Relief, 'A Scene of Conflict between Men and Women (Lycurgus and Maenads?)', painted stucco, by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Siena, ca. 1474-1480

Relief in stucco, covered with a light greyish-brown paint. The relief and the frame are moulded as one. The relief portrays an open square, with buildings to the right and left, and receding into the distance along a street. The foreground shows armed men attacking unarmed women, most of the people represented are nude. In the building to the left nude men on the ground floor, some of whom are armed, and upper floor balcony are watching the scene. There is one robed female figure in the centre, and in the loggia to the right a man seated on a throne pointing to a man and a woman fighting.

This relief was purchased in Florence (Cavaliere Emilio Santarelli), and on acquisition was described by Fortnum as being “in the manner of Leonardo da Vinci”. The same composition exists in a second version in the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini in Siena. Both are very close in style and handling to two reliefs in bronze, a Lamentation in the Carmini in Venice, and a Flagellation in the Pinacoteca at Perugia.

It has been attributed at various points to Leonardo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Bertoldo di Giovanni, and to Francesco di Giorgio. In favour of the latter artist are: the relation of the architectural features in the relief, the Perugia Flagellation, and to motifs in Francesco's work at Urbino and elsewhere; that the Venice Lamentation was originally in the Oratorio di Santa Croce in Urbino, where he is known to have worked; the connection between the figures in the relief to drawings by the artist.

If the relief, like the Lamentation, was executed in Urbino it can be dated to after the bronze was cast, in 1475-7. The relief in the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini has been somewhat damaged, and seems to be blunter than the V&A’s piece. The main differences between the two are that in the Chigi-Saracini relief the right arm and stave of the central female figure are missing, and the feet of the male nudes standing in the central archway are shown.

It is possible that the two reliefs are earlier and later casts taken from a wax model, or alternatively that they are modified casts from a bronze relief. However the evidence is inconclusive.

On acquisition, the relief was described as “the Genius of Discord and the results of her influence”. As a narrative, the main features are: that it represents a conflict in which a number of unarmed women are slaughtered by men; all the figures apart from the fleeing female figure in the centre and one ambiguous figure by the throne, are nude; the dominant figures are the fleeing woman in the centre and the male nude on the right whose gesture seems to be one of pleading but who conceals a sword behind his back; that all the male figures on the left are spectators of, not participants in, the scene. Various interpretations have been ascribed to the scene, including the slaughter of the Maenads by Lycurgus, or that it is an Amazon scene. However they have been rejected for want of conclusive representations within the scene of attributes associated with these legends.

This relief demonstrates the use of linear perspective in representing the buildings and figures in the distance. The key principle of this technique was that there should be one vanishing point within the work, and this can be seen in the centre where the buildings recede. This technique was particularly useful for relief sculpture of complicated scenes, as it gave the sculptor a way of depicting naturalistic backgrounds as well as introduce many more figures and motifs into the scene in the middle- and back-ground.

Francesco di Giorgio was one of the earliest artists in Siena to use detailed and logical perspective within his relief work, and his figures vary from faint profiles to fully modelled statuettes. His work moved on from that of his master, Lorenzo Vecchietta, in stylistic, if not iconographic, ways. Francesco di Giorgio’s approach embodied a logical representational technique, a grasp of movement, and a sense of atmosphere. While in Milan, he had been in contact with Leonardo da Vinci, a connection that comes through in the style of this relief.

This relief, and another version which is very similar in the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini in Siena, are probably based on an unidentified bronze relief. The subject of the scene remains open to debate, but most likely represents the Homeric myth of Lycurgus's slaughter of the Maenads . According to the writer Diodorus, the Greek god Dionysus was betrayed by the Thracian king Lycurgus, who slaughtered Dionysus’s female followers, the Maenads, as they passed through his lands.

The relief uses the technique of linear perspective, developed in the early fifteenth century, which assisted artists to depict three-dimensional objects on a flat surface. The handling of the buildings clearly shows one of the key points of the technique: that lines should recede to a single vanishing point (located here in the centre of the relief).

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501) was one of the earliest artists in Siena to use detailed and logical perspective within his relief work, and his figures vary from faint profiles to fully modelled statuettes. His work moved on from that of his master, Lorenzo Vecchietta, in stylistic, if not iconographic, ways. Francesco's style provided a logical representational technique, a grasp of movement, and a sense of atmosphere. His contact with Leonardo da Vinci while they were both in Milan is evident in the style of this relief.

251-1876