6. S. Francesco, Arezzo: late 13th-14th century
exterior; interior of apse with Piero’s Legend
of the True Cross frescoes
7. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo, ca. 1452-57:
The Death of Adam (left)
Right: Hercules, panel painting, Gardner Museum, Boston
8. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo,
ca. 1452-57:
The Queen of Sheba adoring the True Cross; The Meeting of Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba
9. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo,
ca. 1452-57:
The Discovery and Recognition of the True Cross
10. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo,
ca. 1452-57:
The Battle of Constantine and Maxentius
11. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo,
ca. 1452-57: The Dream of Constantine
12. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo,
ca. 1452-57:
Battle of Heraclius and Chosroes
13. Piero della Francesca, Legend of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo,
ca. 1452-57: Annunciation
15. Church of San Bernardino, Urbino
(Distant view, from central Urbino)
16. Left: Piero della Francesca, Madonna and Child with Saints, Brera Gallery, Milan,
ca. 1472-74
Right: Masaccio, Madonna and Child from the Pisa Altarpiece, 1427
Not exactly Florentine but he is grouped with Florentine painters Not born in Florence but is pretty close Ground breaking artist in many ways he really brings the representation of light and a sensitivity to illuination to a whole new level A pupil of domenicod’vetsianoVery much an artist of whom alberti would have aprovedHe is an intellectual and wrote things on mathematics “He was the greatest mathematician of his day”He was a humanist a writer and a poet, very cultivated individual in many realms An intellectual artist Alberti i likes Master of geometry He is very experimental One of the first artists of the quattrocento to use cartoons and one of the first to experiment with oil painting He is patronized by a varity of patrons, works for some north Italian courts and the Este courtHighly appreciated
Earliest documented altarpiece Puliptic altarpiece, multiple pieces Flanked by saints Larger and smaller scale saints in the predella panels Narrative panels at the base and the summit Its like many puliptics it was dismantled Important to think about his patrons Here is this groundbreaking, innovative artist but he often had to work for conservative patrons This is a good example The patron of this is from a confraternity in a very small town Confraternity is a group of laypeople that have a common religious goal and perform some religious things together This confraternity was dedicated to the virgin Mary in the particular aspect of Madonna of Mercy Madonna of the Misericordia She basically embraces a group of the faithful in her mantel, shows the Virgin in a protective role Old fashioned iconographyDisproportionate figure to contain the other figures Conventional in confraternity, the men and women are divided up into two separate groups The group of men contain on of the members from the Confraternity of the Misericordia^^^this confraternity dealt with the sick and then buried the dead, they often wore hoods when burring the dead Conservative patron Stipulations of the work: the gold background, format, materials and iconography Even in an early work like this with conservative patrons Piero still is able to do new and innovative things:For example how the Virgin is depicted, like a work of architecture, she is tall and occupies space The red white and blue of her mantel really sets her off from each other portion of the composition, there is a clarity to the definition of forms that goes beyond anything we have seen beforeModeled in Chiarscuro, but not the same as Masaccio’s ChiascuroPiero uses a much lighter, purer pallet to both achieve weight, 3 dimensionality but does it in a much more settle way Geometry: in her face, the oval in the face the oval in the jewel thing and the perfect circles around the eyes You can pull out the geometrical forms in his work Very meticulous but very luminous in the surface of the folds and hair on the figures
Predella panel at the summit Influenced by Masaccio but he brings simplicity and illumination to his composition Piero’s is much more suttul and luminous Only two figures below the cross who are distinctly different The Virgin holds her hands up while St. John flings his hand out
Panel paintingThe baptism of Christ, very popular scene P sets the scene in a very luminous landscape The composition is very carefully constructed with every figure and every form Forms are solid but not as heavy handed P creates a balanced and harmonious composition by the parallel accents that parallel the body of Christ The topography behind him dips down behind his head so Christ’s head and the baptizing hand are a tall point Highly naturalistic and proportional Almost nude bodies, man in back preparing for his baptism Three angles at the left holding hands, leaning on the others shoulder One of the angles looks out and makes eye contact and visually engaged the viewer, bringing us into an interaction with the figures The dove of the Holy Spirit, fits into the sky like a cloud Done for a church in his home town
First of several Frescos Very much an artist does not only panel paintings but a number of frescosDone for the town hall in his hometown Technical breakthrough is the use of cartoons Cartoons- very particular type of drawing, particularly important in frescos Cartoons- are full scale drawings used for direct transfer to the surface to be painted For direct transfer to the wall on which P’s resurrection is painted At this time there was only one method to transform the cartoon from the paper to the surface and it was called Spolvero, or pouncing P would have made a full figure cartoon of the Resurrection and he would then punch holds into the cartoon and then would blow charcoal dust through the little pin holds So you would end up with a dot to dot pattern where the figure would go much more detailed method of design than earlier techniques like sinopia drawings Cartoons are unique because they are the only drawing that are full scale, the same size as the work The cartoon comes at the very end of the design process Technical evidence is used to prove that he used cartoons in all his frescos One of the first to use this technique with almost all of his frescos Iconography:New testament Roman soldiers sleeping at the tomb The stigmata in his side, hand and foot Carrying the flag of the resurrection Rigidly frontal to communicate that he is of a different nature than the sleeping soldiers Embewed with light that signals the presence of the divineThe trees on the right are alive and to the left are dead This represents the death of the old order and the new order that moves on with the coming of ChristPiero’s home town of Borgo Sansepolcro means “holy sepelcur” that contained the body of Christ The sleeping soldier that faces the viewer cold possibly be a self portrait of P
P’s most expansive fresco cycle was done for the chapel in San Francesco Church on the left, never got around to decorating the façade Very interesting iconography Franciscan church Chapel dedicated to the legend of the true cross Based on not the bible but on the 13th century book called the golden legend Included what had developed during the middle ages
What was the history of the cross before it was used to crucified Christ and after it was used to crucifiy Christ?Legend og the true cross Starts with Adam, the first man, here Adam is an old man over at the right, surrounded by children and his grand children and he is dying, first person to die He sends his son Seth to go to the gates of paradise to collect a specific type of oil, the oil of Mercy, to anoint Adams body This Angle gives him a piece of the tree of knowledge and when Seth gets back Adam is dead, he is the first person to die so everyone is freaked out You can see Adam dead in the center of the composition Seth plants the piece of the the tree from the tree of knowledge on top of Adams grave and it is from this tree that the wood is taken to make the cross that will crucify Christ Nude figures shown from a varity of differen vantage points
Later in the story, it is discovered by King Solomon who digs it up, and when the Queen of Sheba visits she immediately recognizes it and kneels in front of it and tells Solomon that from this wood the savior of the mankind will be crucified on it Complex scenes Evidence of pouncing for the figures Piero was also trained in architecture So some of the architecture in his paintings is extraordinary, marble and columns The arch really create and organize his compositions One of Sheba’s hand maids looks out at the viewer- this is a device of Alberti A man on the other side is also looking out at use to balance These frescos have suffered Very expressive figures
Later in the history of the true cross The crucifixion has happened, he has dies and come back and the cross was buried It is rediscovered by Helena the wife of ConstantineThey find three crosses but figure out which one is the true cross because it brings someone back to life depicted on the right, Helena kneeling Architecture, classical and Albertian style of Architecture The arches create a coherent organization of the group of figures Piero’s clear fields of color setting off one form from another
Battle of Constantine and MaxentiusConstantine (son of St. Helena) defeats his opponent
Constantine having a dream that he will conquer the battle the next day against Max under the cross The light signifies the divine Concentrated on the figures favored by god^^^ P always does this
Chosroes being executed on the right His royal seat is empty Another Christian Triumph Everyone seems tranquil in an altered state, very understated for a battle
Franciscan church, have to have a reference to the Virgin What is unusual about this Annunciation: there are no Lilly, San Gabriel is holding a Martyrs palm which means eternal life Focused on the theme of eternal life, what is achieved through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross Closed door behind Gabriel that represents Mary’s virginity, but no Lilly Monumental architectonic figure of the Virgin Mary Very much organized through the very Albertian architecture
Piero also did several works for the Duke of Urbino \Small panel paintingOne of the most unusual paintings Shows his originality of P’s works even when he is depicting religious narratives New testament Odd because the main event of the Flagellation is off to the side background More prominent are the three men in the foreground Again organized by Albertian architecture, the floor tiles to create linear perspective Three men in contemporary clothing: they represent members of Frederico’s family Frederico was originally an illegitimate son of his father, and Fred’s brother was the Duke before so the barefoot one might be the brother because he was assassinated This identity has been arguedOther figure may be their father Two are distinctly individualized Two narratively different pieces are put together The Flagellation: Christ is attached by a column that is mounted by a Pagan Idol making the conflict very clearAlthough it is a scene of torture it is oddly quiet and understated By this time P is beginning to experiment with oil paintIt seems the intro of oil paint was very gradual It seemed that artists, like P, used a combination of the two While tempera is very quick drying with a binding agent of egg yolk, the binding agent oil paint is oilSo oil paint is much more slow drying so painters at the beginning of oil use would lay down some layers in tempera and then they would build oil paint of top of it P is an artist who is working with glazed who is building up layers
Federico also commissioned several paintings from P in 1472, the year his wife died The first was the altarpiece for this church He is honoring his wife with a new church and a new altarpiece for the church Both Federico and his wife were buried in this church
This is the altarpiece for Federico’s church after his wife died Later work of P, so it includes oil paint Sacred conversation which includes a number of different sacred figures who lived at different periods of time Like showing the Virgin and Christ with St. Frances Donor portrait of Federico in his armor because he was a great soldier, he is in the left profile cause he lost his eye Iconographic:The presence of the egg is really weird, it hangs over the virgin and the Christ child It is an ostrich egg, which was a symbol of the Virgin birth because it was believed that an Ostrich just laid eggs and produced babies without sexThe ostrich egg is also part of the code of arms of Federico’s family Here the Christ child is very much represented as a human infant, he is a baby in his mom’s lap, and he is sleeping which is foreshadowing of his death as an adult Also wearing a coral necklace passion of the Christ The foreshadowing of the death of the Christ and that it is on the Altarpiece also represents the sacrament of the church (blood and body)
Traditional positions reversed because of the eye thing Characteristic style of P’sLight, transparent shadows, silloeted in front of a landscape He is not an atmospheric perspective man at all, not like Masaccio
