The Semiotics of the Battle: A Comparative Perspective

The article compares different ways of representing multitudes of peoples in visual media and arts. It focuses, in particular, on the theme of the battle, which is one of the most depicted by human visual cultures across the epochs. Starting from two unachieved Renaissance paintings of battles, the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo and the Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo, the article investigates how the two artists wondered philosophically and graphically about the effect of battle violence on the bodies of humans and horses. It, then, focuses on a stereotypical way of representing battles in present–day visual media, which involves the cliché cinematic reference to the testudo (turtle formation). Although reference to this typical Roman battle strategy is often anachronistic, it conveys a contemporary imaginary of the battle that, unlike those of Leonardo and Michelangelo — for whom memory of real and gruesome fights was still fresh — manifests an unrealistic, disembodied, and whitewashed imaginary of war, unaware of and inattentive to its disruptive potential.