse and rider was to be erased and redone . A preparatory drawing in the Uffizi with the same static scene is the primary clue to the appearance of the original fresco , in which Hawkwood was apparently more armored , taller , and — along with his horse — in a more militaristic stance . The " Hawkwood " thus both participated in and reinforced the Quattrocento trend that every Florentine public monument to a soldier of fortune employ a parade horse rather than a battle charger , in less than complete armor , and at a pace more suited for reviewing troops than charging into battle . A study which subjected the drawing to ultraviolet rays confirmed that Uccello had originally depicted Hawkwood as " more threatening " , with his baton raised and horse " at the ready " . The fresco ' s current appearance is not identical to the version redone by Uccello . The frame with candelabra - pattern decorations was added by Lorenzo di Credi in 1524 , when he restored the fresco . In 1688 , it was restored again , in refurbishments celebrating the marriage of Ferdinand de ' Medici and Violante of Bavaria . The fresco was restored and transferred to canvas in 1842 by Giovanni Rizzoli and moved to the west wall of the Duomo , only to be moved back to the north wall in 1947 , after being mounted on a masonite and aluminum support . It has been argued , based on Uccello ' s alleged use of Masaccio ' s eye - point perspective , that the painting was originally five feet higher than it stands today . The fully restored fresco was also briefly taken down in 1953 – 1954 to be shown in the " Quattro Maestri " ( " Four Masters " ) exhibition in Florence . Style . The reworked fresco has been seen as " classicizing " the image of the " condottieri " , with the " terra verde " technique giving the conceit of an equestrian bronze statue . The horse ' s proportions are based loosely upon those prescribed by Alberti in " De equo animante " , which in turn is based upon the anonymous " Sonetto del Cavallo Perfetto " ; however , in many ways the horse departs radically from Alberti ' s ideal of a harmonious and " lithe " creature in the style of Leonello d ' Este ' s monument to Niccolò III d ' Este , " Arco del Cavallo " in Ferrara . Furthermore , Uccello ' s perspective in the Hawkwood monument openly flaunted Alberti ' s conception of perspective as demarcated in " De Pictura " ( 1435 , translated into Italian as " Della Pittura " in 1436 ) : the vanishing point is at the eye - level of the spectator rather than within the field of the fresco , for example . Alberti ' s " De re aedificatoria " also objected to statues of soldiers and / or lay burials in churches . Although the fresco is often called " monochrome " , its background is dark red , the horse and tomb are accented in red , black , white , and orange . The " Trompe - l ' œil " perspective from the base , the " chiaroscuro " relief - effect of the horse and the rider , and lighting from the left are similar to Masaccio ' s " Holy Trinity " . The connection to Masaccio is so strong ( or so often reported ) that Francesco Albertini actually attributed the work to Massaccio in 1510 . However , Uccello ' s fresco has two viewpoints : the horse and rider are painted as if on level with the spectator , and the cenotaph is seen as if from below . A variety of explanations have been proposed for this split perspective , which has even been suggested by Frederick Hartt to have been a practical joke . Entangled in these questions of perspective is Vasari ' s criticism of the horse ' s raising both its right legs at the same time , which would likely topple the horse , if accomplished . However , it is clear from Uccello ' s other works that he was not interested in using perspective simply for realism ; rather , Uccello " placed in an unnatural , fantastic overall atmosphere , the fruit of this painter ' s complex and unique imagination " . This style has even been cited as an example of synthetic realism in line with the late Gothic movement . Inscription . Underscoring the classical elements of the fresco is the Latin inscription , added on December 17 , 1436 and penned by Bartolomeo Fortini de Orlandini , son of Benedetto di Ser Landi Fortini , former treasurer of Florence and apprentice of Spinello Alberti , one of the chief negotiators of Florence during the War of the Eight Saints — the first such inscription on an antique sarcophagus in a Florentine painting . The inscription reads : " " Ioannes Acutus " " eques brittanicus dux aetatis suae cautissimus et rei militaris peritissimus habitus est " " ( John Hawkwood , British knight , most prudent leader of his age and most expert in the art of war ) . The epitaph , likely a reference to Hawkwood ' s aforementioned " cautissimus " ( " most prudent " ) retreat across the Oglio , is borrowed from the eulogy of Roman general Fabius Maximus , who wore down Hannibal by tactical retreat and avoiding battle . The eulogy of Fabius Maximus comports so distinctly with Quattrocento humanism that some scholars have even dubbed it a " Renaissance fake " . Interpretation . By classicizing the " condottieri " , the portrait may have represented an opportunity to — as Leonardo Bruni had advocated — " revive the ancient form of tribute " by choosing a " long - dead and uncontroversial subject " . Mallett has interpreted the fresco as a Medicean attempt to exalt " the praiseworthiness of " condottieri " to a populace with mixed feelings " . In fact , Cosimo may have allowed the former Albizzi project to go through merely to pave the way for a similar honor for Niccolò da Tolentino ( died 1435 ) , a " condottiero " whom the Medici would have favored over Hawkwood . The Tolentino fresco was commissioned 20 years after the soldier of fortune ' s death , and was specified in its contract to be painted in " the same manner and form as the Hawkwood " . Thus , the recommissioning of the portrait may be read as part of an ongoing debate over the appropriateness of " condottieri " for a Republic . Bruni raises this subject in " De militia " ( 1420 ) , arguing for a standing Florentine militia , especially given the close ties between Tolentino and the Medici . Intending to depict Hawkwood as an " obedient captain conducting an inspection of troops " , the conceit of Hawkwood patiently reviewing troops is " suggestive of a loyal communal servant " . The Medici may have wished to emphasize that point that any " condottiero " , no matter how hostile or fickle , could be bought off and manipulated to Florentine interests and truly Florentinized . Attempts to claim Hawkwood as Florentine were well underway even before his death ; for example , Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder wrote in 1391 that Hawkwood " no longer has any foreign blood [ … ] and has become regenerated more strongly and more healthful in fiber and body under the moderating sky of Italy " . Such a viewpoint has even crept into modern scholarship : the 19th - century Italian historian Ercole Ricotti called Hawkwood " the last of the foreign " condottieri " or the first of the Italian ones " ; his 18th - century biography Domenico Maria Manni called him " general captain of Florentine armies " and virtually ignored two decades of Hawkwood ' s service to other city - states ; even in the 20th century , Friedrich Gaupp attempted to characterize Hawkwood ' s direct attack on Florence as a " marriage proposal " .