Piero della Francesca

Chronology

Polyptych of the Misericordia

The Flagellation of Christ

St. Jerome in Penitence

Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta Praying in Front of St. Sigismund

Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta

St. Jerome and a Donor

The Baptism of Christ


The History of the True Cross
       Adoration of the Holy Wood and the Meeting of Solomon        and the Queen of Sheba
       Constantine's Dream

Mary Magdalene

Madonna del parto

St. Julian

Resurrection

Polyptych of Saint Augustine


Nativity

Polyptych of Perugia

Madonna and Child with Saints (Montefeltro Altarpiece)

Paired portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza

Madonna di Senigallia


Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists | Piero della Francesca





 





 
Art in Tuscany
             
 

Piero della Francesca, Madonna di Senigallia (detail, probably a portrait of Federico da Montefeltro's daughter Giovanna),
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino


Art in Tuscany  
       
   

Piero della Francesca | Madonna di Senigallia


   
   

"We may be certain that our initial impression of the Arezzo frescos will be overwhelmingly one of color. I never revisit the Church of San Francesco without experiencing the same uprush of feeling that carne over me the first time I stood before that 'sacred wall,' with its greens and pinks, browns and whites, as fresh and pure as open meadowlands, a babe's cheek or limpid springwater... These are the colors of the world at the first dawn of time, as the sun broke over the earth." [1]

Roberto Longhi

 

Madonna di Senigallia di Piero della Francesca, 1470-85,3

Piero della Francesca, Madonna di Senigallia (detail), Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino

 
   
   

The Madonna di Senigallia was finished by Piero della Francesca around 1474. It is housed in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, in the Ducal Palace of Urbino. The art critic Bernard Berenson wrote "Impersonality - that is the quality whereby (Piero) holds us spellbound, that is his most distinguishing virtue".
The painting, originally in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Urbino, is quite different from Piero's previous production. The faces still have an expression of aloofness and of superior rational wisdom, but they also convey a sense of precious, almost exotic, beauty. This is one of the paintings in which the artist most clearly reveals his interst in light values, both in terms of reflections and of magical transparencies. From Mary's veil, slightly puckered on her forehead with subtle light variations, to the coral necklace around the Child's neck, to the angels' shining pearls - these are all effects which, together with the light streaming in from the window, and forming a perfectly geometrical shape on the end wall, will appear again and again in Dutch painting of the 17th century.[2]

info

Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
Palazzo Ducale di Urbino Piazza Rinascimento 13, 61029 Urbino 

www.gallerianazionalemarche.it

 

 
Piero della Francesca, Madonna di Senigallia, oil on panel, 67 cm × 53.5 cm (26 in × 21.1 in), Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino

 

 

Madonna di Senigallia di Piero della Francesca, 1470-85,5   Madonna di Senigallia di Piero della Francesca, 1470-85,4   Madonna di Senigallia di Piero della Francesca, 1470-85,6
Piero della Francesca, Madonna di Senigallia, details, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino

 

     

 

 
 
   


[1] Roberto Longhi, Piero della Francesca: 1927: con aggiunte fino al 1962, Nuova ed., Firenze, Sansoni, 1963, p. 47
An influential art historian and critic in the formalist tradition, Roberto Longhi is a unique figure in the history of art. Longhi's two life-long art subjects were Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca.
[2] Source: www.wga.hu

 


Art in Tuscany | Piero della Francesca in central Italy, an itinerary full of artistic and historical beauty

Art in Tuscany | Art in Tuscany | Giorgio Vasari | Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Art in Tuscany | Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists | Piero della Francesca