PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA, Featured Paintings in Detail (1)

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
Featured Paintings in Detail
(1)
(Portraits)

Portraits of Federico da
Montefeltro and His Wife Battista
Sforza
1465-66
Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cm
(each)
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and His Wife Battista Sforza
1465-66
Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cm (each)
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.

1465-66
Tempera on panel, 47 x 33 cm (each)
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.

Portrait of Battista Sforza
1465-66

Portrait of Battista Sforza (detail)
1465-66

1465-66
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.

1465-66
When these paintings were made, high
foreheads were all the rage. Ladies would
dedicatedly pluck away at their hairlines
to achieve this coveted look.

1465-66
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.

Portrait of Federico da
Montefeltro
1465-66

Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro(detail)
1465-66
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.

1465-66
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.

Montefeltro(detail)
1465-66
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.

1465-66
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.

Montefeltro(detail)
1465-66

Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
1451
Oil and tempera on panel, 44 x 34
cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (detail)
1451
Oil and tempera on panel, 44 x 34 cm
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.

(detail)
1451
Oil and tempera on panel, 44 x 34
cm

1451
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.

1451
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.

1451
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.

Portrait of a Boy. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (?)
1483
Oil and tempera on panel, 41 x 27.5 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Portrait of a Boy. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
(?) (detail)
1483
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.

(detail)
1483
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.

(detail)
1483
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
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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.

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.

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.

Portraits 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.

Portraits 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.

Triumph of Federico da Montefeltro
1465-66

Triumph of Battista Sforza
1465-66

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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PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA, Featured Paintings in Detail (1)