Italian painter
Piero della Francesca
(
,
[2]
,
[3]
[4]
Italian:
[?pj?ːro
della
fran?t?eska]
ⓘ
;
ne
Piero di Benedetto
;
c.
1415
[1]
? 12 October 1492) was an
Italian painter
of the
Early Renaissance
. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and
geometer
.
[5]
Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is characterized by its serene
humanism
, its use of geometric forms and
perspective
. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes
The History of the True Cross
in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of
Arezzo
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early years
[
edit
]
Piero was born Piero di Benedetto in the town of
Borgo Santo Sepolcro
,
[1]
modern-day
Tuscany
, to Benedetto de' Franceschi, a tradesman, and Romana di Perino da
Monterchi
, members of the Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family. His father died before his birth, and he was called Piero della Francesca after his mother, who was referred to as "la Francesca" due to her marriage into the Franceschi family (similar to
Lisa Gherardini
who was known as "la Gioconda" through her marriage into the Giocondo family). Romana supported his education in mathematics and art.
He was most probably apprenticed to the local painter Antonio di Giovanni d'Anghiari, because in documents about payments it is noted that he was working with Antonio in 1432 and May 1438.
[7]
[8]
He certainly took notice of the work of some of the
Sienese
artists active in San Sepolcro during his youth; e.g.
Sassetta
. In 1439 Piero received, together with
Domenico Veneziano
, payments for his work on
frescoes
for the church of Sant'Egidio in Florence, now lost. In Florence he must have met leading masters like
Fra Angelico
,
Luca della Robbia
,
Donatello
, and
Brunelleschi
. The classicism of
Masaccio
's frescoes and his majestic figures in the
Santa Maria del Carmine
were for him an important source of inspiration. Dating of Piero's undocumented work is difficult because his style does not seem to have developed over the years.
Mature work
[
edit
]
Piero returned to his hometown in 1442 and was elected to the City Council of Sansepolcro.
Three years later, he received his first commission, to paint the
Madonna della Misericordia
altarpiece
for the church of the Misericordia in Sansepolcro,
which was completed in the early 1460s. In 1449 he executed several frescoes in the
Castello Estense
and the church of Sant'Andrea of
Ferrara
, now also lost. His influence was particularly strong in the later Ferrarese
allegorical
works of
Cosimo Tura
.
The
Baptism of Christ
, now in the
National Gallery
in London, was completed in about 1450 for the high altar of the church of the Priory of S. Giovanni Battista at Sansepolcro. Other notable works are the frescoes of
The Resurrection
in Sansepolcro, and the
Madonna del parto
in
Monterchi
, near Sansepolcro.
Two years later he was in
Rimini
, working for the
condottiero
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
. In 1451, during that sojourn, he executed the famous fresco of
St. Sigismund and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
in the
Tempio Malatestiano
, as well as a
portrait of Sigismondo
. In Rimini, Piero may have met the famous
Renaissance
mathematician and architect
Leon Battista Alberti
, who had redesigned the
Tempio Malatestiano
, although it is known that Alberti directed the execution of his designs for the church by correspondence with his building supervisor. Thereafter Piero was active in
Ancona
,
Pesaro
and
Bologna
.
In 1454, he signed a contract for the
Polyptych of Saint Augustine
in the church of Sant'Agostino in Sansepolcro. The central panel of this
polyptych
is lost, and the four panels of the wings, with representations of
saints
, are now scattered around the world.
[10]
A few years later, summoned by
Pope Nicholas V
, he moved to Rome, where he executed frescoes in the
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
, of which only fragments remain. Two years later he was again in the Papal capital, painting frescoes in the
Vatican Palace
, which have since been destroyed.
Frescoes in San Francesco at Arezzo
[
edit
]
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 in 1464.
The History of the True Cross
cycle of frescoes is generally considered among his masterworks and those of
Renaissance painting
in general. The story in these frescoes derives from legendary medieval sources as to how timber relics of the
True Cross
came to be found.
These stories were collected in the
Golden Legend
of
Jacopo da Varazze
(Jacopo da Varagine) of the mid-13th century.
[12]
Piero's activity in Urbino
[
edit
]
At some point,
Giovanni Santi
invited Piero to
Urbino
,
where Piero "executed several commissions for Duke
Federico da Montefeltro
".
[14]
[a]
The Flagellation
is generally considered Piero's oldest work in Urbino (c. 1455?1470). It is one of the most famous and controversial pictures of the early Renaissance. As discussed in its own entry, it is marked by an air of geometric sobriety, in addition to presenting a perplexing enigma as to the nature of the three men standing at the foreground.
Another famous work painted in Urbino is the
Double Portrait
of Federico and his wife Battista Sforza, in the
Uffizi
.
The portraits in profile take their inspiration from large bronze medals and stucco roundels with the official portraits of Fedederico and his wife. Other paintings made in Urbino are the monumental
Montefeltro Altarpiece
(1474) in the Brera Gallery in Milan and the
Madonna of Senigallia
.
In Urbino Piero met the painters
Melozzo da Forli
,
Fra Carnevale
, and the Flemish
Justus van Gent
, the mathematician Fra
Luca Pacioli
, the architect
Francesco di Giorgio Martini
, and probably also
Leon Battista Alberti
.
Later years
[
edit
]
In his later years, painters such as
Perugino
and
Luca Signorelli
frequently visited his workshop. He completed the treatise
On Perspective in Painting
in the mid-1470s to 1480s. By 1480, his vision began to deteriorate,
but he continued writing treatises such as
Short Book on the Five Regular Solids
in 1485.
[b]
It is documented that Piero rented a house in Rimini in 1482. Piero made his will in 1487 and he died five years later, on 12 October 1492, in his own house in Sansepolcro.
[1]
He left his possessions to his family and the church.
[
citation needed
]
Criticism and interpretation
[
edit
]
In a 2013 exhibition, the
Frick Collection
in New York collected seven of the eight paintings of Piero known to exist in the United States. Of the seven paintings in the exhibit, critic
Jerry Saltz
writing in
New York
magazine singled out Piero's
Virgin and Child Enthroned With Four Angels
for its exemplary qualities.
Saltz wrote, "The Virgin and child are elevated two steps. They are in a world itself apart from this world apart. Mary isn't looking at her child and looks instead at the rose he reaches for. You begin to glean the revelation she is having. The flower represents love, devotion, and beauty. It also symbolizes blood and the crown of thorns Christ will wear. This child who will suffer a horrendous death reaches for his acceptance of fate. Mary does not pull the flower back. You sense an inner agony, noticing her deep-blue robe open to reveal scarlet beneath, symbol of outward passion and pain to come. In the dead-center vertical line of the painting is Christ's right palm that will be nailed to the cross."
[17]
By contrast, Walter Kaiser, reviewing the exhibition in
The New York Review of Books
, wrote, "The most splendid picture in the Frick exhibition is the magnificent figure of
Saint Augustine
from the
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
in Lisbon, a companion to Saint John the Evangelist [owned by the Frick Collection] on the Sant'Agostino altarpiece".
[18]
Work in mathematics and geometry
[
edit
]
Piero's deep interest in the theoretical study of perspective and his contemplative approach to his paintings are apparent in all his work.
[19]
In his youth, Piero was trained in mathematics, which most likely was for mercantilism.
[20]
Three treatises written by Piero have survived to the present day:
Trattato d'Abaco (Abacus Treatise)
[
fr
]
,
De quinque corporibus regularibus
(
On the Five Regular Solids
)
[c]
and
De Prospectiva pingendi
(
On Perspective in painting
).
[21]
The subjects covered in these writings include
arithmetic
,
algebra
,
geometry
and innovative work in both
solid geometry
and
perspective
. Much of Piero's work was later absorbed into the writing of others, notably
Luca Pacioli
. Piero's work on solid geometry was translated in Pacioli's
Divina proportione
, a work illustrated by
Leonardo da Vinci
. Biographers of his patron
Federico da Montefeltro
of
Urbino
record that he was encouraged to pursue the interest in perspective which was shared by the Duke.
In the late 1450s, Piero copied and illustrated the following works of
Archimedes
:
[22]
On the Sphere and Cylinder
,
Measurement of a Circle
,
On Conoids and Spheroids
,
On Spirals
,
On the Equilibrium of Planes
,
The Quadrature of the Parabola
, and
The Sand Reckoner
. The
manuscript
consists of 82 folio leaves, is held in the collection of the
Biblioteca Riccardiana
[23]
and is a copy of the translation of the Archimedean corpus made by Italian humanist
Iacopo da San Cassiano
.
[24]
Inspirations
[
edit
]
Bohuslav Martin?
wrote a three movement work for orchestra entitled
Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca
. Dedicated to
Rafael Kubelik
, it was premiered by Kubelik and the
Vienna Philharmonic
at the 1956 Salzburg Festival.
Piero's geometrical perfection and the almost magic atmosphere of the light in his painting inspired modern painters like
Giorgio de Chirico
,
Massimo Campigli
,
Felice Casorati
, and
Balthus
.
Selected works
[
edit
]
- Polyptych of the Misericordia
(1445?62) ?
Tempera and oil on panel, 273 x 330 cm, Museo Civico Sansepolcro
- The Baptism of Christ
(
c.
1448?50
) ?
Tempera on panel, 168 × 116 cm,
National Gallery
, London
- St. Jerome in Penitence
(
c.
1449?51
) ?
Tempera on panel, 51 × 38 cm,
Staatliche Museen
, Berlin
- St. Jerome and a Donor (Girolamo Amadi)
(1451) ?
Tempera and oil on panel, 49 × 42 cm,
Gallerie dell'Accademia
, Venice
- Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta Praying in Front of St. Sigismund
(1451) ?
Fresco (transferred to canvas), 257 x 345 cm,
Tempio Malatestiano
, Rimini
- Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
(
c.
1451
) ?
Tempera and oil on panel, 44.5 × 34.5 cm,
Musee du Louvre
, Paris
- The History of the True Cross
(
c.
1455?66
) ?
Fresco cycle,
Basilica of San Francesco, Arezzo
- The Flagellation of Christ
(
c.
1460
) ?
Tempera on panel, 58.4 x 81.5 cm,
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche
,
Urbino
- Polyptych of Saint Augustine
(1460?70) ?
Tempera and oil on panels, dispersed in several museums
- Resurrection
(
c.
1463
) ?
Fresco, 225 × 200 cm, Museo Civico Sansepolcro
- Hercules
(
c.
1465
) ?
Fresco (detached), 151 × 126 cm,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
, Boston
- St. Mary Magdalene
(
c.
1466, 1458?70s
) ?
Fresco, 190 × 180 cm,
Cathedral, Arezzo
- Madonna del Parto
(1459?67) ?
Detached fresco, 260 × 203 cm, Chapel of the cemetery,
Monterchi
- The Nativity
(
c.
1470
) ?
Oil on panel, 124.5 × 123 cm, National Gallery, London
- Polyptych of Saint Anthony
(
c.
1470
) ?
Oil on panel, 338 × 230 cm,
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria
, Perugia
- Brera Madonna
, i.e.
Montefeltro Altarpiece
, (1472?74) ?
Oil on panel, 248 × 170 cm,
Pinacoteca di Brera
, Milan
- Diptych of the Count and Countess of Urbino
,
Federico da Montefeltro
and
Battista Sforza
?
Oil on panel, each 47,4 × 33,6 cm,
Galleria degli Uffizi
, Florence
.
- Madonna di Senigallia
(
c.
1474
) ?
Oil on panel, 67 × 53.5 cm,
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche
, Urbino
References
[
edit
]
Footnotes
- ^
According to
Giorgio Vasari
, Piero worked for
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
, who was Federico's son. However, in their
Oxford World's Classics
translation of Vasari, pp. 533-534, Julia Conaway Bondanella and
Peter Bondanella
write that Guidobaldo "was born too late to have been Piero's first patron, [and] Vasari probably means to allude to
Guidantonio da Montefeltro
," who was Federico's father. By contrast, Machtelt Bruggen Israels writes in
Piero della Francesca and the Invention of the Artist
, p. 43, that Vasari was "possibly intending Federico di Montefeltro".
- ^
Although he may have given up painting in his later years, Vasari's remarks that he went blind at the age of 60 have to be doubted,
since he completed his 1485 treatise on
regular solids
in his own handwriting. Machtelt Bruggen Israels, however, wrote in 2020 that Piero was blind in his last months.
[16]
- ^
Dedicated to
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
, son and heir of Duke Federico.
Citations
- ^
a
b
c
d
Turner, A. Richard (1976). "Piero della Francesca". In William D. Halsey (ed.).
Collier's Encyclopedia
. Vol. 19. New York: Macmillan Educational Corporation. pp. 40?42.
- ^
"Piero della Francesca"
.
Oxford Dictionaries
UK English Dictionary
.
Oxford University Press
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
"Piero della Francesca"
.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
(5th ed.). HarperCollins
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
.
- ^
"Piero della Francesca"
.
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
.
- ^
Vasari, Giorgio
,
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
, 1568.
- ^
Banker, James R.,
The Culture of Sansepolcro during the Youth of Piero della Francesca
, The University of Michican Press, 2003, p.159.
- ^
Banker, James R., "Piero della Francesca as Assistant to Antonio d'Anghiari in the 1430s: Some Unpublished Documents",
The Burlington Magazine
, Vol. 135, No. 1078 (January 1993). pp. 16?21.
JSTOR
/885421
.
- ^
The four saints are
Saint Augustine
,
Museu de Arte Antiga
, Lisbon;
Saint Michael
,
National Gallery
, London;
Saint John the Evangelist
,
Frick Collection
, New York; and
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
,
Museo Poldi Pezzoli
, Milan. The paintings are identified and pictured in Cole, Bruce,
Piero della Francesca: Tradition and Innovation in Renaissance Art
, pp. 44-45, and in Pope-Hennessy, John,
The Piero della Francesca Trail
(2002), pp. 20-21. (Pope-Hennessy believes that the painting of Saint John the Evangelist is probably actually St. Simon, p. 19.)
- ^
"The Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints" Volume Three
, retrieved on 22 May 2007.
- ^
Cole, Bruce
,
Piero della Francesca: Tradition and Innovation in Renaissance Art
, p. 62.
- ^
Israels, Machtelt Bruggen,
Piero della Francesca and the Invention of the Artist
, Reaktion Books, 2020, p. 7.
- ^
Saltz, Jerry,
"Saltz on Piero della Francesca at the Frick".
New York
magazine, March 3, 2013.
- ^
Kaiser, Walter,
"The Noble Dreams of Piero"
,
The New York Review of Books
, March 21, 2013.
- ^
Field, J. V.
(2005).
Piero della Francesca. A Mathematician's Art
(PDF)
. Yale University Press.
ISBN
0-300-10342-5
.
- ^
"Piero della Francesca"
.
Oxford Art Online
.
- ^
Livio, Mario
(2003) [2002].
The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
(First trade paperback ed.). New York City:
Broadway Books
. p. 126.
ISBN
0-7679-0816-3
.
- ^
James Banker,
A Manuscript of the Works of Archimedes in the Hand of Piero della Francesca
, ≪Burlington Magazine≫, CXLVII, March 2005, pp. 165?69.
- ^
"On the Sphere and the Cylinder; On the Measurement of the Circle; On Conoids and Spheroids; On Spirals; On the Equilibrium of Planes; On the Quadrature of the Parabola; The Sand Reckoner"
.
World Digital Library
. 1450?1460
. Retrieved
13 July
2013
.
- ^
Paolo d'Alessandro e Pier Daniele Napolitani,
Archimede latino.Iacopo da San Cassiano e il corpus archimedeo alla meta del Quattrocento
, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2012.
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Banker, James R.,
Piero della Francesca: Artist and Man
, Oxford University Press, 2014,
- Berenson, Bernard
,
Piero della Francesca
or
The Ineloquent in Art
, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954.
- Chieli, Francesca, "
La grecita antica e bizantina nell'opera di Piero della Francesca
", Firenze, 1993.
- Christiansen, Keith
,
Piero Della Francesca: Personal Encounters
,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York, 2013. With contributions by Roberto Belluci, Cecilia Frosinini, Anna Pizzati, and Chiara Rossi Scarzanella.
ISBN
978-1-58839-529-0
.
- Clark, Kenneth
,
Piero della Francesca
. Phaidon Publishers. First ed. 1951, second ed. 1969.
- Cole, Bruce
,
Piero della Francesca: Tradition and Innovation in Renaissance Art
, HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
ISBN
0-06-430906-1
.
- Damisch, Hubert
,
Un souvenir d'enfance par Piero della Francesca
, Edition du Seuil, Paris, 1997; Engl. ed.:
A Childhood Memory by Piero della Francesca
, Stanford University Press, 2007.
ISBN
0-8047-3442-9
.
- Ginzburg, Carlo
,
Indagini su Piero
, Eunaudi, Torino, 1982; Engl. ed.:
The Enigma of Piero: Piero della Francesca
, Verso, 1985, new edition 2002.
ISBN
1-85984-378-6
.
- Hendy, Philip
,
Piero Della Francesca and the Early Renaissance
, New York: Macmillan, 1968, and London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968.
- Israels, Machtelt Bruggen,
Piero della Francesca and the Invention of the Artist
, Reaktion Books, 2020.
ISBN
978-1789143218
.
- Kaiser, Walter,
"The Noble Dreams of Piero"
,
The New York Review of Books
, March 21, 2013. Review of Silver, Nathaniel E.,
Piero della Francesca in America
and the exhibition at the
Frick Collection
that it accompanied.
- Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg,
Piero della Francesca: San Francesco, Arezzo
, New York: George Braziller, 1994.
- Lightbown, Ronald
,
Piero della Francesca
, Abbeville Press, 1992.
ISBN
978-1558591684
.
- Longhi, Roberto
,
Piero de' Franceschi
, Rom, 1927; Engl. ed. translated by Leonard Penlock:
Piero della Francesca
, F. Warne & Co., London and New York, 1930; new ed. with expansions until 1962, 1963 translation by David Tabbat: Sheep Meadow, 2002.
ISBN
1-878818-77-5
.
- Maetzke, Anna Maria, ed.,
Piero della Francesca: The Legend of the True Cross in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo
, with Giovanna Melandri, Stefano Casciu, and Carla Corsi. Skira, 2000.
ISBN
88-8118-829-5
.
- Maetzke, Anna Maria; Bertelli, Carlo, eds.,
Piero della Francesca: The Legend of the True Cross in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo
, texts by Marilyn Aronberg Lavin et al. Skira, 2001.
ISBN
978-8884910233
.
- Manescalchi, Roberto,
L'Ercole di Piero, tra mito e realta,(ParteI)
, Grafica European Center of Fine Art (Terre di Piero), Firenze, 2011.
ISBN
978-88-95450-05-6
- Manescalchi, Roberto, "Piero alla corte dei Pichi", in
Studi e Documenti Pierfrancescani II
, Sansepolcro 2014.
ISBN
978-8895450445
- Meiss, Millard
, "A Documented Altarpiece by Piero della Francesca",
The Art Bulletin
, Vol. 23 (March 1941), pp. 53-68; reprinted with alterations and additions in Millard Meiss,
The Painter's Choice: Problems in the Interpretation of Renaissance Art
, Harper and Row, 1976, pp. 82-104.
- Pacioli, Luca
,
Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus
, corredato della versione volgare [fac-sim du Codice Vat. Urb. Lat. 632]; eds. Cecil Grayson,... Marisa Dalai Emiliani, Carlo Maccagni. Firenze, Giunti, 1995. 3 vol. (68 ff., XLIV-213, XXII-223 pp.).
ISBN
88-09-01020-5
- Piero's Archimedes
, [fac-sim du Codice Riccardiano 106 par Piero della Francesca]; eds. Roberto Manescalchi, Matteo Martelli, James Banker, Giovanna Lazzi, Pierdaniele Napolitani, Riccardo Belle. Sansepolcro, Grafica European Center of Fine Arts e Vimer Industrie Grafiche Italiane, 2007. 2 vol. (82 ff., XIV-332 pp. English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Arabic).
ISBN
978-88-95450-25-4
.
- Pope-Hennessy, John
,
The Piero della Francesca Trail
, Walter Neurath Memorial Lectures, Thames and Hudson, London, 1991; new ed. expanded with
Aldous Huxley
, "The Best Picture", The Little Bookroom, 2002.
ISBN
1-892145-13-8
.
- Rossetti, William Michael
(1911).
"Franceschi, Piero de'
"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). p. 930.
- Silver, Nathaniel E.,
Piero della Francesca in America: From Sansepolcro to the East Coast
, with essays by James R. Banker and Machtelt Israels, and an appendix by Giacomo Guazzini and Elena Squillantini. New York:
Frick Collection
, 2013. Catalogue for exhibition of the same name listed in "External links".
External links
[
edit
]
- Media related to
Piero della Francesca
at Wikimedia Commons
- "The Art of Piero della Francesco", Lecture by Machtelt Bruggen Israels
at The
Frick Collection
, November 20, 2019.
- "Piero della Francesca in America"
, exhibition at The Frick Collection, February 12, 2013 to May 19, 2013.
- "Featured Catalogue?Interview with the Curator: Keith Christiansen"
,
Metropolitan Museum of Art
, March 5, 2014.
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