Piero della Francesca (Sansepolcro, c. 1415, – Sansepolcro, 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.
Highlights: Polittico della Misericordia (1445-62, Pinacoteca di Borgo San Sepolcro) - Storie della Vera Croce (1452-66, San Francesco, Arezzo) - Madonna del Parto (1460-64, Monterchi) - Maddalena (1460, Duomo di Arezzo) - Resurrezione (1463-65, Museo Civico di Sansepolcro) - Crocifisso di Cimabue (San Domenico, Arezzo) - Casa Vasari, Casa Petrarca (Arezzo)
The "Legend of the True Cross" (Piero della Francesca, 1452-66)
An accurate restoration work has recently returned to the public one of the most extraordinary paintings of the Renaissance. It is the Legend of the True Cross, the dramatic cycle of frescoes painted Piero della Francesca, in the mid-fifteenth century, the church of San Francesco in Arezzo. Noteworthy are also the Guasconi Chapel, frescoed by Spinello Aretino in the late fourteenth century, and the chapel that houses Tarlati the Annunciation and Saints Jerome and Francis of Blacks in Bicci, another Annunciation attributed to Luca Signorelli and the Crucifixion by Spinello on the right wall. The large crucifix with St. Francis, who stands on the high altar, painted by a contemporary of Cimabue, was already present in church when Piero della Francesca hand to put his masterpiece. In fact, to fresco the chapel Major (also known as Cappella Bacci) was assigned to a renowned Florentine painter, Bicci Lorenzo. In 1452 the death took him well when he was just a rough outline of the decoration of the walls. In the same year Piero della Francesca Arezzo visited and is therefore likely that the maestro di Borgo San Sepolcro began its work after the death of Bicci. In a few years, the walls of the Gothic chapel is covered by the irresistible power of evocative images, made using a revolutionary technique that rigorously applied the principles absolute perspective developed a few decades earlier. The entire cycle was certainly completed before 1465, and is currently considered an unparalleled example of the genius of Piero, and one of the most important mural paintings of the period.
The paintings of the chapel, telling the story of the tree and the wood which was built with the Cross of Christ. The story is taken from a thirteenth century text by Jacopo da Varagine: The Golden Legend. It tells of how Adam, on his deathbed, to send his son to set the Archangel Michael, and how they deliver it the seeds of some of original sin because we put in the mouth of the father after the death. Adam was buried, his tomb was originally a tree that was felled by the will of King Solomon and used as a bridge. One day the Queen of Sheba, in the act of crossing the bridge, was struck by a vision that understands that the Savior is crucified with that wood. Nell'episodio represented by Piero you can see the face of the artist, who portrays one of the courtiers to follow the queen. Came to the attention of premonition, Solomon ordered that the trunk is buried in a hidden place. Wood, however, inevitably will be found to become the instrument of the Passion of Christ. At this point, the narrative has a temporal leap: the fifth episode is frescoed, the famous dream of Constantine. The emperor, sleeping in his tent, before clashing with the troops of Maxentius, a vision that suggests to fight on behalf of the Cross. Won the battle, began searching for the holy wood: the mother of Constantine, Helen, went to Jerusalem to discover the location of the relic. The unique holder of the secret is a jew named Judah. The seventh episode of the cycle represents tortured while in a well, to reveal the name of the temple which houses the three crosses of Calvary. Judah seems poorly dressed, as a jew, and therefore considered evil. Under the following year, however, the same Judah wears elegant clothes because converted, and has the features of Piero della Francesca. In this episode (perhaps the most famous) is described disseppellimento of the crosses and the test of the True Cross, which leads to a miraculous resurrection. The fame of the painting does not derive only dall'autoritratto artist, but the depiction of Jerusalem, at the top of the hill, which in reality is a faithful reproduction of Arezzo in the same church of San Francesco in the spotlight. Following another leap forward in time: in 615 the Persian king steals the Cross Cosroe to enrich its collection of relics. Heraclius, Emperor of the East, to declare war and the defeats, catching the wood. A John Bacci (the developer of the frescoes in the Chapel) is given the honor to be his appearance at the justice of Cosroe. Before being able to enter Jerusalem with the Cross, Eraclio must give up his triumph, and carry the Cross barefooted and without a hat, as a sign of humility. Here Piero launches its last symbolic message: the Cross is depicted between two trees that represent the Old and New Testaments. The sacrifice of Christ unites them.
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