BOOK - PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA - No34 - ORAMA PUBLICATIONS

Piero della Francesca was born around 1416 in Borgo San Sepolcro, Italy, to a family of leather and wool merchants.

For Piero, who was the eldest scion of the family, he was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and become a merchant. So the supervision of his education was assigned to a mathematics teacher.

Piero was taught the basic tools of commercial accounting, arithmetic, algebra and geometry- but while he maintained a keen interest in mathematical science throughout his life, he soon began to follow his artistic inclination. Thanks to his father's connections, Piero was able to enter antonio di Angiari's famous workshop in San Sepolcro. Thus, Piero's artistic apprenticeship took place in a provincial environment and his education was, as it was appropriate, traditional.

In 1432 he helped Antonio create a retal for st. Francis' church in Borgo, and as a document of 1436 attests, he later worked with his teacher on the emblems of the city. The talented Piero, however, felt that these minor tasks did not provide enough challenges and eventually left his hometown to devote himself to his passion for travel. [. . .] When Piero arrived in Florence in 1438-39, the cultural revival of the city had already begun.

Although ten years had passed since Mazaccio's death, the full impact of his influence had not yet been felt. Young painters were inspired by the Gothic tradition and placed greater emphasis on color and elegant compositions. Thanks to the multitude of collectors within the Florentine bourgeoisie, Flemish paintings became increasingly well-known, while several painters showed their interest in the refined use of light.

One of the first artists to assimilate these innovations was the Dominican monk Fra Angelico, who combined the rules of perspective with bright, clear colors in which light acquires an almost mystical aura. And Filippo Lippi experimented with the techniques of light, especially after he became familiar with Northern European art during a visit to Padova.

In his works he uses a discreet game of light and shadow to elegantly depict scenes of reality. Paolo Uccello focused on bold prospective solutions, an obsession that led him to represent an almost metaphysical view of the world. His math-rigour and the epic element of some of his paintings greatly influenced Piero's works. (From the version)