La Scheggia is only 24 km from Caprese, the small town that gave birth to Michelangelo Buonarroti. It is from the beauty and rocks of these mountains that his passion for sculpture and sense of aesthetics stem from. Michelangelo took inspiration from these rocks (he even planned to sculpture the Apuane Alps!) for his sculptures that were “made by force of removal”. The silhouette of the Chiusi rock, overlooking La Verna, is visible in the background of the outstretched arms of the Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. 

Born in Sansepolcro, Piero della Francesca also well drew inspiration from the landscapes of this area. The light and configuration of his native territory are present in all his masterpieces. He considered the crystal-clear vividness of outlines and geometry to be God’s design of nature. They are well conveyed in the Resurrection of Christ in the Pinacoteca Civica. To pay homage to the contribution that Piero gave to the study of perspective, analyzing the links between space and landscape, a large scale sloping head of the artist has been laid on a panoramic site of La Scheggia. This work of art was created by the Genoese sculptor Sergio Bovenga who shares an interest in the mutual interaction between art and space in the field of vision with Piero della Francesca.

 Leonardo da Vinci is the artist who left the most meaningful representation: the valley, la Scheggia pass and Montauto hill overlooking Arezzo, are all sketched on his famous map, but there are also many paintings dedicated to these places. The Buriano bridge and the furrows of Valdarno are outlined on the background of La Gioconda; while the Anghiari plain gives its name to the vast wall painting the “Battle of Anghiari”, that celebrates the liberation of the Aretine territory from the domination of the Viscounts of Milan in 1440. In both works of art Leonardo gives great emphasis to movement that he perceives as expression of the continuous transformation of nature, or as the “bestial madness” of the battle expressed through human motion.