The Incredible Bannockburn Artwork of Leonardo McVinci
The incredible artwork by Leonardo McVinci is now on public display, depicting his eyewitness account of William Wallace riding into the Battle of Bannockburn.
McVinci, a Scottish Renaissance artist from Fife, was renowned for his dramatic compositions, heroic sense of scale, and his refusal to paint anything that didn’t look at least a wee bit mental.
The painting shows Wallace charging into battle astride what McVinci described in his personal notes as “a great armoured beast, neither horse nor coo, but absolutely cool as feck.”
While visually striking, historians are quick to point out that Scottish war dinosaurs were believed to have gone extinct long before the Wars of Independence, most likely due to a combination of climate change, lack of grazing, and being too obvious during ambushes.
The artwork also prominently features the Saltire flying across the battlefield. While the Saltire is traditionally associated with Scotland from a legendary 9th century origin, often linked to a battle said to have taken place around 832 AD, experts note that it was not used as a battlefield flag during Bannockburn.
At the time, banners were far more likely to feature personal heraldry or religious symbols rather than a national flag that wouldn’t come into widespread military use until much later.
There are also minor concerns regarding the timeline. McVinci places himself at Bannockburn in 1314 despite being born several centuries later, a discrepancy he dismissed entirely by writing “time is flexible” in the margin of his sketchbook.
Finally, Wallace is depicted wearing a kilt, which historians agree is wildly premature. Kilts, in anything resembling their modern form, did not appear until the 16th century, meaning Wallace and his dinosaur are wearing kilts that had not yet been invented, conceptualised, or even dreamt about.
Despite these small issues, experts have praised the painting for its emotional power, dramatic movement, and McVinci’s continued insistence that he was “definitely there, honest”.
The painting now hangs proudly in the Edinburgh Art Gelateria, where it is free to view with any purchase of ice cream. Visitors are politely reminded that while admiration is encouraged, the artwork itself is not made of ice cream and not to be licked, regardless of how tempting the Renaissance varnish may appear.
