Piero della Francesca (c. 1415 – 1492) is one of the most loved of Renaissance painters. Working across Central Italy in the mid-1400s, Piero created works for some of the most discerning and extravagant Renaissance patrons, producing altarpieces, fresco cycles and some of the century’s most recognisable portraits. His calm and serene figures, often set amidst idealised architectural settings or tranquil Tuscan landscapes have serenity and gravitas. The light in his pictures is clear, limpid and very modern.
While remaining a prominent citizen in his birthplace in Borgo Sansepolcro, he worked in
Florence, Arezzo, Rimini and Urbino. He was influenced by earlier painters such as Giotto and
Masaccio and used his remarkable skills in mathematics and geometry in the composition of his
painting, helping him create profoundly satisfying and timeless works of art.
After his death in 1492 his reputation rested mainly on his mathematical writings until cuttingedge artists and writers of the early twentieth century rediscovered the glorious legacy of his
paintings. His clarity of vision struck a chord with modern masters, making him one of our most
popular painters – more than five hundred years after his death.
1. Captain Tony Clarke, Royal Horse Artillery
2. Map of Italy showing Allied lines in 1944
3. View of the Borgo San Sepolcro
4. Giotto, The Lamentation, c. 1305. Capella degli Scrovegni, Padua
5. Masaccio, The Tribute Money, 1427. Capella Brancacci, Church of the Carmine,
Florence
6. Piero della Francesca, The Annunciation, 1452 – 1466. Church of San Francesco,
Arezzo → →
7. Giovanni di Paolo, The Annunciation with the Exclusion from Paradise, c. 1435.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
8. Anon, Manuscript illustration of the cloth market in Bologna, c. 1411. State
Archives, Bologna
9. Filippo Calendri, page from De Arithmetica, 1491
10. Domenico Veneziano, The St Lucy Altarpiece, 1445 – 1457. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
11. Piero della Francesca, The Misericordia Polyptych, 1445-1462. Museo Civico, Borgo
San Sepolcro
12. Piero della Francesca, The Deposition panel from The Misericordia Polyptych, 1445-
1462. Museo Civico, Borgo San Sepolcro
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What should we make of the tiny figures – singled out by their large, unusually shaped hats – just beyond the bend in the river? They might be intended to represent the three wise men from ‘the East’ who, guided by a star, visited the newborn Christ to offer him gifts. The feast of the Epiphany, which celebrated the event, was held on 6 January, the same day that Christ’s baptism was celebrated. The people of Sansepolcro would have recognised these headdresses as Byzantine: in the same decade as this picture was made, Greeks from Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, came to Italy to attend the councils which attempted to unite the eastern Orthodox and western Catholic Church. Artists took the opportunity to sketch the foreign visitors, and they began to find their way into Italian paintings as symbols of the East.
14. Leon Battista Alberti, The Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini, 1450 - 1468
15. Leon Battista Alberti, Self-portrait medal, 1435. National Gallery of Art, Washington
D.C.
16. Matteo de’Pasti, Tempio Malatestiano medal, 1451, National Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C.
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| 17. Piero della Francesca, Sigismondo Malatesta before St Sigismund, 1451. Tempio Malatestiana, Rimini |
18. Piero della Francesca, Portrait of Sigismonda Malatesta, 1451. Museé du Louvre, Paris
In 1452, Piero della Francesca was called to Arezzo to replace Bicci di Lorenzo in painting the frescoes of the basilica of San Francesco. The work was finished before 1466, probably between 1452-1456.
His cycle of frescoes depicting the Legend of the True Cross is generally considered among his masterworks and those of Renaissance painting in general.
19. Views of Arezzo, including the church of San Francesco
20. Chancel of the Church of San Francesco, with the Legend of the True Cross frescos
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| 21. Piero della Francesca, The Death of Adam (detail), 1452 – 1466. Church of San Francesco, Arezzo Er is belangstelling voor het menselijk lichaam en zeer ongewoon, voor dit soort religieuze voorstellingen, voor het naakte lichaam. En dan niet het perfectie lijf, maar ook een oude Adam en Eva. |
The Legend of the True Cross recounts how, on the point of death Adam begs his son Seth to go to the archangel Michele to procure the oil of mercy. The archangel refuses and instead gives Seth the seeds of the tree of sin, ordering him to plant them in the mouth of his dying father in order to save his soul. Seth obeys and once buried, the tree of Good and Evil springs up from the mouth of Adam, thus saving him. This tree is forgotten about over the years until the moment in which King Solomon orders the building of the Great Temple of Jerusalem when in fact, the tree is used in erecting a bridge over the waters of the River Siloah. The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon, and while crossing the bridge she suddenly has the vision that this plank over the river will be used in building the Cross of Jesus. On hearing this King Solomon orders the burial of the plank in order to prevent the vision from coming true.
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| 22. Piero della Francesca, The Procession of the Queen of Sheba, 1452 – 1466. Church of San Francesco, Arezzo |
23. Piero della Francesca, The Vision of Constantine, 1452 – 1466. Church of San Francesco, Arezzo
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24. Piero della Francesca, The Finding of the True Cross, 1452 – 1466. Church of San Francesco, Arezzo Behind the rocks of the Mount of Olives rises Jerusalem, which is an idealised view of Arezzo. Zie ook: Paul Cezanne, Gardanne 1885-1886 |
25. Piero della Francesca, The Battle between Heraclius and Chosroes, 1452 – 1466.
Church of San Francesco, Arezzo
26. Piero della Francesca, The Flagellation, c. 1455. Galleria Nazionale degli Marche,
Urbino
27. Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection, 1463 – 1465. Museo Civico, Borgo San
Sepolcro
28. Piero della Francesca, St Jerome and a Supplicant, 1460s. Accademia Gallery, Venice
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| 29. Piero della Francesca, La Madonna del Parto, c. 1467 Museo Civico, Monterchi De Madonna del Parto is een frescoschilderij van de Italiaanse renaissancemeester Piero della Francesca, voltooid rond 1460. Het is gehuisvest in het Museo della Madonna del Parto van Monterchi. De figuur van deze Madonna, de beschermer van zwangere vrouwen, steekt met haar strakke uitdrukking en natuurlijke houding van een zwangere vrouw, af tegen het damasten baldakijn, aan de zijkanten opengehouden door twee engelen. Het sacrale en rituele karakter van het beeld wordt nog eens benadrukt doordat de engelen uit dezelfde cartoon zijn gehaald, in spiegelbeeld herhaald. |
30. Piero della Francesca, The Polyptych of St Anthony, c. 1470 Galleria Nazionale, Perugia
31. Piero della Francesca, details of the Madonna and Franciscan Saints from The
Polyptych of St Anthony, c. 1470 Galleria Nazionale, Perugia
32. Piero della Francesca, St Michael, 1469. National Gallery, London
33. Piero della Francesca, St Augustine, 1469. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
34. Views of the Cathedral and Ducal Palace, Urbino
35. Luciano Laurana, Courtyard of the Ducal Palace, Urbino
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| 36. Piero della Francesca, Portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, 1465 – 1472. Uffizi Gallery, Florence |
In these two relatively small panels Piero attempts a very difficult compositional construction, that had never been attempted before. Behind the profile portrait of the two rulers, which is iconographically related to the heraldic tradition of medallion portraits, the artist adds an extraordinary landscape that extends so far that its boundaries are lost in the misty distance. Yet the relationship between the landscape and the portraits in the foreground is very close, also in meaning: for the portraits, with the imposing hieratic profiles, dominate the painting just as the power of the rulers portrayed dominates over the expanse of their territories. The daringness of the composition lies in this sudden switch between such distant perspective planes.
37. Piero della Francesca, Reverse of the panels of Portraits of Federico da Montefeltroand Battista Sforza, 1465 – 1472. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
38. Piero della Francesca, Madonna of Senigallia, c. 1474 Galleria Nazionale degli
Marche, Urbino
39. Dirk Bouts, The Last Supper, 1466-1467 St Pater’s Church, Leuven
40. Piero della Francesca, The Montefeltro Altarpiece, 1472 – 1474. Pinacoteca di Brera,
Milan
41. Piero della Francesca, The Nativity, 1470 – 1475. National Gallery, London
42. Jacopo de Barbari, Fra Luca Pacioli, 1495. Capodimonte Museum, Naples
43. Giuliano da Maiano, Panelling from Duke Federico’s Study, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino,
1476
44. Giovanni Santi, Madonna and Child, c. 1488. National Gallery, London
https:// www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giovanni-santi-the-virgin-and-child
45. Photograph of Sir Charles Eastlake, 1860s
46. Paul Cezanne, Gardonne, 1885-1886. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (zie 24)
47. George Seurat, Bathers at Asnieres, 1884. National Gallery, London
48. Giorgio de Chirico, Disquieting Muses, 1918. Gianni Mattioli Collection, Milan
49. Roy de Maistre, Three Heads (after Piero della Francesca), 1933. Art Gallery of New
South Wales, Sydney → → →
