The large painting depicting Farinata degli Uberti at the battle of Serchio was ordered to Giuseppe Sabatelli in 1840 by the nobleman and patriot Niccolò Puccini for his villa outside Pistoia, as part of a cycle of canvases celebrating the struggles of famous Florentines battling tyranny. Giuseppe was the eighth son of Luigi Sabatelli. A precocious and gifted artist, his brilliant achievements as a painter gained him the protection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany who, in 1833, granted him a monthly salary. Giuseppe Sabatelli worked at the painting for two years and the 'Farinata' was the major work of his unfortunately short career.

The episode depicted in the painting illustrates a moment during the 1262 Battle of Serchio when Farinata degli Uberti tries to save Cece Buondelmonte from the unjust attack of Farinata's own brother Piero Asino. The literary source of this subject was the work of Scipione Ammirato 'Istorie Florentine' (1647). Giuseppe Sabatelli died prematurely just after the completion of the painting and Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, decided to purchase the work instead of Puccini. The painting is now in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Florence. See 'Cultura Neoclassica e Romantica nella Toscana Granducale: Collezioni lorenesi, acquisizioni posteriori, depositi', Florence 1972, pages 66 e 67.
One large preparatory drawing, in black chalk, strictly corresponding to the painting, is in the collection of the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi (n. 20960) but there are evidences that Giuseppe worked hardly on the subject of this important commission with several compositional drawings, where the scene of two warriors on their horses contending for the prisoner was treated in different ways.

One of these drawings was in my hands in 1988 (Disegni di Maestri Antichi e dell'Ottocento presentati da Mattia Jona, Milan, December 1988: cat. no. 44). Originally presented by Giuseppe's brother Gaetano to Carlo Prayer the large sheet, now in a private collection, contains, on the recto and on the verso, three different compositional solutions for the depiction of the dramatic episode of Farinata trying to defend the prisoner from the murderous rage of his own brother.
Another drawing by Giuseppe for his 'Farinata' was offered by Finarte in Milan in March 2000 (Stampe, incisioni, libri, disegni, catalogue of the sale, Finarte, Milan, 14 March 2000, lot 691). It was, again, a large sheet drawn in pen over traces in black chalk with the subject treated in three slightly different ways on the recto and the verso.
Recently I found another drawing by Giuseppe which is related to the Farinata painting. In this case the sheet is drawn just on the recto. The technique is again black chalk and pen with brown ink, but the use of the black chalk is much more extensive.
Comparing the painting with the five compositional sketches is very difficult to reconstruct a sequence of execution but conversely is quite evident the great interest of the artist in the depiction of the horses, which seems to confirm the influence on Giuseppe of the paintings of dashing horses by Géricault and Delacroix.