The Painting Contest That Destroyed a Friendship

Leonardo vs Michelangelo came to a head in 1504 when Florence forced them to paint opposite walls of the same hall. This documentary follows the Palazzo Vecchio commission for the Battle of Anghiari and Battle of Cascina in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, Leonardo's failed experimental technique and Michelangelo's cartoon of soldiers caught bathing in the Arno. Drawing on Vasari and the Anonimo Gaddiano, it asks whether the public comparison created their enmity and why two lost, unfinished frescoes later taught Raphael and a generation.