Borgo San Sepolcro,—now a city, which it was not at that time,—and was called Della Francesca, from the name of his mother; whom the death of her husband and his father had left a widow before he was born, and because he had been brought up solely by herself, who furthermore assisted him in the attainment of that learning to which his good fortune had destined him. Piero gave considerable attention to mathematics in his early youth; and although he was induced to become a painter in his fifteenth year, he yet never deserted the study of that science; but, on the contrary, made extraordinary progress therein, as well as in painting. He was much employed by Guidobaldo Feltro the elder, Duke of Drbino,[1] for whom he executed many pictures. These works comprised numerous small figures, and were extremely beautiful, but have, for the most part, been much injured, or altogether destroyed in the many times that this Duchy has been disturbed by wars.[2] Some of the writings of Piero della Francesca, on geometry and the laws of perspective, are nevertheless still preserved there. In knowledge of these sciences Piero was certainly not inferior to the best-informed of his contemporaries; nay, was per-
- ↑ Guid’ Ubaldo, of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, was bom in 1472, when Piero was already old and blind. The prince here meant may be Guid’ Antonio di Montefeltro, Count of Urbino, who died fifteen years before Piero become blind, or it may have been Federigo, son of Guido Antonio.
- ↑ The only well-authenticated work of Piero della Francesca now to be found in Urbino is a small picture of the Scourging of Christ; it may be seen in the sacristy of the cathedral, and bears the inscription “Opus Petri de Burgo Sci Sepulcri.” Pungileoni attributes a picture in the sacristy or San Bartolommeo with six others in the sacristy of the cathedral to this master; but Gaye considers them to be by no means worthy of him, and denies their authenticity. The later Florentine commentators inform us that there is a small work by Piero in the Gallery of the Uffizj, in which are the portraits of Federigo di Montefeltro, and of Battista Sforza, his wife.
temperance and judgment. Nay, Vasari himself has in part withdrawn the accusation of the text, by excluding from his second edition a certain epitaph on Piero, wherein the supposed plagiarisms of Fra Luca were alluded to with reprobation, and which Vasari had inserted in his first edition. Taxgiom, Viaggi, &c. vol. ii. p. 65, repeats the charge of Vasari, which Lauzi and, after him, some of the later commentators, also consider to be well founded: the reader is therefore referred to these authorities, by whom he will find the question ftilly discussed.
