Biography - Piero Della Francesca

Piero della Francesca was one of the great artists of the early Italian Renassiance.  He was born around 1420 and died in 1492. Francesca painted religous works.  He clearly formulated the geometrical rules for building perspective and made wonderful empirical discoveries in the use of color and light. He was very interested in mathematics.  Francesca was pretty much known for his contributions in these fields.  He went on and wrote mathematical treases in which three are known to have survived:  Abacus, Libellus de quinque (5 regular solids), and De prospectiva pingendi (on prespective of painting).  

 The undisputed high point of his career was the series of large frescoes Legend of the True Cross, (1452?-1465?), done for the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, in which he presents scenes of astonishing beauty. His first job was to paint striped poles used to carry candles in religious processes.  Certain aspects of Piero's work were significant for the northern Italian painters Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini, as well as for the later Raphael, but his art was in general too individual and self-contained to influence strongly the mainstream of Florentine art. He unfortunately died in Borgo San Sepolcro on July 5, 1492.

The Resurrection

Jesus is in the centre of the composition, portrayed in the moment of his resurrection, as suggested by the position of his leg.  Piero painted the sleeping soldiers very close to the foreground of the picture; the unbalanced figure at the right even seems about to tumble out of it. By placing them in a variety of poses, the artist manages to keep them all unaware of Christs presence.  According to tradition, the sleeping soldier in brown armor on Christ's right is a self-portrait of Piero.

The Baptism of Christ

The Baptism of Christ was finished around 1448-1450.  This painting depicts the story of Christ's baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist.  The landscape in this work is considered to be fully developed and is quite remarkable for its time. The painting showed Piero's developed style of the early Renaissance.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_della_Francesca

http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/piero.html

[picture 1] http://static.flickr.com/46/152398992_94b8d5bb8e.jpg

[picture 2] http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MCG/FD1332~The-Baptism-of-Christ-1450-Posters.jpg