 Holding ever more lavish funeral ceremonies for fallen condottieri was only one way in which Italian city @-@ states competed with each other to attract the services of the most skilled mercenaries . Hawkwood 's funeral was sandwiched between the funerals in Siena of Giovanni d <unk> degli Ubaldini — who had been poisoned by the Florentines in the Visconti wars — and Giovanni " Tedesco " da Pietramala . The commissioning of Uccello to repaint the fresco came at the " climax " of a war with Lucca , which had recently begun a monument to honor Niccolò Piccinino , in contrast to Piccinino 's defaming portrait in the Palazzo della Signoria in 1428 , depicting him hanging upside @-@ down in chains , which was " <unk> [ ed ] " in April 1430 . 
