Battle scenes

are uncom­mon in Renais­sance panel paint­ing. Here is one excep­tion, part of a series of three huge pan­els, done mostly in egg tem­pera, com­mem­o­rat­ing a minor Ital­ian bat­tle (the Bat­tle of San Romano) by Paolo Uccelo. This one is in the National Gallery in Lon­don. I’ve seen it’s sis­ter paint­ing in the Lou­vre. One impres­sive aspect is the gild­ing. All of the armor is done in sil­ver leaf, punched and scribed with three dimen­sional pat­terns of mail and plate, then glazed with thin lay­ers of asphal­tum ground in oil. Very impressive.