1503-04
Pen and brown ink, black chalk, leadpoint, 190 x 260 mm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The studies on the present sheet are related to the Battle of Cascina. It is assumed by some scholars that Michelangelo initially planned a cavalry battle for the wall painting in the Palazzo Vecchio but subsequently chose the composition of the warriors bathing in the Arno River and preparing to fight.