piero della francesca, featured paintings in detail (1)

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

Featured Paintings in Detail

(1)

(Portraits)

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortraits of Federico da Montefeltro and His Wife Battista Sforza1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cm (each)Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence


Painted between 1465 and 1472, Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino is both one of Piero della Francesca's greatest works and one of the most famous portraits from the Italian Renaissance. But it's not just impressive to look at—beneath its brushstrokes lie secrets and the tragedy of the Italian couple.


It Is A Diptych. The profile portraits, displayed today as a pair of paintings, are tempera works painted on wooden panels. However, in the past, they were connected by hinges, which locked the Duke and Duchess's gazes. Today, the hinge has been abandoned, and the paintings share an elaborate gold frame at Florence's Uffizi Gallery.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of Battista Sforza1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of Battista Sforza (detail)1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence


Before Piero could complete the matching panel, the 26-year-old Duchess Battista Sforza died of acute pneumonia brought on by childbirth on July 7, 1472. Some have suggested her pale skin is not a sign of status—women of privilege didn't toil in the sun—but more the pallor of death. The artist likely used Sforza's death mask for reference.


When these paintings were made, high foreheads were all the rage. Ladies would dedicatedly pluck away at their hairlines to achieve this coveted look.


The Duke and Duchess are poised high above the landscape in the background, as if they are atop a tower. Thus, they have a bird's eye view over their sprawling domain, speaking not only to Urbino's hilltop position, but also to the pair's high status.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of Federico da Montefeltro1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of Federico da Montefeltro(detail)1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

The work captures the Duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro. He was the commander of a band of mercenaries who would be hired out by Italian city-states to battle on their behalf. The fortune Montefeltro made from this bloody line of work was used to transform the hill town of Urbino into a grand court as well as to finance works of art that would assure his legacy. Art historians believe Piero began the Duke's commissioned portrait as early as 1465.


Though a proud warrior, Montefeltro preferred that his battle scars not be preserved for posterity. A brutal bout of jousting at a tournament cost him his right eye and a chunk of his nose. So, this regal portrait favors his left side.


Traditionally the subjects of profile portraits face the right. Because of Montefeltro's deformities, this wasn't an option. But the effect of him facing left is that it locks his eyes with his lady, suggesting they share a bond that transcends death.


A 2008 medical study argued that Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino and Brera Madonna presented substantial enough evidence to prove that Montefeltro could have been diagnosed with thoracic hyperkyphosis.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCASigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta1451Oil and tempera on panel, 44 x 34 cmMusée du Louvre, Paris

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCASigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (detail)1451Oil and tempera on panel, 44 x 34 cmMusée du Louvre, Paris

This portrait is taken from a a medal made by Pisanello in 1445. Yet, even though he was working within a context od traditional International Gothic iconography, Piero succeds in giving it a new depth: what was just an emblem on a coin becomes a fully-rounded, almost sculptural portrait with a proud expression of unrelenting cruelty. The three-dimensional effect is achieved also by a most realistic skin tonality, created with the technique of oil paints.


Despite the choice of the profile representation, typical of the portraits of eminent figures of the type, Piero della Francesca showed his attention for naturalist details in the fine execution of the texture and the hair of the committent. This is a proof of his good knowledge of Flemish masters such as Rogier van der Weyden.


Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, was a condottiere and captain of the church. His pride in his military successes drew the jealousy of Pope Pius II, who excommunicated him in 1460, and his subsequent struggles with the papacy earned this protector of the arts a reputation for cruelty and paganism. Sigismondo grew up in a cultivated family with links to the humanist court of Ferrara: there the House of Este gave him his first wife, Ginevra.


Summoning the greatest artists of the period, Sigismondo Malatesta he turned Rimini into a major Renaissance center: Alberti designed the facade of the church of San Francesco in Rimini, where the Malatestas were buried and whose paganistic interior earned it the nickname Tempio Malatestiano ("the Malatesta temple"). It was in this church, in 1451, that Piero della Francesca painted a fresco showing Sigismondo in profile, kneeling before his patron saint. The similarities between the fresco and the Louvre portrait suggest that the latter was painted before 1451 and used as a model for the mural.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of a Boy. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (?)1483Oil and tempera on panel, 41 x 27.5 cmMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of a Boy. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (?) (detail)1483Oil and tempera on panel, 41 x 27.5 cmMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Born 1472 in Gubbio, he succeeded his father Federico da Montefeltro as Duke of Urbino in 1482. Guidobaldo married Elisabetta Gonzaga, the sister of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. Guidobaldo was impotent, and they had no children, but Elisabetta refused to divorce him.


He fought as one of Pope Alexander VI's captains alongside the French troops of King Charles VIII of France during the latter's invasion of southern Italy; later, he was hired by the Republic of Venice against Charles. In 1496, while fighting for the Pope near Bracciano, Guidobaldo was taken prisoner by the Orsini and the Vitelli, being freed the following year.


Guidobaldo was forced to flee Urbino in 1502 to escape the armies of Cesare Borgia, but returned after the death of Cesare Borgia's father, pope Alexander VI, in 1503. He adopted Francesco Maria della Rovere, his sister's child and nephew of pope Julius II, thus uniting the seigniory of Senigallia with Urbino. He aided pope Julius II in reconquering the Romagna.The court of Urbino was at that time one of the most refined and elegant in Italy. Many men of letters met there. Suffering from pellagra, Guidobaldo died 1508 in Fossombrone at the age of 36. He was succeeded by Francesco Maria della Rovere.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA, Featured Paintings in Detail (1)

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PIERO DELLA FRANCESCASigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta

This portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini is based on the official image of the prince as found on the Pisanello medals of 1445. It is interesting to compare this painting with Piero's 1451 fresco in the Tempio Malatesta in Rimini, showing the condottiere in profile, kneeling before the Burgundian king Sigismund, his patron saint. It has been conjectured,

although there is no actual evidence, that this portrait was a preliminary to the larger composition.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortrait of a Boy. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (?)

According to James Dennistoun, this small portrait on panel was in the collection of Giuseppe Crosti, an artist in Città di Castello who seems to have acquired it in Urbino. Dennistoun, author of Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, published in 1851, bought the panel from Crosti in 1838 and had it restored in the studio of Giovanni di Colombo in Rome. The panel was subsequently in several more collections including that of Thomas George, Lord Breadalbane Morgan, that of Baillie-Hamilton, and in the London collection of Leopold Hirsch. In 1934 it was acquired for the

Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.

With regard to the sitter, the only hypothesis to date is that of Brinton, published by Hendy and in the catalogues of the Thyssen collection, but with reservations. Brinton based his identification on the similarity between this painting and the medal of Guidobaldo by Francesco di Giorgio of 1483. Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, who was born in 1472 and died in 1508, was the son of Battista Sforza and Federigo da Montefeltro, Dukes of Urbino, whose portraits by Piero della Francesca are in the Uffizi in Florence. Heir to the dukedom, Guidobaldo is depicted as a

child in his mother’s arms in The Communion of the Apostles by Justus de Ghent in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche and holding the ducal sceptre, next to his father, in paintings attributed to Pedro Berruguete in Urbino.

The Musée du Louvre has a portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta by Piero dated 1450 which repeats the composition of this panel: the sitter is in strict profile with pale flesh tones modelled to convey a great sense of volume. The handling of the light as it falls on the bust against the black background contributes to this effect. This simple image, in which the sitter is depicted

without any accessories, may according to Hendy be a portrait made for Guidobaldo’s father who was absent during these years campaigning against Lorenzo de’Medici.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortraits of Federico da Montefeltro and His Wife Battista Sforza

The diptych of the Dukes of Urbino is one of the most famous works of art of the Italian Renaissance. Painted by Piero della Francesca, it depicts the duke Federigo da Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza.

The duke, leader of mercenaries, skillful strategist and a great patron, turned Urbino into a refined and renowned cultural center.It was there that Piero della Francesca carried out this masterpiece between 1465 and 1472.

The double profile portraits are reminiscent of the classical portrait medals and gives an ancient solemnity to the two Dukes. Their busts in the foreground dominate the wonderful landscape in the background, in order to emphasize the majesty of the court of Urbino.

Choosing the representation in profile was an inescapable choice. In fact, the Duke lost his right eye during a tournament and for this reason only the left side of his face is portrayed. His nose was also broken in a tournament.

The Duchess Battista Sforza is richly dressed and has an excessively high forehead, according to the fashion of the time.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortraits of Federico da Montefeltro and His Wife Battista Sforza (reverse sides)

The diptych is also painted on the back. Federigo da Montefeltro and his wife are shown on two antique wagons in the company of the Virtues. The Duke wears his armor just like a leader, while he is crowned by the Victory; the Duchess sits in a chariot pulled by two unicorns, symbols of chastity, to emphasize her pious and gentle soul.

Thanks to his aristocratic and hieratic art, Piero della Francesca achieves the noble goal to make the memory of the two Dukes eternal.With his rational, almost metaphysical style, the great artist achieves the perfect representation of the Renaissance man, aware of the centrality of his role in the universe and the

importance of his intelligence and his culture.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAPortraits of Federico da Montefeltro and His Wife Battista Sforza (reverse sides)

On the reverses of the portraits depicted in each case is a triumphal chariot, drawn by white horses in his case, and unicorns in hers. The allocation speaks for itself. The chariots bear the personifications of virtues. In Federico's case these are the cardinal virtues of justice, wisdom, courage and moderation. His wife is accompanied by the theological virtues: faith, hope and

love, and additionally by pudicitia, namely chastity or modesty. The chariots are driven by cupids as the servants of marital love. They are then the triumphal chariots of the masculine virtues of fame, and of the feminine virtues.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCATriumph of Federico da Montefeltro1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCATriumph of Battista Sforza1465-66Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

Piero della Francesca, an Italian artist, one of the greatest artists of the Early Renaissance. His painting art is characterized by its serene humanism and its use of

geometric forms, particularly in relation to perspective. He wrote books on solid geometry and on perspective, and his works reflect these interests. Francesca's solid,

rounded figures are derived from Masaccio, while from Domenico he absorbed a predilection for delicate colors and scenes bathed in cool, clear daylight. To these

influences he added an innate sense of order and clarity. He conceived of the human figure as a volume in space, and the outlines of his subjects have the grace,

abstraction, and precision of geometric drawings.

Almost all of Piero's works are religious in nature - primarily altarpieces and church frescoes in which he presents scenes of astonishing beauty, with silent, stately

figures fixed in clear, crystalline space. There are always large areas of white or near-white in his works, the skies are big, light and sunny.

The monumental quality of his figures, the perspectival construction of the pictorial space and the spiritual calm of his compositions led, throughout Italy, to the final

surmounting of the Gothic style and prepared the way for the artistic achievements of High Renaissance in Italy.

piero della francesca, featured paintings in detail (1)

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