Vasari's Life of The Artists/ Piero della Francesco

Among Tuscan contemporaries, Giorgio Vasari includes Piero della Francesca in his Lives of The Artists. Before he describes his paintings, Vasari explains what happened to Piero through his life and mentions his successes in both geometry and arithmetic. Vasari starts by stating his birth that Piero was a man born in Borgo San Sepolero in 1420. When his mother was pregnant with him, his father and grandfather had already died. In his youth, Vasari mentions Piero’s great interest to the mathematics, as well as at least the great interest to the painting. Due to the fact that he combined his profound enlightenment with his paintings, he was employed by the Duke of Urbino, Montefeltro. As Vasari praises his works, Piero was using so many details which include subtlety and foreshortening as seen in the paintings for Duke of Urbino. Unluckily, these painting have been damaged due to a war, however, his writings on geometry and perspective are preserved somehow.

As Vasari tells, Piero was a man who wants to make a name for himself known in other places. Thereby, he goes to Pesaro and Ancona, paints a large number of rooms in Duke Borso’s palace. Once more, his works are ruined because Duke Ercole who modernized the style, takes the place of Duke Borso. Even humidity damaged his frescos in the church of Sant’Agostino. Briefly, there was nothing left by Piero in these places. Then, he continued his paintings in Rome for Pope Nicholas V, likewise, these painted two scenes were torn down for the new paintings.

Upon his mother’s death, he returned to Borgo and maintains his works there. Vasari praises a panel he painted for the main altar in Saint Augustine, a fresco of Madonna della Misericordia and Resurrection of Christ in Palazzo de’ Conservatori. Among his paintings that are full of talent and technique, if a work needs to be given as a perfect example, depiction of “Night” can be an example what technique he was using and how he was using it. As Vasari adores his work, Piero uses the shadow effect of the night on the figures to show how heavenly visitors are illuminating the surroundings with their own light and by using the darkness effect, Piero makes us realize how important to imitate real things. Moreover, what he has done in his works were imitated by other moderns painters. Not only the work of Night is imporant, but also a battle scene in fresco is worthy to glorify as Vasari states due to usage of emotions, manners and lustre effect on the figures in a strong way. Furthermore, Vasari says that he deserves a respect because of his knowledge of foreshortening as we see on the other wall depiction and anatomy which is underestimated in his days. Vasari also mentions his other paintings which are a fresco of Saint Mary Magdalene, a banner for the Confraternity of the Annunciation, a Saint Donatus in perspective seated for Santa Maria delle Grazie. In addition to them, for the monks of Monte Oliverto there is a work which is greatly valued by artisans and Christ praying in the Garden at Night for a chapel outside Arezzo. Besides, he worked in Perugia, did a panel in tempera of the Madonna and Child with Saint Francis, Saint Elizabeth, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anthony of Padua in the Church of the Nuns of Saint Anthony of Padua by using diminishing perspective. In addition, he was using clay models a lot because he thinks that this method can provide him to sketch them in a various way due to using wet clothes on the models.

Vasari not only describes Piero’s paintings, but also mentions how diligent student Piero was and how knowledgeable he was about drawing in perspective and euclid usage. Thereby, as he states that these people as diligent as Pierro, might be usurped by someone else that a student whose name is Fra Luca del Borgo exactly did it. He removed Piero’s name after his death and used his own name.

When Piero was sixty, an attack of catarrh made him blind. Although some of his works burned and ruined in 1536 due to civil uprisings, his books still can be found in the library of Duke Federigo II. He lived until he was eighty six years old and was buried honourably by the close citizens to him.

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Aysara Özenç, 2019