Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood
The Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood is a fresco by Paolo Uccello, commissioned in 1436 for Florence Cathedral. The fresco is an important example of art commemorating a soldier-for-hire who fought in the Italian peninsula. Hawkwood had a long military career and a complicated relationship with Florence. The politics of the commissioning and recommissioning of the fresco have been analyzed and debated by historians.
About Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood in brief
The Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood is a fresco by Paolo Uccello, commissioned in 1436 for Florence Cathedral. The fresco is an important example of art commemorating a soldier-for-hire who fought 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. 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 had harassed the Avignon Papacy. He then entered the service of Pope Gregory XI in his wars against Milan and in the War of the Eight Saints, during which Hawkwood helped put down the Florentine-instigated rebellions in the Papal States. In 1395, Hawkwood petitioned Richard II of England for return to Florence, where he had been sending money to acquire land. Just as he was liquidating his affairs in Italy, he died on March 13, 1394, and set up a chantry bank in Florence to liquidate his chantry assets. He is buried in the Duomo of Florence, next to a similar depiction of fellow condottiero Niccolò da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno. He was married to Donnina, the illegitimate daughter of Bernabò Visconti, in 1377. In that same year he defected to Florence and won many victories for Florence, including his suppression of the Ciompompi revolt in January 1382, but contemporary Florentines would have regarded his retreat across three rivers as his “greatest military feat” He died in March 1394 and was buried in Florence, now on the north wall of the nave, beside a similar depiction of another condottieri, Niccolü da TolENTino.
He had a daughter, Donnina Hawkwood, who died in April 1399. The work is the oldest extant and authenticated work of Uc cello, from a relatively well-known aspect of his career compared to the periods before and after its creation. It has been restored and is now detached from the wall; it has been repositioned twice in modern times, It is now on a wall in the north of the cathedral, beside another depiction of a fellow condottieri by Andrea del castagno, who was also killed in the battle of Cascina in 1382. It 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 of the potential rewards of serving Florence. It also has 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 recommmissioning.
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