The Flagellation was executed by Piero during his first visit to Urbino. rom the point of view of composition and perspective the painting is very rigorously planned. The composition appears to be divided into two scenes, separated by the column supporting the temple in which the Flagellation of Christ is taking place. Even though he is working in a unitary space, Piero does not give up his interest in detail, such as the ceiling of the temple or the bronze sculpture on the column with its splendid reflection of the light.

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In 1453, Piero della Francesca returned to San Sepolcro where, the following year, he signed a contract for the polyptych in the church of Sant'Agostino. On pictorial grounds the following panels, placed from left to right, are associated with it: Saint Augustine (Lisbon); this Saint Michael (National Gallery, London) a missing central panel, perhaps of the Virgin and Child enthroned; an Unidentified Saint (Frick collection, New York), and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino (Poldi-Pezzoli Museum, Milan).
Archangel Michael is portrayed as an ancient warrior, his athletic limbs made more elegant by his precious armour, by the graceful tunic and by his beautiful boots decorated by with tiny pearls. There is nothing violent nor dramatic in the killing of the dragon, who is shown as a snake, its decapitated body lying on the ground.

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The original location of Piero della Francesca's Madonna del Parto, is the Capella di Cimitero of the Santa Maria della Momentana in Monterchi, near Arezzo. The edifice was destroyed in 1785 by an earthquake and the work was detached and placed over the high altar of the new cemetery chapel and in 1992 it was moved to the Museo della Madonna del Parto in Monterchi.
The figure of this Madonna, the protector of pregnant women, with her austere expression and natural stance of a woman heavy with child, stands out against the damask canopy, held open at the sides by two angels. The sacred and ritual nature of the image is further emphasized by the fact that the angels are drawn from the same cartoon, repeated in mirror image.
The work was attributed to Piero della Francesca only in 1889. Its dating has been the subject of debate, ranging from 1450 to 1475. The 16th century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari wrote that it was completed in 1459, when Piero della Francesca was in Sansepolcro for his mother's death.

The fresco also plays an important role in Andrei Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia.

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This scene shows Mary kneeling in adoration before a newly-born Christ who is laid on her cloak. Five angels sing welcoming his birth - two of them play lutes. Beside them a donkey appears to bray, while an Ox peers down solemnly at Christ.
Two shepherds are present (their faces have lost detail, possibly through over-zealous cleaning by previous owners). One of the shepherds points heavenwards, clutching his staff like a sceptre. Joseph is shown in deep contemplation, with his leg crossed over his knee. Each person, angel and animal shows a different attitude of reverence towards the infant Christ. Even the magpie, well-known in Piero's native Tuscany for its constant chatter, seems changed and looks to be struck silent.
Piero has added other touches from his native region - Bethlehem itself has a distinctly Tuscan feel. The flat land on top of the hill where they stand evokes Tuscany, as does the winding valley to the left. Meanwhile the skyline on the right, dominated by the basilica, could almost be the outskirts of Piero's home town Borgo Sansepolcro.
The influences here come from further a field than Tuscany. The painting shows the impact of Northern European painting. Piero painted with tempera early in his career, but for later works like this one he began working in oil. Along with the use of brown under-painting for the figures, this shows a familiarity with Netherlandish and Flemish work. This is reinforced by the slim figure of Christ, who lacks the square muscularity of contemporary depictions from Italy, and is more reminiscent of paintings by artists like Hugo van der Goes.
Piero has also experimented with perspective. It is the only one of his works that shows a building askew from the rest of the composition: this is the simple shed, which reminds the viewer of Christ's humble beginnings.
It is possible that this panel was never completed. It has certainly been damaged, possibly by the work of a 19th-century restorer. Nevertheless, the painting holds more than enough detail to give a sense of a complete composition, one which is likely to have been among the last the artist created.

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The Brera Madonna (also known as Pala di Brera, Montefeltro Altarpiece or Brera Altarpiece) was executed by Piero della Francesca in 1472-1474. It is housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera of Milan.
It was commissioned by Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, to celebrate the birth of Federico's son, Guidobaldo. According to this hypothesis, the Child could represent Guidobaldo, while Virgin may have the appearance of Battista Sforza, Federico's wife, who died in the same year and was buried at San Bernardino.
According to other sources, the Montefeltro Altarpiece would celebrate his conquest of several castles in the Maremma.
The work represents a sacra conversazione, with the Virgin enthroned and the sleeping Child in the middle, surrounded by a host of angels and saints. On the right low corner, kneeling and wearing his armor, the Duke, patron of arts and condottiero Federico da Montefeltro. The background consists of the apse of a church in Renaissance classical style.
Federico III da Montefeltro appears as a donor kneeling in the lower right. He wears military garb and holds his helmet, properly removed as a sign of respect.

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This extremely rare painting by a key figure of the early Renaissance in Italy was one of Sterling Clark's first purchases. The composition centers on the statuesque Virgin Mary, who holds a robust Christ Child on her knee; Christ reaches for a pink carnation, a symbol of the crucifixion. The stately angels, solid as columns, stand as sentinels, while the precisely calibrated architecture forms the idealized setting.

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Piero della Francesca's "Hercules", a fresco in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and the painter's only secular work, is unique among his paintings in many respects. Although its authenticity as an autograph work has never been questioned, it is usually neglected in the literature on Piero. The fresco comes from the painter's own house in Borgo San Sepolcro and thus is an exceptional case of an artist's self-patronage. The analogy of composition and dimensions with Piero's later portrait, as well as iconographic attributes of the virtue of Prudence and some other clues, lead the author to make a convincing notion that the "Hercules" is Piero's self-portrait, what is more, a "moral" one, characterising him as an artist.

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Podere Santa Pia is an old farm that has been renovated into a perfect holiday house located 350 meters above sea level. Although this is off the beaten track it is the ideal choice for those seeking a peaceful, uncontaminated environment.
Numerous other towns and villages offer a treasure trove of history and art waiting to be discovered. The central location of the holiday home allows you to visit the nearby beautiful villages Montalcino, Sant'Antimo, Pienza, S. Quirico d'Orcia and in the south Saturnia and Sorano - known for its beautiful Sasso Leopoldo. And the sea is 38km away in Marina di Grosseto.

Holiday homes in the Tuscan Maremma | Podere Santa Pia

[1] Carlo Bertelli, Piero della Francesca, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1992, p. 79.

[2] Roberto Longhi was a famous italian art historian. Longhi studied under Pietro Toesca at the University of Turin where he was granted a degree in 1911 after presenting a dissertation on Caravaggio. An interview on Cosmè Tura gained him admission to Adolfo Venturi's post graduate course in Rome in 1912. The subjects of his early publications range from 15th century painting (Piero della Francesca e lo sviluppo della pittura veneziana) to avant garde art criticism (I pittori futuristi e Scultura Futurista Boccioni), and include essays on Caravaggio (Due opere di Caravaggio) and his followers: Mattia Preti (pure figurative criticism), Orazio Borgianni, Battistello, Gentileschi father and daughter. From 1920 to 1922 Longhi traveled in Europe with Alessandro Contini Bonacossi visiting churches, museums and private collections all across the continent. From 1922 he worked as a university lecturer in Rome. In 1926 he began to contribute to the periodical 'Vita Artistica' which he directed from 1927 with Emilio Cecchi. The following year Longhi and Cecchi founded the periodical 'Pinacotheca'. In 1927 Longhi published his famous monograph Piero della Francesca, which was translated into French the same year and into English in 1931. It was followed in 1934 by Officina Ferrarese. In 1934 Longhi was also named professor of Medieval and Modern Art at the University of Bologna. Between 1935 and 1936 he organized the Mostra del Settecento bolognese, the exhibition of 18th century Bolognese art. From 1938 to 1940 he directed the periodical 'La Critica d'Arte' in Florence. Longhi's well known essay Ultimi studi sul Caravaggio e la sua cerchia was published in 1943. In 1950 Longhi founded the periodical 'Paragone' which he directed until he died, contributing important editorials on cultural policy and essays on a variety of art historical subjects. In 1949 Longhi became a professor at the University of Florence. Longhi conceived and organized two memorable exhibitions on Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1948) and on Bolognese 14th century painting (1950), both held in Bologna. He also organized the famous exhibit on Caravaggio e i caravaggeschi (1951) which was held in Milan. Longhi's monograph on this Lombard painter appeared the following year. In the same period Longhi collaborated with Umberto Barbaro, producing documentaries about several artists (Carpaccio, Caravaggio, Carrà). His book entitled Il Correggio e la camera di San Paolo a Parma dates from 1956. When Longhi died in 1970 he left his collections of art, photographs and books 'for the benefit of future generations' in his villa in via Fortini which is now the site of a foundation bearing his name.
[3] Photo by Sailko, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Art in Tuscany | Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists | Piero della Francesca
Giorgio Vasari | Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri | Piero della Francesca

All modern scholarship concerning Piero della Francesca derives from the pioneering work of Roberto Longhi. Longhi's works, which date from 1914 to 1942, are in Italian, but the fruits of his discoveries have been incorporated in English-language works. Kenneth Clark's readable monograph is Piero della Francesca (1951; 2d ed. 1969). Also useful is Piero Bianconi, All the Paintings of Piero della Francesca (trans. 1962). Bernard Berenson wrote interesting essays on Piero in his Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance (1897; 2d rev. ed. 1909) and Piero della Francesca; or, The Ineloquent in Art (1954).

Giorgio Vasari | Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Piero della Francesca

Piero della Francesca On-line: Story of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo (Italy) | Aronberg Lavin, M., et al., Piero Della Francesca On-line: Story of the True Cross, San Francesco, Arezzo (Italy): Figure 7. In J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web 2009: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics. Published March 31, 2009. | www.archimuse.com

Film in Toscana | Arezzo, Sansepolcro and Monterchi, the homeland of Piero della Francesca

In the footsteos of Piero della Francesca | Piero della Francesca in central Italy

Piero della Francesca and his landscapes | The balconies is Piero della Francesca

Marcello Simonetta, The Montefeltro Conspiracy: A Renaissance Mystery Decoded, New York, Doubleday, 2008. (L'enigma Montefeltro. Milano: Rizzoli, 2008.)
In Florence, on April 26, 1478, Lorenzo de Medici, soon to be dubbed “the Magnificent,” and his brother, Giuliano, were set upon by assassins during Sunday mass. Giuliano died, but Lorenzo survived and became one of the most accomplished of Renaissance figures as a patron of the arts and a skillful leader of the Florentine Republic. The assassination attempt, generally called “the Pazzi conspiracy,” was immediately blamed on a rival Florentine family, the Pazzi. Simonetta, a professor of Italian history and literature, has uncovered another layer of the plot. Aided by a recently decoded letter found in an archive in Urbino, Simonetta indicts Frederico de Montefeltro, the widely admired Duke of Urbino. Montefeltro, often referred to as “the Light of Italy,” was a classics scholar, a humanist, and a supposed friend of the Medici family. He was also a tough, ruthless mercenary quite at home in the cutthroat milieu of fifteenth-century Italian politics.

Lavin, M.A. , Piero della Francesca. London, Phaidon Press, 2002

Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Piero Della Francesca: San Francesco, Arezzo (The Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance), New York, George Braziller, 1994

Carlo Bertelli, Piero della Francesca, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1992
Bertelli's densely reasoned monographic study of the early Renaissance master Piero della Francesca proffers a plethora of provocative but not equally compelling insights into the artist's life, work, and style. An excellent complement to Bertelli's work is Ronald Lightbown's Piero della Francesca ( LJ 7/92). While scholars will need to ponder the somewhat divergent conclusions of both authors, general readers are better served by Lightbown's engaged evocation of the works themselves and by his coherent arguments and lucid prose.

Ronald Lightbown, Piero Della Francesca, Abbeville Press, 1992


From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master | The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico e Etnoantropologico, Milano.
Two cities—Florence and Urbino; a key moment in the history of Italian Renaissance art; 55 works by some of the greatest painters and sculptors, including Filippo Lippi, Domenico Veneziano, Piero della Francesca, and Luca della Robbia, as well as eccentric paintings by little-known masters; and the identification of a heretofore mysterious personality who practiced painting and sculpture and was associated with the celebrated court of Urbino: these are the ingredients of this jewel-like exhibition.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible by Bracco, the Oceanic Heritage Foundation, and the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc.


Machtelt Israëls: "Piero at Home: The Art of Piero della Francesca" | www.frick.org
During the early Renaissance, Piero della Francesca’s artistic talents were highly sought after by patrons across the Italian peninsula but nowhere more so than in his hometown of Borgo San Sepolcro. Israëls' lecture explores how Piero gradually transformed the art of painting by applying his pioneering pictorial imagination to the challenge of three gothic polyptychs and by introducing Renaissance format paintings into the domestic interior with hisVirgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels and Nativity of Christ (The National Gallery, London).

The Private Life of a Masterpiece was a BBC arts documentary series which told the stories behind great works of art. The series reveals the full and fascinating stories behind famous works of art, not just how they came to be created, but also how they influenced others and came to have a life of their own in the modern world.

The Private Life of a Masterpiece, episode 22 | Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection

Famous texts | Aldous Huxley, The Best Picture”

Film in Tuscany | Arezzo, Sansepolcro and Monterchi, the homeland of Piero della Francesca