Piero della Francesca
Piero di Benedetto de' Franceschi, known as Piero della Francesca (Borgo del Santo Sepolcro, in the upper Tiber valley, c. 1415–Borgo del Santo Sepolcro, October 12, 1492) was a painter Italian Quattrocento (XV century). Today he is appreciated above all as a specialist painter of frescoes, but in his time he was also known as a geometer and mathematician, a master of perspective and Euclidean geometry, subjects on which he concentrated from 1470 on. characterized by his serene style and the use of geometric shapes, particularly in relation to perspective and light. He is one of the main and fundamental figures of the Renaissance, although he never worked for the Medicis and spent little time in Florence.
Biography
The biographical reconstruction of Piero's life is an arduous undertaking to which generations of scholars have devoted themselves, relying on the faintest evidence, on the general scarcity of reliable official documents that have come down to us. His own work has arrived only in fragments, with numerous losses of extreme importance, among which the frescoes executed for the Apostolic Palace stand out, replaced in the 16th century by Raphael's frescoes.
Early Years
Piero was born in an unspecified year between 1406 and 1420, in Sansepolcro, which Vasari calls "Borgo San Sepolcro", a region of Tuscany. In the middle of the XV century, this border territory changed sovereignty on several occasions: initially it was in the hands of Rimini, then it belonged to the Republic of Florence and later became the possession of the Papacy. His date of birth is unknown, because a fire in the communal archives of Sansepolcro destroyed the birth certificates of the civil registry. The first document that mentions Piero as a witness is a testament dated October 8, 1436, from which it follows that the artist must have already been at least the prescribed age of twenty for an official document. According to Giorgio Vasari in The lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters and sculptors from Cimabue to our times, Piero, who died in the year 1492, was 86 years old at the time of his death, which would trace back his date of birth to the year 1406 but this news is considered wrong, since his parents married in 1413.
Piero della Francesca came from a family of merchants, hence he knew math, calculus, algebra, geometry and counting with the abacus. His father was the extremely rich fabric merchant Benedetto de & # 39; Franceschi, and his mother Romana di Perino da Monterchi, a nobleman of an Umbrian family. Other famous figures in Italian history belonged to this aristocratic family, such as Francesco Franceschi (ca. 1530-ca. 1599), an important literary and musical publisher of the Renaissance; Angiolo Franceschi (1734 – 1806), Archbishop of Pisa and Primate of Corsica and Sardinia; and the writer Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci (1803 – 1887), daughter of Antonio Franceschi, doctor and politician, and Countess Maria Spada di Cesi.
It is unknown why, shortly before his death, he was already called "della Francesca", instead of "di Benedetto" or "de' Franceschi », but Vasari's conjecture that she had taken her mother's surname because her husband died when she was pregnant and it was she who raised him, cannot be answered. Piero was the eldest son of the couple, who later had four other brothers (two died at an early age) and a sister.
He was an itinerant artist, who worked in various locations in central and northern Italy, in an attitude comparable to other contemporaries such as Leon Battista Alberti.
He must have had a first education within the family business, to later train as a painter, although it is not known for sure how, although it was probably in San Sepulcro itself, a city on the cultural border, between Florentine and Sienese influences and contributions umbras. He may have learned his art from one of the several Sienese artists who worked in San Sepulcher during his youth. The possibility of training in Umbria has also been suggested, where his taste for landscape painting and the use of delicate colors would come from. The first artist with whom he collaborated was Antonio de Anghiari, his father's partner in the manufacture of banners, active and residing in San Sepulcro, as evidenced on May 27, 1430 by a payment document to Piero for the painting of banners and flags with the insignia of the Commune and of the papal government, placed above a gate in the walls. With Antonio de Anghiari he would collaborate between 1432 and 1436. In 1438 he is again documented in Sansepolcro, where he is mentioned among the other assistants Antonio de Anghiari, who was entrusted, at first, with the commission for the altarpiece in the church of San Francesco (later carried out by Sassetta). Whether Piero trained with Antonio as a teacher is difficult to say, since of this last one no certain work is conserved.
With Domenico Veneziano
In 1439 he is documented for the first time in Florence, where he perhaps received his true training, it may be that he was already there around the year 1435. By then, Masaccio had already been dead for a decade. He was an apprentice with Domenico Veneziano, and on September 7, 1439 he is mentioned among his assistants in a cycle of frescoes dedicated to the Life of the Virgin in the choir of San Gil (currently Santa Maria la Nuova), today lost. He met Fra Angelico, thanks to whom he had access to the work of the late Masaccio and also to other masters of the time such as Brunelleschi. Piero was influenced by Domenico Veneziano's mastery of the art of perspective, luminous painting and the crystal clear and sumptuous palette, but also the modern and vigorous Masaccio, which shaped some of the fundamental characteristics of his later work. Piero He learned about the various solutions that the Florentine Pre-Renaissance gave to the problems of representing the human body and how to reflect three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. On the one hand, the linearism and lyricism of Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli or Filippo Lippi continued to be in force, and on the other, there was the geometric realism of Paolo Uccello. Piero learned how to achieve representing an atmospheric light, adding a large proportion of oil in the color mixtures.
He had probably already collaborated with Domenico in Perugia in 1437-1438 and, according to Vasari, the two also worked in Loreto, on the church of Santa Maria, this work was left unfinished and finished by Luca Signorelli.
The first surviving work is the Virgin and Child, currently in the Florentine Contini Bonacossi Collection, first attributed to Piero in 1942 by Roberto Longhi, dating from 1435 -1440, when Piero was still working as a collaborator of Domenico Veneziano. A glass is painted on the back of the table, as an exercise in perspective.
By 1442 Piero was back in Sansepolcro where he was appointed one of the "consiglieri popolari" of the communal council. On January 11, 1445, he was commissioned by the local Brotherhood of Mercy for an altarpiece for the altar of his church: the contract provided for the completion of the work in three years and its complete autography, although it took several years to complete. the following fifteen years and part of it is due to collaborators of his workshop. Still in the year 1462 the brotherhood of Sansepolcro made a payment to Marco di Benedetto de' Franceschi, Piero's brother and his representative in his absence, on account of this altarpiece. The best-known part of this altarpiece is the central panel, possibly the last to be painted, which represents the Virgin of Mercy. The brotherhood demanded that the background of the altarpiece be golden, an archaic and unusual trait in Piero.
It is very possible that one of his most famous works, the Baptism of Christ, originally the central panel of a large triptych, dates from this early period. Its dating is controversial, to the point that some consider it Piero's first work. Some iconographic elements, such as the presence of Byzantine dignitaries in the background, place the work around 1439, the year of the Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence in which the churches of the West and East were ephemerally reunited. Others date the work later, around 1460.
Travel
 San Jerónimo penitent (1450) |  San Jerónimo and Donor Girolamo Amadi (h. 1450) |
Soon he was requested by various princes. In the 1440s he was at various Italian courts: Urbino, Ferrara, and probably Bologna, making frescoes that have been completely lost. In Ferrara he worked between 1447 and 1448 for Lionello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara. In 1449 he executed several frescoes in the Castillo de los Este and the church of San Andrés de Ferrara, also lost. Perhaps he had his first contact with Flemish painting here, meeting Rogier van der Weyden directly during his supposed trip to Rome or through the works that he had left behind at court. This Flemish influence is particularly evident when one thinks of his early use of oil paint. Piero influenced the later Ferrarese painter Cosme Tura.
March 18, 1450 is documented in Ancona, as evidenced by the will (recently recovered by Matteo Mazzalupi) of the widow of Count Giovanni di messer Francesco Ferretti. In the document, the notary specifies that the witnesses are all "citizens and inhabitants of Ancona", so Piero was probably a guest for some time of the important Anconetan family and perhaps for them he painted the tablet of Penitent Saint Jerome, dated precisely to 1450. The very similar Saint Jerome and the donor Girolamo Amadi comes from the same years. In both there is an interest in the landscape and in the adequate representation of the details, in the variations of the materials and the "lustro" (that is, light reflections), which can only be explained through direct knowledge of Flemish painting. Vasari also recalls some Marriage of the Virgin on the altar of Saint Joseph in the cathedral, which had already disappeared in 1821.
In 1451 he went to Rimini, called by Sigismundo Pandolfo Malatesta. He then executed, for the famous Malatestiano Temple, his well-known monumental votive fresco of Pandolfo Malatesta at the feet of his patron saint , from the year 1451, in which the scene is framed in a trompe l'oeil. He also made a portrait of the condottiere. Here he probably met another famous mathematician and architect of the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti.
In 1452, replacing Bicci di Lorenzo, Piero della Francesca was called upon to carry out what would come to be known as his masterpiece and one of the most significant works of the Renaissance: the frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, dedicated to the Legend of the Holy Cross. It was the Bacci family, the richest in Arezzo, that decided to decorate the choir or main chapel of the church dedicated to San Francisco. In 1447 they hired Bicci di Lorenzo, of late Gothic tradition, but he only managed to finish the fresco on the vault, before passing away. They then hired Piero della Francesca to finish it, dating its completion between the year 1452 and 1466, although it has also been considered possible that it finished before the year 1459. It is very possible that he worked in two phases, a first between 1452 and 1458, and a second on his return from Rome. At the end of 1466, the Aretina brotherhood of the Annunciation commissioned him a banner with the Annunciation, citing in the contract the success of the frescoes of San Francisco as the reason for the commission; therefore, for that date, the cycle had to be finished. In this work you can see characteristics that make Piero a precursor of the High Renaissance, such as the clear composition that masterfully uses geometric perspective, the rich and innovative treatment of light (borrowed from Domenico Veneziano) and its admirable, delicate and clear chromaticism..
Mature Works
The realization of the Arezzo work was simultaneous with that of other works and with his stay in other locations. Thus, in 1453, he returned to Sansepolcro where, the following year, he signed a contract for an altarpiece for the main altar of the Augustinian church, known as the Altarpiece or Polyptych of San Agustín. He worked on this project from 1454 and it was not completed until 1469, as evidenced by the payment made, perhaps the last, on November 14 of that year. In these panels it is evident, once again, his deep interest in the theoretical study of perspective and his contemplative approach. The work is very innovative, lacking a gold background, replaced by an open sky between classicist balusters, and with the figures of the saints of an accentuated linearity and monumentality. Currently only four panels remain.
He was also in Rome, on at least two occasions. A first time, called by Pope Nicholas V (d. 1455), in which he executed frescoes in the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, of which only remains remain, specifically a painted Saint Lucas probably by his workshop, while nothing has been preserved of the entirely autograph works. The second time, it was when he called him Pope Pius II, who had just been elected. Before leaving Sansepolcro, he appointed his brother Marco de el as his representative, in anticipation of a long absence. Pius II commissioned him to paint his room in the Apostolic Palace; this work was destroyed in the XVI century to make way for the first of the Vatican Rooms of Raphael. The papal treasury issued a document, dated April 12, 1459, for the payment of 140 florins for "certain paintings" in the "chamber of the Holiness of our Lord."
Other mature works are the Virgin in Childbirth (1455-1465) and The Resurrection of Christ (1450-1463). The Madonna del Parto was created in just seven days, for the chapel of the old church of Santa Maria de Nomentana in the Monterchi cemetery, a neighboring village of Sansepolcro and where his mother came from. The iconographic model, the Virgin of Childbirth, was not very frequent. She used high-quality materials, including a considerable amount of navy blue that was sourced from imported lapis lazuli. In this work, Piero's obsession with symmetry can be appreciated, which leads him to place two identical angels, one on each side of the Virgin, using the same cardboard. The Resurrection of Christ, for its part, is a remarkable work for using different perspectives. It was painted in Arezzo, near his hometown, while he was working on the frescoes of the Legend of the Holy Cross.
On November 6, 1459, Piero's mother died and on February 20, 1464, his father. In the year 1460 he was in Sansepolcro, where he signed and dated the fresco of San Luis de Tolosa . It must be remembered that in 1462 they made a payment for the Polyptych of Mercy. In 1466 Piero painted the fresco of a Magdalena in the Cathedral of Arezzo, and they commissioned him, as already noted, the banner for the confraternity of the Annunciation, which he delivered in Arezzo in the year 1468.
In the year 1467 in Perugia he executed on behalf of the tertiary sisters of the convent of San Antonio an altarpiece, known as the Polyptych of San Antonio. They commissioned a late-Gothic-inspired work from him, but at the top is the highlight: the Annunciation on the gable is clearly Renaissance in print, showing his mastery of perspective.
In 1468 he is documented in Bastia Umbra, where he had taken refuge to escape the plague. There he made at least one other lost painted gonfalon.
Urbino
In 1469, with the Arezzo frescoes and the Saint Augustine altarpiece already finished, Piero was in Urbino, at the service of Federico de Montefeltro. The periods of his stay in Urbino are not clear, it seems that he was certainly there between 1469 and 1472, but some authors delay his departure until 1480. It was a time in which he produced paintings of remarkable quality. Piero is considered one of the protagonists and promoters of the Renaissance in Urbino, and his own style achieves in this city an unsurpassed balance between the use of rigorous geometric rules and a serenely monumental air. At the court of Urbino he deepened his knowledge of Flemish painting, both through the duke's collection and through the presence of Justo de Gante, who between 1471 and 1472 settled in Italy, first in Rome but later, invited by Federico de Montefeltro, at the court of Urbino, where he stayed until October 1475. He would not be the only outstanding artist whom he met in Urbino, since there he also came into contact with Melozzo da Forlì and Luca Pacioli.
Here he painted the famous double portrait of Federico de Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza (c. 1465-1472), now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, entitled Triumph of Chastity. It shows the influence of Flemish painting in the treatment of the landscape and in the meticulousness and love for detail.
In 1469 Piero is documented in Urbino, where the Brotherhood of Corpus commissioned him to paint a processional banner. On that occasion the master was also proposed to paint the Corpus Domini Altarpiece, already commissioned to Fra Carnevale, then to Paolo Uccello (1467), who painted only the predella, and in the end finished by Justo of Ghent in 1473-1474. In the year 1470 Federico da Montefeltro is documented in Sansepolcro, perhaps in the company of Piero.
The flagellation (c. 1470, although others date it to 1452), one of his best-known paintings, belongs to this time in Urbino. Apparently, it was a personal creation that did not depend on any commission and that shows that Piero was aware of the architectural innovations of the time; it is controversial as to its exact meaning (see Iconic Interpretations of this painting).
In the Virgin of Senigallia, a work also from this period, its contact with Flemish art can be seen. Also from this period is the Sacra Conversation, called today Pala de Brera because it is kept in the Pinacoteca de Brera (Milan) and is also known as Madonna of the Duke of Urbino . It was commissioned for the church of San Donato degli Osservanti in Urbino, possibly completed around the year 1474. In this majestic work, he places the figures in a harmonious and polychrome architectural framework reminiscent of the creations of Leon Battista Alberti, in particular the church of Saint Andrew in Mantua. He adopts a relatively new form in Christian iconography, that of "sacred conversation." It is very probable that the court painter Pedro Berruguete also took part in the realization of the altarpiece, to whose brush Roberto Longhi attributes the hands of Federico.
It is believed that it was in Urbino that he painted the Nativity (1470-1485), which is now in London. It is one of Piero's last works, when he was already going blind, believing that for this reason it was left unfinished, although its state may also be due to restorations from past centuries. It was commissioned by his nephew, on the occasion of his marriage. Some critics develop the hypothesis that the face of the Virgin was made by another "flamenco" hand. Also attributed to this period is the Madonna and Child and Four Angels at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Last years
In the year 1473 a payment is recorded, perhaps still from the Polyptych of San Agustín. In 1474 he reciprocated the last payment for a lost painting, destined for the chapel of the Virgin of the abbey of Sansepolcro. From July 1, 1477, until 1480, he lived, with some interruptions, in Sansepolcro, where he was a regular member of the communal council. In the year 1478 he painted a lost fresco for the Chapel of Mercy, still in Sansepolcro. Between 1480 and 1482 he was in charge of the Brotherhood of San Bartolomé in his hometown.
Piero della Francesca is documented in Rimini on April 22, 1482, where he rented "a mansion with a well." Here he dedicated himself to the writing of the Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus , completed in the year 1485 and dedicated to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro. He made a will on July 5, 1487, declaring himself "sound of spirit, mind, and body." In his last years, painters such as Perugino and Luca Signorelli frequently visited his workshop.
Although his mathematical work is little less than completely ignored today, Piero was, during his lifetime, a renowned mathematician. According to Giorgio Vasari, "...artists awarded him the title of the best geometer of his times, because surely his perspectives have a modernity, a better design and a greater grace than any other". It is also Vasari who says that in recent years he was affected by a serious eye disease that prevented him from working. For this reason he abandoned painting and dedicated himself exclusively to his theoretical work, which he wrote while dictating it.
He died in Sansepolcro on October 12, 1492, the same day that Christopher Columbus set foot on America for the first time. He was buried in the abbey of Sansepolcro, today the Duomo .
Mathematical Treatises
Three very important texts written by Piero are known, among the most scientific of the XV century: the De prospective pingendi ("On perspective for painting"), Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus ("Little Book of the Five Regular Solids") and a calculation manual entitled Trattato dell 'abaco ("Treatise on the abacus").
The topics covered in these writings include arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and innovative works in both geometry of solids and perspective. They reveal his contact with Alberti. In these three mathematical works there is a synthesis between Euclidean geometry, belonging to the school of scholars, and mathematics with the abacus, reserved for technicians.
The first work was the Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus, a treatise dedicated to geometry, which took up ancient themes from the Platonic-Pythagorean tradition, always studied with the intention that they can be used as elements of design. It is inspired by Euclidean lessons for the logical order of expressions, for references and the coordinated and complex use of theorems, while it approaches the demands of technicians for the predictability of the treated, solid and polyhedral figures, and for the absence of classical proofs and for the use of arithmetic and algebraic rules applied to the calculations. In the text, in particular, regular and semiregular polyhedra are drawn for the first time, studying the relationships that exist between the five regular ones.
In the second treatise, De prospective pingendi continued in the same line of study, but with notable novelties, to the point that Piero can be defined as one of the fathers of modern technical drawing; in fact, he preferred axonometry to perspective, considering it more consistent with a geometric model. Among the problems solved, the calculation of the volume of the vault and the architectural elaboration of the constructions of the domes stand out.
The Trattato d'abaco, on applied mathematics (calculus) was written perhaps as early as 1450, thirty years before the Libellus. The title is from the modern period, because the original lacks it. The geometric and algebraic part is very broad in relation to the customs of his time, as well as the experimental part on which the author has explored unconventional elements.
Much of Piero's work was later included in the works of others, especially Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan who was a disciple of Piero and whom Vasari directly accuses of copying and plagiarizing his teacher. Piero's work on solid geometry appears in Pacioli's De divina proportione (Divine Proportion), a work illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci.
The workshop
Critics are divided on the collaboration of various artists in his workshop (among others Lorentino d'Arezzo, Luca Signorelli and Perugino); on the other hand, the only student that has been documented is Galeotto da Perugia. Among his collaborators, mention should be made of Giovanni da Piamonte, with whom he worked on the execution of the frescoes in San Francisco; The panel preserved near the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Città di Castello is by this author, in which the influences of Piero della Francesca are surely present.
In life he was very famous and his impact is noticeable in later generations, even if it was not painters who worked directly with him. He left several disciples and followers: in addition to Luca Pacioli, Melozzo da Forli and Luca Signorelli.
Style
Piero della Francesca is a 14th century painter, belonging to the second generation of Renaissance painters, intermediate between Fra Angelico and Botticelli. He assumed the findings of the first Florentine Renaissance school of authors such as Paolo Uccello, Masaccio and Domenico Veneziano. He did not travel to Flanders, but he did see Flemish painting, so he made a kind of symbiosis between the Italian Renaissance and Flemish painting.
He prevailed, like the other great masters of his time, creativity. He worked on new techniques, such as the use of canvas as a pictorial support and oil. And he also dealt with novel themes, not only the ubiquitous religious painting, such as portraiture and the representation of Nature. He has a very particular pictorial style and is therefore easy to identify. In his work the Brunelleschian geometric perspective, the plasticity of Masaccio, the very high light that clarifies the shadows and soaks up the colors of Fra Angélico and Domenico Veneziano, as well as the precise description and attentive against the reality of the Flemings, converge in his work. Other fundamental characteristics of his poetic expression are the geometric simplification, both of the composition and of the volumes, the ceremonial immobility of the gestures, the attention to human truth.
His works are admirably balanced between art, geometry and a complex system of reading on many levels, where complex theological, philosophical and current issues come together. He managed to harmonize, both in his life and in his works, the intellectual and spiritual values of his time, condensing multiple influences and mediating between tradition and modernity, between religiosity and the new affirmations of Humanism, between rationality and aesthetics.
His activity can be characterized as a process that goes from pictorial practice to mathematics and abstract speculation. His artistic production, characterized by the extreme rigor of the perspectival search, the plastic monumentality of the figures, the expressive use of light, profoundly influenced the Renaissance painting of northern Italy and, in particular, the Ferraresa school. and Venetian.
His work is characterized by a classical dignity, similar to Masaccio's. The term that best defines his art is that of "tranquility", which does not prevent him from having a rigorous technical treatment. He also perceives the will to build a rational and coherent space. Piero was very interested in the problems of chiaroscuro and perspective, like his contemporary Melozzo da Forli. Piero della Francesca and Melozzo da Forlì are the most famous masters of perspective of the XV century, recognized as such by Giorgio Vasari and Luca Pacioli. He stands out for his knowledge of perspective and composition, which was influenced by his mathematical knowledge, fusing art with the science of mathematics, geometry and perspective. Linear perspective was his main characteristic when it came to painting, which can be seen in all of his paintings, which are basically distinguished by their bright colors and a soft but firm line in the figures. His compositions are clear, balanced, reflecting architecture with mathematical precision. Without giving up trompe l'oeil effects, Piero used perspective to plan the grandiose naturalistic compositions.
In these serene landscapes he introduced the figures of the characters with a very volumetric treatment: an anatomical study is perceived, and a certain monumentality. However, they are very static characters, who remain frozen and suspended in their own movements, resulting in a bit cold, inexpressive, monolithic. This lack of nervousness is the opposite of the rest of the Renaissance painters in Florence, who as time progressed made more and more dynamic figures. Roberto Longhi, when he talks about Piero della Francesca, says that his figures are "columns". The treatment of the figures in simple volumes expresses a feeling of timelessness, as does the harmony of the light tones; all this expresses the poetic sense of the art of Piero della Francesca.
Atmospheric light is another of his prominent features, which he acquired from his teacher Domenico Veneziano, and which served to symbolize the perfection of divine Creation. It is very diaphanous, very daytime, with a uniform treatment, without intensities or light gradation (slightly archaic, similar to that of Fra Angélico). His essays in this sense come to give the sensation that his figures are modeled in material endowed with its own, intimate, radiant light. Frescoes such as the Legend of the Holy Cross, in the apse of the Church of San Francesco, in Arezzo, are a luminous work of art.
Works
List of his works (panel paintings and frescoes) in chronological order.
- Virgin with Child (h. 1440) - Temple on board, 53x41 cm, private collection, Italy
- Polyptic of Mercy (1444-1465) - Oil and temple on board, 273x330 cm, Civic Museum, Sansepolcro
- Baptism of Christ (1440-1460, insecure dating) - Temple on board, 167x116 cm, National Gallery, London.
- San Jerónimo Penitente (1450) - Temple on board, 51x38 cm, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
- San Jerónimo and Donor Girolamo Amadi (h. 1450) - Temple on board, 49x42 cm, Galleries of the Academy, Venice
- Segismundo Pandolfo Malatesta praying to St. (1451) - Fresco, 257x345 cm, Malatestian Temple, Rimini
- Portrait of Segismundo Pandolfo Malatesta (1451-1460) - Mixed technique on board, 44,5x34,5 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris
- Legend of the Holy Cross (1452-1466) - Frescos, San Francisco, Arezzo
- The Death of Adam- 390x747 cm
- The worship of the Sacred Tree by the queen of Saba and The meeting between Solomon and the queen of Saba- 336x747 cm
- Opening and burial of the Sacred Tree (execution by Giovanni da Piamonte) - 356x190 cm
- Announcement- 329x193 cm
- "The dream of Constantine" - 320x190 cm
- Victory of Constantine over Majencio in Puente Milvio- 322x764 cm
- Torture of the Hebrew Judas Levita (with Giovanni da Piedmont) - 356x193 cm
- Discovery and proof of the Vera Cruz- 356x747 cm
- Battle between the Byzantine Emperor Heraclio and Cosroes II- 329x747 cm
- Exaltation (or restitution) of the Cross- 390x747 cm
- The Prophet Ezekiel (execution of Giovanni da Piamonte) - base 193 cm
- The Prophet Jeremiah- 245x165 cm
- Angel- fragment, base 70 cm
- Cupid- base 70 cm
- Poliptic of Saint Augustine (1454-1469) - Mixed technique on board, dismembered and partially dispersed
- San Agustín- 133x60 cm, National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon
- San Miguel Archangel- 133x59.5 cm, National Gallery, London
- San Juan Evangelista- 131.5x57.8 cm, Frick Collection, New York
- San Nicolás de Tolentino- 136x59 cm, Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan
- Santa Monica- 39x28 cm, Frick Collection, New York
- Holy Agustinian- 39x28 cm, Frick Collection, New York
- Holy Apolonia- 39x28 cm, National Art Gallery, Washington D. C.
- Crucifixion- 37,50x41 cm, Frick Collection, New York
- San Julián (1454-1458) - Partly broken, 130x80 cm, Civic Museum, Sansepolcro
- The Magdalena (1460-1466) - Fresco, 190x105 cm, Cathedral, Arezzo
- Virgin of childbirth (1455-1465) - Fresco, 260x203 cm, Museo de la Virgen del Parto, Monterchi
- The Resurrection (1450-1463) - Fresco, 225x200 cm, Civic Museum, Sansepolcro
- San Luis de Tolosa (1460) - Partly broken, 123x90 cm, Civic Museum, Sansepolcro
- Políptico de San Antonio (1460-1470) - Mixed technique on board, 338x230 cm, National Gallery of Umbria, Perugia
- Double portrait of the Dukes of UrbinoOn the reverse, Federico de Montefeltro and Battista Sforza (h. 1465-1472) - Oil on board, 47x33 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
- Sacra Conversation (Pala de Brera, Retablo Montefeltro, 1469-1474) - Mixed technique on board, 248x170 cm, Pinacoteca de Brera, Milan
- The flogging of Christ (h. 1470) - Mixed technique on board, 58,4x81,5 cm, National Gallery of Marks, Urbino
- Hercules (h. 1470) - Brake removed from the wall, 151x126 cm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
- Virgin of Senigallia (1470-1485) - Oil on paper taken to board, 61x53.5 cm, National Gallery of Marks, Urbino
- Nativity (1470-1485) - Oil on board, 124x123 cm, National Gallery, London
- Virgin with the Child and four angels (1475-1482) - Mixed technique on board, 107.8x78.4cm, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown (Massachusetts)
- Portrait of a child. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (?) (h. 1483) - Temple on board, 41x27.5cm, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Works from the workshop
- Virgin with Child (h. 1450-1460) - Mixed technique on board, 62x53cm, Cini Foundation, Venice
- San Lucas (1458-1459) - Fresco in fragments, Santa María la Mayor, Rome
- (Luca Signorelli?) Virgin with Child and three angels -Christ Church, Oxford
- (Luca Signorelli?) Virgin with Child and an Angel -Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Inspirations
Bohuslav Martinů wrote a work in three movements for large orchestra entitled Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca, H. 352 (1955). Dedicated to Rafael Kubelik, he premiered it together with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival in 1956.
The singer-songwriter Javier Krahe dedicated a satirical song to him entitled Piero Della Francesca on his 2002 album Cábalas y Cicatrices. his facet as a geometer.