\paperw4995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \f1 \ATXsh255 Italian painter.\ATXsh4607 \par
\ATXsh255 Piero della FrancescaÆs first known works show a profound knowledge of the Tuscan art o
f the early fifteenth century and lead us to presume that he had spent time in Florence. His presence in the chief city of Tuscany is documented in 1439, when he collaborated with Domenico Veneziano on a lost cycle of frescoes in the church of SantÆEgidi
o. In Florence the young artist was attracted not only by the frescoes of Masaccio but also by the limpid spatial structures and use of color in the works of Fra Angelico. At the same time, Piero continued his study of the rules of perspective proposed b
y Leon Battista Alberti. Between 1440 and 1445, the artist painted the \i Baptism of Christ\i0 (London, National Gallery), drawing on his experiences in Florence. The powerful impact of the painting derives from very sharp contrasts of light and shade.
In 1451 Piero painted a votive fresco for Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, in the Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini, whose composition is characterized by an abstract and ceremonial fixity. The following year, on the death of Bicci di Lorenzo, he took over the
decoration of the church of San Francesco at Arezzo with frescoes depicting the \i Legend of the True Cross\i0 . Around the same time he painted the \i Flagellation\i0 (Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche), the \i Madonna del Parto\i0 in Monterchi
, and the \i Resurrection\i0 in Sansepolcro, in which the triumphal image of Christ seems to be echoed in the luxury of the natural setting. From the 1460s onward the artist developed ever closer ties with the court of Urbino, drawing inspiration for hi
s mathematical and rational approach to painting from what was the center of the intellectual art of the day. Here Piero painted the \i Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino\i0 and the \i Madonna with the Duke of Urbino as Donor\i0 (Milan, Brera)
, known as the \i Brera Madonna\i0 . These works reflect the influence of Flemish art and a new sensitivity for the richness of chromatic relationships. In Urbino, moreover, Piero wrote a treatise on painting, \i De perspectiva pingendi\i0 , in which the
artist explained how to achieve a harmony of forms and space in scientific terms, in a manner that complements the concrete results of these ideas that can be seen in his paintings.\ATXsh4607
