a group of horses in the flight and submersion of Maxentius, these animals being foreshortened with such extraordinary skill, that when the time in which they were executed is considered, we may truly declare them to be excellent and beautiful beyond measure.[1] A figure, partly nude, partly clothed in Saracenic vestments, and seated on a meagre horse, is also in this work, and displays the knowledge which Piero della Francesca possessed of anatomy, a science but imperfectly understood in his time. For all these things, the artist well deserved the large rewards bestowed on him by Luigi Baeci, whose portrait, with those of Carlo and others of his brothers, he has depicted in the figures present at the decapitation of a king, which makes part of the story. The portraits of other Aretine citizens, distinguished as men of letters, accompany those of Luigi and his brothers, by whom Piero was highly esteemed, as he was indeed by the whole city, which he had so richly adorned and ennobled by his works.[2]
In the episcopal church of Arezzo, Piero della Francesca executed a Santa Maria Maddalena in fresco,[3] beside the door of the sancristy; and for the brotherhood of the Nunzata, he painted the banner which they carry in procession.[4] He likewise depicted San Donato in episcopal robes with figures of children, on a seat drawn in perspective at the head of the cloister belonging to Santa Maria delle Grazie, and at San Bernardo he executed a figure of San Vincenzio, in a high niche of the wall, for the monks of Monte Oliveto, which is much esteemed by artists. In a chapel at Sargiano, a residence of the Frati Zoccolanti,[5] situated outside of Arezzo,
- ↑ The original has, “too beautiful and too excellent;” troppo belli e troppo eccellenti.
- ↑ Rumohr, Italienesche Forschungen, 2, 336, note, describes these works as mannered and feebly executed; he does not believe them to be by Piero della Francesca. They are also described by Dragomanni, Monographie, p. 20, but he does not clearly distinguish the order of the arrangement, and the reader will find a more satisfactory account of them in Gaye.
- ↑ Still in existence.
- ↑ No trace of this work now remains.
- ↑ The Zoccolanti are Franciscan monks, so called from having originally worn wooden shoes or sandals (zoccoli): they are sometimes called the Barefooted Friars.
