Piero della Francesca - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Piero di Benedetto de Franceschi known as Piero della Francesca was born about 1412 (or 1420) in Borgo San Sepolcro (today Sansepolcro) in the high valley from the Tiber in Toscane, city where he dies in 1492.

The control of the art of the perspective , of returned light and quality of the treatment of the colors of Domenico Veneziano influenced Piero della Francesca with which it began its life of painter.

Piero della Francesca and Melozzo da Forlì are the most famous Masters of the prospect for the 15th century, recognized like such by Giorgio Vasari and Luca Pacioli.

Biography

Piero learns the bases from art in Borgo San Sepolcro by attending the shop of the only artist of the city, Antonio di Anghiari, as attests it a document of payment dating of October 21st, 1436 relative to an order of blazons and standards papal for the doors and the towers of the city, and on which the name of Piero della Francesca is reproduced in the sides of that of Antonio.
The artist initiates his life of painter, in 1439, for the frescos of the Vie of the Virgin in the chorus of the church Sant' Egidio.
Turned over to Sansepolcro, and named to advise of the people in 1442, it begins the Polyptyque Vierge of Mercy but before her completion, the brotherhood of the Mercy of Borgo Sansepolcro places to him order of a Retable in 1445; the Master carries out personally holy Sebastien, holy Jean Baptiste, the central panel and the Crucifixion. He goes to Ferrare in 1450 when he carries out several frescos in certain rooms of the palate of Este, then to Venice and Rimini where Sigismond Pandolfo Malatesta calls it in 1451. He entrusts to him the decoration of the vault of the relics of the temple of Malatesta. The fresco of Sigismond Malatesta knelt with the feet of saint Sigismond, king of Burgondes takes seat within a framework in Trompe-l'oeil.
It becomes at the time of these voyages through Italy, familiar of the court of Urbin.
Scourging , one of its major works, was carried out around 1452. It is a personal creation which does not depend on any order. Piero della Francesca devotes the years ranging between 1452 and 1459 to the decoration of the chorus of the church San Francesco of Arezzo for a cycle of frescos which evokes the Histoire of the True Cross of Christ , drawn from the gilded Légende of Jacques de Voragine, topic belonging traditionally to the register of the iconography franciscaine.

It leaves, in spite of this engaged monumental building site and testimony of its genius, carries out the fresco representing holy Marie-madeleine, in the dome of Arezzo, in 1460. It paints, the same year, the Madonna del Parto for the vault Santa Maria di Nomentana of the cemetery of Monterchi, village close to Borgo Sansepolcro. It carries out, the following years, the Polyptyque of Augustin saint, of which there remain only four panels, as well as the retable of the convent San Antonio to Perugia. Then one finds it with Rome, on April 12th, 1459 for the payment of his paintings of the room of Pie II with the Vatican, and again in Arezzo to deliver the standard of the brotherhood of Annunziata in 1468.
It sets out again in Urbin where Frederic III of Montefeltro, duke of Urbin, associates it into 1465 to the architects Alberti and Luciano Laurana. He entrusts the restoration of his palate to them. The diptych of the dukes of Urbin, heading Triomphe of the Chastity , which gathers the portraits of Frederic and his wife Battista Sforza, represents them profile on a bottom of landscape in prospect. He also works for a work representing the Eucharistie .
He returns in Arezzo for the frescos of Badia in 1473, and in Sansepolcro in 1478, for the execution of a fresco of the Virgin ordered by the brotherhood of the Mercy. One finds it placed at the head of the brotherhood of San Bartolomeo between 1480 and 1482.
April 22nd, 1482, it rents a house with a well in Rimini. July 5th, 1487, it establishes its will. He dies in Sansepolcro, blind, on October 1st, 1492.

Techniques and influences

Without yielding to the effects of the Trompe-l'oeil, Piero della Francesca uses the prospect in order to schedule imposing naturalists compositions.

He studies Flemish works in possession of his guard, Lionel d' Este, marquis de Ferrare. The Holy penitent Jerome , of 1450, integrates the Scandinavian influences into the Italian tradition of the landscape.

In the decoration of the chorus of the church San Francesco d' Arezzo for the cycle of frescos evokes the Histoire of the True Cross of Christ , it gives up the distribution of the scenes in the chronological order. It adopts a symmetrical and analogical bringing together.

For Frederic III of Montefeltro, the diptych of the dukes of Urbin which it carries out on a bottom of landscape in prospect, is directly inspired by the Flemish painting of the end of the 15th century.

The mathematician

Whereas today its mathematical work is about completely ignored, Piero della Francesca was a famous mathematician of alive sound. According to Giorgio Vasari it was even the best geometrician of its time.

He wrote three great treaties: two of geometry Of prospectiva pingendi (" Prospect in Peinture") and Libellus of quinque corporibus regularibus (" Of the Five Bodies réguliers") as well as a book of Abacus the Trattato of abaco .

For a long time the ideal Quoted , was allotted to him but as much with Francesco di Giorgio Martini or with Luciano Laurana, artists famous who worked at the court of the duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro.

Works

Major

Triumph over Chastity

The portraits of the duke of Urbin Frederic III of Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza, carried out between 1460 and 1470, oil on wood, the shutters of the diptych of the Triumph of Chastity , the two profiles face on bottom of a idealized landscape and in prospect.
Au back, their arrival in the city accompanied by angels and unicorns, symbols of chastity.

Annunciation

Retable of saint Antoine, for the convent Sant' Antonio of Perugia of 1469 - moderated on wood of poplar of 170 cm X 191,5 cm, preserved at the Gallery national of Ombrie in Perugia whose top of the major element of work is occupied by the Annonciation, its central part by a Virgin with the Child surrounded by Antoine saint, holy Jean Baptist, holy François and holy Elisabeth.

This part of the retable, the Annunciation, is the manifest proof of the control of the rules (new) of the prospect by Piero.

See also: Annunciation (Piero della Francesca)

Nativity

Oil-base paint preserved at the National Gallery of London, 1470.
Ce table is a test of the Oil-base paint (test of this novel method of Flemish origin).
Commande of its nephew for his marriage, this table represents the Virgin Mary with knees in front of the Jesus Child accompanied by angels which sing in the foreground, whereas in the second plan one distinguishes Joseph and the shepherds, the ox and the ass.

See also: Nativity (Piero della Francesca)

Madonna del Parto

Painted with fresco, it was carried out into 7 " giornate" of work. Piero della Francesca used colors of first choice, in particular a considerable quantity of blue of overseas obtained starting from the Lapis lazzuli imported remote caves of Afghanistan. Work was intended to decorate the wall beyond the high altar of the old church Santa Maria di Nomentana. At the time of an earthquake in 1785, the building entirely was destroyed excluded the wall and its fresco, miraculeusement upright. Detached from the wall, it was replaced at the same place in the new church in a niche (and had become a place of pilgrimage for the women about to be confined). Unfortunately the upper part was seriously damaged and the cap of the baldachin had to be repainted. Today restored, one can admire it in a museum which is especially devoted to him, under the ramparts of the town of Monterchi.

Crowned conversation

The crowned Conversazione is a fresco for the chiesa francescana di San Donato degli Os , preserved at the Pinacothèque of Brera of Milan. It is about a conventional Christian topic presented under a new composition appeared about the middle of the 15th century, placing the Virgin with the Child, trônant under a platform and surrounded by saints and the silent partner of work, certain characters speaking between them

Marie-madeleine

The Maddalena , work painted in 1460 and visible with the cathedral di San Donato of Arezzo.

Baptism of Christ

The Battesimo di Cristo , work carried out between 1448 and 1450 and preserved at the National Gallery of London.

Scourging of Christ

The Flagellazione di Cristo , a work carried out into 1450 before its return to Sansepolcro.

An oil on wood of 59 cm X 81 cm, preserved at the Galleria nazionale delle Walk of Urbin.

See also: Scourging of Christ (Piero della Francesca)

Resurrection

Fresco of the Museo Civico di Sansepolcro visible on the wall even of its realization (the museum having been defined on this conventual building).

Virgin of Mercy

The Madonna della Misericordia , in the same museum, works particular in Polyptyque and gildings, rather rare at Piero.

Caption True Cross

The Leggenda della Vera Croce , a cycle of frescos of the church San Francesco d' Arezzo (1452-1459) restored since 2000 after 15 years of work.

See also: Legend of the True Cross (Piero della Francesca)

Random links:

Triumph of Babar | Central laboratory of the Highways Departments | Élizabeth Chouvalidzé | Cultural radio | Tie up (cord)