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Augusta Stylianou Gallery 
Piero della Francesca Paintings
Federigo di Montefeltro and Battista Sforza
Triumph of the Duke and Duchess
Arezzo: Virgin of the Annunciation
Arezzo: Death and Burial of Adam
Arezzo: Death and Burial of Adam , detail
Arezzo: Death and Burial of Adam , detail
Arezzo: Queen of Sheba in Solomon
Arezzo: Queen of Sheba with Solomon , detail
Arezzo: Queen of Sheba with Solomon , detail
Arezzo: Queen of Sheba with Solomon , detail
Arezzo: Queen of Sheba with Solomon , detail
Arezzo: Queen of Sheba with Solomon , detail
Arezzo: The Dream of Constantine
Arezzo: The Confession , detail
Arezzo: The Confession , detail
Arezzo: The transport of the bridge
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: Discovery of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: Defeat of the Persian king , detail
Arezzo: Defeat of the Persian king , detail
Arezzo: Defeat of the Persian king , detail
Arezzo: Defeat of the Persian king , detail
Arezzo: Defeat of the Persian king , detail
Arezzo: Defeat of the Persian king , detail
Arezzo: praise of the Holy Cross
Arezzo: praise of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: praise of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: praise of the Holy Cross , detail
Arezzo: triumph of Constantine
Arezzo: triumph of Constantine , detail
Arezzo: triumph of Constantine , detail
Arezzo: triumph of Constantine , detail
Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Donors
Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro
Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
Adoration of the Holy Wood and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Battle between Constantine and Maxentius
Battle between Heraclius and Khosrau
Discovery and Proof of the True Cross Piero della Francesca (c. 1415[1] – October 12, 1492) was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries, he was known as a mathematician and geometer as well as an artist, though now he is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its serene humanism and its use of geometric forms, particularly in relation to perspective and foreshortening. Most of his work was produced in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.
Early years Piero was born in the town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro[1], Tuscany (where he also died), to Benedetto de' Franceschi, a tradesman, and Romana di Perino da Monterchi, belonging to the small nobility of Tuscany, as part of Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family. He may have learned his trade from one of several Sienese artists working in San Sepolcro during his youth. It is known that Piero apprenticed in Florence with Domenico Veneziano, with whom he worked in 1439 on frescoes for the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova (church of Sant'Egidio, now lost). He also knew Fra' Angelico, who introduced him to the other leading masters of the time, Masaccio and Brunelleschi. In 1442 he returned to San Sepolcro where, three years later, he received the commission for altarpiece of the church of the Misericordia (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 Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. In this sojourn he executed the famous fresco of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta Praying in Front of St. Sigismund as well as the portrait of the condottiero. There he also met another famous Renaissance mathematician and architect, Leon Battista Alberti. Later he moved to Ancona, Pesaro and Bologna. Frescoes in San Francesco and mature work 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. His 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. [2] In 1453, he returned to San Sepolcro where, the following year, he signed a contract for the polyptych in the church of Sant'Agostino. 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. To this period belongs The Flagellation (c. 1460), one of the most famous and controversial pictures of the early Renaissance. As discussed in 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 at right forefront. Other notable works of Piero della Francesca's maturity include the Baptism of Fire, the Resurrection and the Madonna del parto. At Urbino, where he was in the service of Federico III da Montefeltro, he met Melozzo da Forlì and Luca Pacioli. Here he painted the famous double portrait of Federico and his wife Battista Sforza, now in the Uffizi, as well as the Madonna of Senigallia and the Nativity. His portraits in profile take their inspiration from Roman coins. Piero della Francesca is documented in Rimini in 1482. His will was made in 1487. In his later years, painters such as Perugino and Luca Signorelli frequently visited his workshop. According to Vasari, he went blind in old age. He died at Sansepolcro, on the very day that Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Americas. 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, including the panels of the S. Agostino altarpiece. 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 Pigendi"). 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
Tomaoko Suzuki's new 2006 crib for St Martin-in-the-Fields, to be displayed in Trafalgar Square, cited della Francesca as an inspiration.[3][4] 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.
* Gantz, Jeffrey, "Strong, silent type: Piero della Francesca, international artist of mystery", The Boston Phoenix, Arts section, September 1, 2006. Cf. * 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 Footnotes 1. ^ a b c Turner, A. Richard (1976). "Piero della Francesca". in William D. Halsey. Collier's Encyclopedia. 19. New York: Macmillan Educational Corporation. pp. 40–42. ==--==--==
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