\paperw4890 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 According to the inventory that Palazzo Medici made in 1492, the room belonging to Lorenzo contained three panels devoted to the battle of
San Romano, which had been fought fifty years earlier between the armies of Florence and Siena.\par
This panel represents the moment when the Sienese commander Bernardino della Ciarda, is speared by an enemy lance, which throws him from his horse.\par
The drama appears frozen in time, as if held fast within the rigorous structure of perspective formed by the broken lances lying on the ground, which converge in a central vanishing point.\par
The geometrical framework immobilizes the figures in a patte
rn of lines, evident in the triangle that is formed in the foreground by BernardinoÆs leg and two lances.\par
The war does not seem to have disturbed the surrounding countryside, where hedges separate the plowed fields, a small group of peasants lingers
among the vines and hares flee from the hounds and crossbowmen who prepare for the hunt.\par
The entire scene is dominated by a feeling of unreality, which transforms the figures into foreshortened shapes and spreads a metallic sheen over the details o
f the crests, the headgear and the trappings of the horses.
