The Cambridge Companion to Piero della Francesca

by Jeryldene M. Wood

Overview

As a great master of the early Renaissance, Piero della Francesca created paintings for ecclesiastics, confaternities, and illustrious nobles throughout the Italian peninsula. Since the early twentieth century, the rational space, abstract designs, lucid illumination and naturalistic details of his pictures have attracted wide audiences. Piero's treatises on mathematics and perspective fascinate scholars in a wide range of disciplines. This Companion brings together new essays that offer a synthesis and overview of Piero's life and accomplishments as a painter and theoretician.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521652544
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/03/2002
Series:	Cambridge Companions to the History of Art
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

1. The Misericordia Polyptych: reflections on spiritual and visual culture in Sansepolcro Diane Cole Ahl; 2. The spiritual world of Piero's art Timothy Verdon; 3. Piero's Legend of the True Cross and the friars of San Francesco Jeryldene M. Wood; 4. Piero's meditation on the Nativity Marilyn Aronberg Lavin; 5. 'Troppo belli e troppo eccellenti': observations on dress in the work of Piero della Francesca Jane Bridgeman; 6. Piero della Francesca's ruler portraits Joanna Woods-Marsden; 7. The Renaissance prospettiva: perspectives of the ideal city Philip Jacks; 8. Piero's treatises: the mathematics of form Margaret Daly Davis; 9. Piero della Francesca's mathematics J. V. Field; 10. Piero's parnassus of modern painters and poets Anne B. Barriault.

Editorial Reviews

"The Cambridge University Press is to be congratulated for making available in English these fine studies of great and influential early Italian Renaissance artists...will be the standard by which other works on these artists will be judged." Aaron W. Godfrey, Stony Brook University

"A wide-ranging and stimulating compendium. [Essays] are written by eminent scholars and yield a rich picture of Piero's life and art." Confraternitas

"Authors have commendably reviewed a vast literature on the painter, and several of them offer interesting interpretations of his works." Sixteenth Century Journal

From the Publisher

The term which implies a resource for students, scarcely does justice to this series, which provides scholarly essays by leading scholars in the field. For Piero the topics include: the local saint's tale that influenced his Legend of the True Cross, the style of costume used in his paintings, his ruler portraits, his treatises on mathematics and their influence, the sources and iconography of the Misericordia Polyptych, and the influence of Piero's work on modern painters. Wood, who teaches art history at the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, provides a lengthy introduction on the state of research. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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