Piero della Francesca
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Piero della Francesca
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The Baptism of Christ, panel painting by Piero della Francesca, (credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the National Gallery, London; photograph, A.C. Cooper Ltd.)
The Baptism of Christ, panel painting by Piero della Francesca, (credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the National Gallery, London; photograph, A.C. Cooper Ltd.)
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Piero della Francesca
(b Borgo San Sepolcro [now Sansepolcro], c. 1415; bur Borgo San Sepolcro, 12 Oct 1492). Italian painter and theorist. His work is the embodiment of rational, calm, monumental painting in the Italian Early Renaissance, an age in which art and science were indissolubly linked through the writings of Leon Battista Alberti. Born two generations before Leonardo da Vinci, Piero was similarly interested in the scientific application of the recently discovered rules of perspective to narrative or devotional painting, especially in fresco, of which he was an imaginative master; and although he was less universally creative than Leonardo and worked in an earlier idiom, he was equally keen to experiment with painting technique. Piero was as adept at resolving problems in Euclid, whose modern rediscovery is largely due to him, as he was at creating serene, memorable figures, whose gestures are as telling and spare as those in the frescoes of Giotto or Masaccio. His tactile, gravely convincing figures are also indebted to the sculpture of Donatello, an equally attentive observer of Classical antiquity. In his best works, such as the frescoes in the Bacci Chapel in S Francesco, Arezzo, there is an ideal balance between his serene, classical compositions and the figures that inhabit them, the whole depicted in a distinctive and economical language. In his autograph works Piero was a perfectionist, creating precise, logical and light-filled images (although analysis of their perspective schemes shows that these were always subordinated to narrative effect). However, he often delegated important passages of works (e.g. the Arezzo frescoes) to an ordinary, even incompetent, assistant.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
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Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (ca. 1415-1492), painter, mathematician, and theorist, was one of the most influential Italian artists of the early Renaissance.
Piero della Francesca was the son of Benedetto dei Franceschi, a shoemaker and tanner in Borgo San Sepolcro near Arezzo. Piero was called "della Francesca, " according to Giorgio Vasari, because he was raised by his mother, who had been widowed before his birth.
Piero was mentioned in a document of Sept. 7, 1439, as "being with" Domenico Veneziano when Domenico was painting in S. Egidio and S. Maria Nuova, Florence. During the 1440s Piero was in San Sepolcro and Ferrara. In 1451 he executed a frescoed portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta in the Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini. On April 12, 1459, he was paid for work (lost) done in the Vatican, Rome. He decorated the choir of S. Francesco, Arezzo, between 1452 and 1466. From 1467 until his death he remained in San Sepolcro except for brief periods in Bastia (1468), Urbino (1469), and Rimini (1482). He served on the town council of San Sepolcro and was a member of the Company of St. Bartholomew. His will is dated July 5, 1487. Vasari relates that the artist was blind and had to be led about by a boy during his last years. Piero died on Oct. 12, 1492.
The Baptism of Christ is a good introduction to Piero's style. Within an arched frame the baptism is taking place in a landscape strikingly similar to the countryside around San Sepolcro. The static, dour figures arranged in regular geometric patterns across the panel's surface are lit by the limpid, luminous Umbrian light. To the left, a trio of angels restricts the view into the distance; to the right, space opens up to reveal a disrobing figure and, further back, a group of bearded patriarchs before a distant landscape. In this picture Piero showed a concern for rational, measurable space, luminosity, and pearly colors. No documents are associated with this picture. Some scholars consider it Piero's earliest work, about 1440-1445; others date it in the early 1450s.
The legend of the True Cross in the choir of S. Francesco, Arezzo, is Piero's most extensive fresco cycle. The scenes are filled with impassive, static figures that impart a soothing quietness to the various episodes. Even in the battle scenes there is a sense of order and quiet rather than confusion and noise. His interest in clearly articulated, rational space can be seen in the Meeting of Solomon with the Queen of Sheba; his interest in the effects of light in the Dream of Constantine, the first realistic nocturnal scene in Italian art. These murals were painted between 1452, the date of the death of Bicci di Lorenzo, the artist first commissioned to paint them, and Dec. 20, 1466, when a document referred to them as complete.
Other noteworthy works from Piero's mature period are the Flagellation, a panel; the Madonna del Parto, a fresco in the cemetery chapel at Monterchi; and the Resurrection, a detached fresco. In the Resurrection the life-size Risen Christ steps wearily from his sarcophagus while looking directly out at the beholder. Piero depicts him as a manly figure with the awesome vigor of a Byzantine Pantocrator. Behind Christ a mauve Umbrian landscape is lit by the moist, pearly light of dawn, and in the foreground four soldiers are sleeping.
Piero was aware of Flemish painting, as can be seen in his Nativity. He probably knew the art of Rogier van der Weyden and may have met him, for Rogier was in Ferrara the same time (ca. 1450) as Piero. He would certainly have known Justus of Ghent, who served the court at Urbino. The Flemish qualities in Piero's work include his use of the oil paint technique and some iconographic types, such as the Madonna del Parto and the Madonna of Humility in the Nativity.
In 1465 Piero executed a diptych portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, and his wife. The artist's major work for Federigo was the altarpiece, Madonna with Saints and Donor, which dates in the late 1470s.
Piero wrote three treatises. De prospectiva pingendi, written before 1482, deals with linear perspective and is still the definitive work on the subject. The other treatises are concerned with painting and business mathematics.
Further Reading
All modern scholarship concerning Piero della Francesca derives from the pioneering work of Roberto Longhi. Longhi's works, which date from 1914 to 1942, are in Italian, but the fruits of his discoveries have been incorporated in English-language works. Kenneth Clark's readable monograph is Piero della Francesca (1951; 2d ed. 1969). Also useful is Piero Bianconi, All the Paintings of Piero della Francesca (trans. 1962). Bernard Berenson wrote interesting essays on Piero in his Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance (1897; 2d rev. ed. 1909) and Piero della Francesca; or, The Ineloquent in Art (1954).
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (pyĕ'rō dĕl'lä fränchās'kä), c.1420-1492, major Italian Renaissance painter, b. Borgo San Sepolcro. All his masterpieces were created in towns of central Italy, but early contact with the art of Florence proved decisive in Piero's development. In the Baptism of Christ (c.1445; National Gall., London) he had already absorbed the Florentine theories of perspective and added his own acute perception of nature. He delighted in the play of mathematical ratios and painted The Flagellation of Christ (c.1450; Urbino) in a measured, symmetrical manner. His most famous cycle, The Story of the True Cross (1452-66; Church of San Francesco, Arezzo), depicts scenes from the Golden Legend. Particularly notable are the imposing portrayal of the Queen of Sheba, the stately array of battle scenes, and the stark night scene of the Dream of Constantine. He painted several court portraits, including one of Sigismondo Malatesta before his Patron Saint, a simple geometric conception. This contrasts with the scrupulous detail he used in painting the profile portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (Uffizi). Piero also executed the massive Resurrection (Borgo San Sepolcro) and several altarpieces, parts of which have been lost or scattered. One panel of a saint is in the Frick Collection, New York. He always painted slowly and deliberately, and after 1475 his activity slackened. The Nativity (National Gall., London) and Virgin and Child with Saints (Brera, Milan) are among the few pictures he produced in his later years. Devoting himself to works of a more theoretical nature, he wrote Libellus de V Corporibus regularibus [notebook on the five regular bodies] (MS in Vatican Library) and De Prospectiva pingendi [on perspectives in painting] (MS in Ambrosian Library, Milan).
Bibliography
See studies by K. Clark (2d ed. 1970), C. de Tolnay (1966), A. Angelini (1985), and J. and M. Gilland (1988).
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Piero della Francesca
| Piero della Francesca | |
|---|---|
 A self-portrait, detail from Resurrection |
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| Birth name | Piero della Francesca |
| Born | 1415[1] Sansepolcro, Republic of Florence |
| Died | October 12, 1492 Sansepolcro, Republic of Florence |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Field | Painting, Fresco |
| Movement | Italian Renaissance |
| Works | The Baptism of Christ Flagellation of Christ Brera Madonna |
Piero della Francesca (c. 1415[1] – October 12, 1492) was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The Legend of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.
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Biography
Early years
Piero was born in the town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro,[1] modern-day Tuscany (where he also died), to Benedetto de' Franceschi, a tradesman, and Romana di Perino da Monterchi, part of the Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family.
He was most probably apprenticed to the local painter Antonio di Giovanni d'Anghiari, because in documents about payments is noted that he was working with Antonio in 1432 and May 1438.[2] Besides 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
In 1442 he was listed as eligible for the City Council of San Sepolcro. Three years later, he received the commission for the altarpiece of the church of the Misericordia in San Sepolcro (including the Madonna della Misericordia), which he was to complete only in the early 1460s. In 1449 he executed several frescoes in the Castello Estense and the church of Sant'Andrea of Ferrara, also lost. His influence was particularly strong in the later Ferrarese allegorical works of Cosimo Tura.
Two years later he was in Rimini, working for the condottiero Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. In this sojourn he executed in 1451 the famous fresco of St. Sigismund and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in the Tempio Malatestiano, as well as Sigismondo's portrait. 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 in the church of Sant'Agostino in San Sepolcro. The central panel of this polyptic is lost and the four panels of the wings, with representations of Saints, are scattered around the world. A few years later, summoned by Pope Nicholas V, he moved to Rome: here 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, for frescoes in Vatican Palace which have also been destroyed.
The Baptism of Christ, in The National Gallery in London, was executed around 1460 for the high altar of the church of the Priory of S. Giovanni Battista at Sansepolcro. Other notable works of Piero della Francesca's maturity are the frescoes of the Resurrection in Sansepolcro and the Madonna del parto in Monterchi near Sansepolcro.
Frescoes in San Francesco at Arezzo
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. The cycle of frescoes, depicting the Legend of the True Cross, 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. [3]
Piero's activity in Urbino
Between 1469 and 1486 Piero della Francesca worked repeatedly in the service of Count Federico III da Montefeltro (Duke in 1474). According to Giorgio Vasari, Piero would have worked for Federico's father Guidantonio, who died in February 1443. However, this is unlikely because this statement is not confirmed by documents or paintings. Vasari may have confused Guidantonio with Federico. The Flagellation is generally considered Piero's oldest work in Urbino (dating 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 portrets of Fedederico and his wife. Other paintings made in Urbino are the monumental Montefeltro Altarpiece in the Brera Gallery in Milan and probably also the Madonna of Senigallia.
In Urbino Piero met the painters Melozzo da Forlì, Fra Carnevale and the Flemish Justus van Gent (or Joos van Wassenhove or Giusto di Gant), the mathematician Fra Luca Pacioli, the architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini and probably also Leon Battista Alberti.
His later years
In his later years, painters such as Perugino and Luca Signorelli frequently visited his workshop. It is documented that Piero rented a house in Rimini in 1482. Although he may have given up painting in his later years, Vasari's remarks that he went blind at old age and at the age of sixty, have to be doubted, since in 1485 he completed his treatise on regular solids, dedicated to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, son and heir of Duke Federico, in his own fine handwriting. Piero made his will in 1487 and he died five years later in his own house in San Sepolcro, on the very day that Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Americas. He left his possessions to his family and the church.
Work in mathematics and geometry
His deep interest in the theoretical study of perspective and his contemplative approach to his paintings are apparent in all his work. Three treatises written by Piero are known to modern mathematicians: Abacus Treatise (Trattato d'Abaco), Short Book on the Five Regular Solids (Libellus de Quinque Corporibus Regularibus) and On Perspective for Painting (De Prospectiva Pingendi). 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 appears in Pacioli’s "De divina proportione", a work illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci.
Selected works
- Polyptych of the Misericordia (1445–1462) - Oil and tempera on panel, base 330 cm, height 273 cm, Pinacoteca Comunale, Sansepolcro
- The Baptism of Christ (c. 1448-1450) - Tempera on panel, 168 x 116 cm, National Gallery, London
- St. Jerome in Penitence (c. 1449-1451) - Oil on panel, 51 x 38 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
- St. Jerome and a Donor (1451) - Panel, 40 x 42 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
- Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta Praying in Front of St. Sigismund (1451) - Fresco, Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini
- Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (c. 1451) - Tempera and oil on panel, 44.5 x 34.5 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
- The History of the True Cross (c. 1455-1466) - Frescoes, San Francesco, Arezzo
- The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1460) - Tempera on panel, 59 x 81.5 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
- Polyptych of Saint Augustine (1460–1470) - Oil and tempera on panel
- Resurrection (c. 1463) - Fresco, 225 x 200 cm, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro
- Madonna del parto (1459–1467) - Detached fresco, 260 x 203 cm, Chapel of the cemetery, Monterchi
- Nativity (c. 1470) - 124.5 x 123 cm, National Gallery, London
- Polyptych of Perugia (c. 1470) - Oil on panel, 338 x 230 cm, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia
- Madonna and Child with Saints (Montefeltro Altarpiece, 1472–1474) - Oil on panel, 248 x 170 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
- Paired portraits (c. 1472) of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, respectively the Duke and Duchess of Urbino- Oil on panel, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
- Madonna di Senigallia (c. 1474) - Oil on panel, 67 x 53.5 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
Inspirations
Bohuslav Martinů 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.
References
- Bertelli, Carlo, Piero Della Francesca, Yale, 1992.
- Damisch, Hubert, A Childhood Memory by Piero della Francesca, Stanford University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8047-3442-9.
- Gantz, Jeffrey, Strong, silent type: Piero della Francesca, international artist of mystery, The Boston Phoenix, Arts section, September 1, 2006.
- Ginzburg, Carlo, The Enigma of Piero: Piero Della Francesca, Verso, 2002. ISBN 1-85984-378-6
- Pope-Henessy, John, "The Piero della Francesca Trail" including Aldous Huxley Piero essay "The Best Picture" ISBN 1-892145-13-8.
- Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus, corredato della versione volgare di Luca Pacioli [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
- Pierpaolo Tofanelli, La Madonna del Parto, Pagine Nuove di Storia dell'Arte e dell'Architettura N. 3, Firenze, 2009. ISBN 978-88-95450-21-6.
- Pierpaolo Tofanelli, La Natività, Pagine Nuove di Storia dell'Arte e dell'Architettura N. 4, Firenze, 2010. ISBN 978-88-95450-22-3
- 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 Bellè. Sansepolcro, Grafica European Center of Fine Arts e Vimer Industrie Grafiche Italiane, 2007. 2 vol. (82 ff., XIV-332 pp. English, Francais, Espanol, Deutsch, Italiano et Arabic) ISBN 978-88-95450-25-4.
- Longhi, Roberto "Piero della Francesca" ISBN 1-878818-77-5.
- Roberto Manescalchi, L'Ercole di Piero, tra mito e realtà,( ParteI), Grafica European Center of Fine Art (Terre di Piero), Firenze, 2011. ISBN 978-88-95450-05-6
- Vasari, Giorgio, Lives of the Artists, (George Bull translation), London, 1965.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Turner, A. Richard (1976). "Piero della Francesca". In William D. Halsey. Collier's Encyclopedia. 19. Macmillan Educational Corporation. pp. 40–42.
- ^ 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 assistent of Antonio d'Anghiari",The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 135, Jan. 1993.
- ^ "The Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints" Volume Three, retrieved on 2007-05-22.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Piero della Francesca |
- Piero della Francesca and the Italian Courts - Exhibition 2007 in Arezzo *Paul Johnson, Art: A New history
- Piero della Francesca article at the University of St. Andrews
- MathPages - Piero della Francesca's Tetrahedron Formula
- Piero della Francesca
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