Medal of John VIII Palaeologus

Transcription

Piero della Francesca is not from Florence, not from Venice, he is from a small town near Arezzo. And the town is named Borgo Santa Sepolcro, which is "the village of the Holy Sepulchre." So, he's a native of the Borgo Santa Sepolcro. He does go out to create works of art for various patrons including the Duke of Urbino. But, you know, he does come home and work in the Borgo Santa Sepolcro, as well see, and also in nearby Arezzo. At the end of his life, it's said that I think he was going blind or was getting hard to see. But at the end of his life, he wrote mathematical treatises on geometry. And you will see that he has a sense of geometry, of simplified and almost perhaps stereometric forms. In his painting, and of course, very interested in perspective, although maybe interested in other things as well. I should tell you something about his name. Francesca is "Francis", but with the "a" on the end, it is a feminine name. And you'll notice "della." That's feminine. It's "Piero of Francesca." Well, the book tells us the story about his widowed mother and he's taking the mother's name. But it turns out it doesn't seem to be her given name - her family were the Francesci. So it's been made a feminine "Francesca" because of the widowed mother At least that's the story I understood. So his name is Piero. And we have to distinguish him because there's a lot of people named Piero. So we would always have to say, "Piero della Francesca" except, you know, I'm going to be talking about him, and I'll call him Piero because you know which one I'm talking about. But there are other Piero artists, as well. This is his Baptism of Christ. It was probably created in the 40s or 50s... around 1450. And well, I should tell you something about Piero's... ...the appreciation of Piero della Francesca. He was not very appreciated, except by a very few number of people, in the 19th century. And then, in the 20th century with art movements such as cubism, they saw him as sort of like a patriot. They saw geometric forms within his work And he became much appreciated and became an extremely important painter for people who are studying Renaissance art. Okay, this is the Baptism of Christ. Christ is standing right in the center. John is pouring water from the Jordan river over his head. And you might notice that the Jordan river, where Christ is standing, it looks absolutely... well, there's no water. And then you see the water behind him. There is a legend that when Christ stepped in the Jordan river, the river stopped flowing. And I think that's what he's trying to show here is this miracle. Now, the other figures. We see these three figures on the left. They are angels in attendance on Christ. And then behind John, there is a number of people, but there is one man who seems to be pulling off his tunic. He's going to get baptized next. He wants to be baptized and then other people on the river bank. And I should also point out the Dove of the Holy Spirit. Remember this is where we get the iconography of the Holy Spirit as a Dove because what happens when... ...what the Bible says is when John baptises Jesus, there is a voice that they hear from heaven and it says, "And the spirit of the Lord descends like a dove" or "as a dove." In other words, it's a metaphor for the spirit of God. And a voice is heard and it says, "This is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased." But because of that metaphor of the Spirit... you know, the Spirit is descending a dove The Spirit of God is descending as a dove. That becomes a symbol of the Holy Spirt. And he's foreshortened. He's hovering. He has a little disc halo, actually, it looks like. But the dove is hovering there. And, you know, he's... ...you've got clouds that are sort of horizontal in the same way, but the dove does stand out. You'll notice that there are a lot of vertical elements, that there is this tree that grows up. And the color of the tree is so close to the color, which of course is warmer, of Christ's skin. But it's like the shadows. And Christ is this columnar figure. We said he's interested in geometry. And then some of the angels, particularly the one in the middle, who is dressed in really almost a classical garment with the folds of the cloth following like fluting from a column. So there's this sort of repetition of vertical forms here. The lighting is very diffuse. It's a bright day. It bleaches out the color. And the shadows are very soft as though it has intense light. It's calm, clear, and there are very subtle light reflections in the water. You can see the surrounding vegetation reflected in the water. This Resurrection is believed to have come from the late 1450's, perhaps around 1458. And it was... I think it was created for the city hall. It's been moved. But it was created for the Borgo Santa Sepolcro - a perfect subject. Because we are talking about the Holy Sepulcher, and that's exactly what you see here in the form of a sarcophagus, a classical sarcophagus. Sometimes, you will see the Tomb of Christ as kind of a rock-cut tomb, sometimes into almost a cave. Sometimes, you'll see it as a classical sarcophagus. Sometimes, you'll see both. So the sarcophagus is inside the cave. This also has a kind of geometry of form. We have Christ's head as the pinnacle of a triangle. It's an isosceles triangle which you can sort of follow down his raised, well, both arms. And then our eye continues down to the back of the sleeping soldier on the left and the same implication of the triangle continuing on the right side. Then you have the strong horizontal of the sarcophagus which is pretty much covered up with the sleeping soldiers. There in groups that also kind of form a horizontal. And then Christ is the vertical. You might notice how physical Christ looks. He is not wafting out of the sarcophagus. He is stepping out and He's got His leg firmly planted on the edge of the sarcophagus So He's getting ready to step out. He's holding the Banner of the Resurrection, and the garment, presumably being the winding cloth, he gives a rosy hue to, presumably, so that it will contrast with the pale skin and soft shadows in Christ's anatomy. Christ is in a sense a hierarchical figure. He's frontal. He's a solid physical presence, and he seems to have weight and mass. It is sort of a testament or representation of the bodily resurrection of Christ. And you've got the vertical element of his body, you've got the vertical element of the staff, and the vertical elements of the trees. Now, you may notice in the background that on Christ's... huh, that's interesting...it's on our left. It seems to me that it should be on Christ's left, but on our left, we see a dead tree. And on our right, we see a living tree. Obviously this is a contrast of life and death. Christ was dead, but He has returned to life. And there are also stories about the tree of knowledge, which withered and became the cross of Christ -- the wood was used for the wood of the cross. And then, planted in paradise, became fruitful. And then the biblical warning about... ...the tree that bares good fruit contrasted to the tree that does not bare fruit and eventually is cut down. But here is this idea of life and death contrasted. He also spent a considerable about of time painting this chapel in the church of San Francesco at Arezzo from the late 1440's into 1465. The frescoes show the story of The Legend of the True Cross. And you can see there are scenes going up the wall and smaller scenes on either side of the window. And I'm not going to show you all of them because of time, once again. What is the Legend of the True Cross? Well, it is a very elaborate medieval legend telling where the wood came from that went to make the cross of Christ. And you may remember that there where a number of places that said they had small pieces of the True Cross. So this goes along with that type of devotion. The story was that the tree of knowledge from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden eventually is used for the cross of Christ. So, how does the story go? Well, like I said, I'm leaving out some of the pictures. I'm sorry, but it's just time. One of the first in the sequence is the death of Adam. Adam has become an old man, and an angel tells his son, Seth, that a branch from the Tree of Knowledge could cure his dying father. So Seth goes back to Eden, a very far distance, and brings back a branch from the Tree of Knowledge. But he's too late. Adam has already died. And so Seth plants the branch on the grave of his father, on the grave of Adam. And the branch takes root and grows into a tree. Well, the tree is cut down and the wood is used, well, Solomon wanted to use it as a beam for his palace, but it didn't quite fit. It was much too long. So he used it instead as a bridge. So let's see the bridge here. Well, we don't see too much of the bridge, but you see the figures surrounding them. But here, we're seeing the discovery of the wood of the True Cross, which is now being used in a bridge. And, of course, it's not become the cross yet. It's just the wood that will eventually be the True Cross. The Queen of Sheba has come to meet Solomon, who is famous for his wisdom. And she's no slouch at wisdom either. It's believed that she's not only wise and beautiful but that she has the gift of prophecy. So when she's approaching the temple of Solomon, she comes to this bridge and realizes that the wood from which this bridge is made will be the wood from which the Savior of the World, the King of Kings, is hung. So she kneels down, as you see, and adores this wood that will later on come in contact with the Savior. And so she tells Solomon - she goes and she meets and receives his wisdom and gives some of her own - she tells Solomon the story. She tells him the prophecy. Solomon, I think he's probably thinking, "I'm going to hide this so the Savior can't be killed; he can't be tortured and killed." And Solomon buries the wood. So what are we seeing here? We'll do more of the story in a bit. We're seeing two scenes with the Queen of Sheba. One is out of doors, and we have the Renaissance horse from the rear to prove that [Piero] used foreshortening, and then some of the attendance, and her bevy of ladies in waiting. And what I want you to notice is some of these faces are used over and over again. In fact, it looks like he may have used something like tracing paper and then flipped them over. So, we see the woman looking at us full-faced from underneath the tree, and there she is in the palace of Solomon or the temple. And she's looking right at us, and then, she is again. The same thing for the profile of the Queen of Sheba. She's not bowed quite as low in front of Solomon, but it's exactly the same profile. And you can go on through the other figures. He does reuse the poses. And you might also notice that the heads of the women, particularly, because they don't have beards and things to obscure this, look almost like eggs. They're these very rounded forms. The bodies, too, have a kind of simplified feeling. They look solid. They look volumetric. But there is also something columnar about their necks and the way the draperies fall It's a very geometric form. You probably noticed that Solomon's temple looks very much like a classical Roman temple, or at least has classical elements as if it could be a Renaissance building with the pilasters and the columns and the variegated marble walls. And here we see some of the court of Solomon. And he's showing -- Piero is showing off that he can do foreshortening with this figure whose elbow is pointed out to us. ...and the little turban. Now, one scene that to many people just seems like, "What's that doing in The Legend of the True Cross?" is the Annunciation. And one of the things when you look at the Annunciation, the way he has laid out the composition, there is a cross in the composition. You can follow the line of the central column upward into the edge of the entablature and the frieze and the edge of the building. There's just a vertical element. And then the entablature of the building, the lentil, the horizontal member, comes across, and because of the way God the Father is on the cloud, it almost continues on to this blue shape that becomes a horizontal member, too. And this reads almost as a crosspiece of a cross. So the whole composition is suggested like a cross. And then if you look at the doorway, of course it has the vertical element with crosspieces across. That sounds redundant: "crosspieces across." The doorway has been called the "porta clausa" -- the "closed portal" -- referring to Mary's virginity. But also, when you think about the doorway was closed until Christ incarnated, which of course is what's going on at the Annunciation. And was able, by sacraficing himself, according to Christian belief, and atoning for all of the sins of human beings, that this atonement, this incarnation, and sacrafice opens the doors of heaven. So there's probably a variety of meanings that can come out of this, but it certainly does emphasize that doorway and that column. And I might tell you that I, many years ago, wrote a paper which I gave at a number of conferences -- and maybe sometime I'll get it rewritten and published, I hope so -- on the column as a Marian symbol. It's very interesting, this idea of Mary who stands firm like the column, erect like the column. And there were a lot of meanings that could be used. So Mary is standing vertically. Her garment pushes against her leg, but the rest of it's once again is fluting almost in a column, giving her the columnar appearance. And you can see she has this sort of ovoid head with a very beautiful, diffuse lighting on the faces. So, here we see the moment that Christ enters the world. And it is the first sacrifice; God the Father is up on His cloud, Holy Spirit is entering Mary, and she's conceiving the Christ Child in the moment of the incarnation. And the really does tie into the iconography of the cross because this is the first sacrifice, for God becoming man is the first sacrifice that leads to the ultimate sacrifice of His death. Okay, back to The Legend of the True Cross. One of the things that the cross is associated with, of course, is bringing Christianity to the Roman Empire. Constantine, who becomes the first Christian emperor, the story, the legend, is that he had a vision or a dream, here it is shown a dream with an angel coming and bringing him the news. He had a dream, and he saw a cross. And he heard the words, "By this sign, you will conquer." And so the next morning, he goes out, and it's shown in various ways. We'll see how Piero shows it. But he has a cross or maybe on his banners he has a cross painted or he's having a cross carried. This idea of "by this sign, you will conquer", " by this cross sign, you will conquer." Now first, let's look at the dream. This is a night scene. Constantine is asleep. His soldiers are guarding him. And you might notice that the tent he is sleeping in does have that cross-like look. The shaft that holds up the center up the center of the tent is the vertical, and then, the edge of the conical roof can be seen as a crosspiece. So there is this cross motif even in the composition of the painting. And in the upper left, and unfortunately there is some paint loss there, as you can see, comes wheeling in, very foreshortened, the Angel of the Lord, presumably bringing him the message "by this sign, you will conquer." And the light source is from the angel. We see the angel in the back. We see the dark. But we still see that little bit of light. And then, you can actually see where the light shines on the tent. Because this is night, but the angel is bringing his/her, his...its -- Angels are genderless. They are created. They do not have a gender. So, we tend to use the word "his" because we think it would be impolite to call an an angel an "it." And the next day, he goes out for the Battle of Milvian Bridge, which is the battle in which Constantine battles Maxentius And whoever wins will be the sole Roman Emperor, and it takes place at this bridge. And so it's called the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine, of course, defeats Maxentius. Unfortunately, it's a little hard to tell. I'll point some things out to you. But, as you can see, there is paint losses going right through the center of this. And I'll have a detail to show you Constantine in a minute. You see that white -- You see the dark horse with a white horse behind it right close to the middle of the painting. And on that white horse is riding a man with a crown, actually and I'll explain that in a minute, but with a large brim. And he's holding up a little cross. And at the waterway, at the bridge, you have Maxentius struggling to get away. He's running away, and his horse is falling down. He's obviously losing the battle. Now, I wanted to show you this little detail here. This little detail of Constantine and my, he look like somebody. You can see this medallion was made by an artists named Pisanello. Wonderful painter and sculpture of these small reliefs, such as medals and medallions, he designed them. And the person who is portrayed in the medal is John VIII Paleologus. Now, John Paleologus was the last Byzantine emperor And he came to Florence and to Italy in I believe it was 1439, for the Council of Florence. And this was a council in which the Byzantine emperor was asking help from the western Christians to help save his kingdom and to help protect him, to send troops to protect him from the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. Well, they all said they'd come, but as we know, they didn't. And in 1458, Byzantium -- Constantinople -- in the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks. And it has been ruled by the Turks ever since. It's part of Turkey. It is now called Istanbul. But, you know, it was a big deal when the emperor came begging for help. And when the medal was struck, they also portrayed him, not just his features, which do look a little similar-- certainly, the beard looks a little similar to what we see in Piero della Francesca -- but also that crown with the great brim and this tall, rounded area rising out of the center. It's a very distinctive crown. And we'll see it in other works by Piero -- another work, anyway -- by Piero della Francesca. And I often see a similar crown, I've seen it in works by an artist named Apollonia di Giovanni where Juno that kind of crown as kind of an exotic crown. It's not identical, but it's similar. And I've had some fun with that, actually. But here he uses the last Byzantine emperor to represent the first Christian emperor of the Roman empire. And here's a detail were, despite the paint losses, the white cross. It's small, but it's silhouetted against the blue sky. "Under this sign, you will conquer." You can see a little bit of the Tiber there. And you can see once again this idea of reflections. The plants along the side being reflected and buildings being relected in the water. Now that's part of the Ledgend of the True Cross, but Constantine wasn't holding a piece of the True Cross because remember Solomon buried it. So, St. Helena wants to find it. St. Helena is Constantine's mother. And she is a Christian, is why he eventually becomes a Christian. He's actually baptized on his death bed. But known as the first Christian emperor because he first has an edict of toleration called the Edict of Milan in 313. And essentially, it's for religious tolerance. And it has the effect of allowing Christians to have a legal religion. Eventually, his successor, Theodosius, at the end of the century, changes the law to make Christianity the only legal religion. So religious tolerance does not outlast the century. Back to St. Helena. She's very devote. And she wants to find a lot of the places where Christ lived and walked and did things. And she wants to find artifacts, relicts of Christ's activity on Earth. So she goes to the Holy Land; she goes to Jerusalem. And she searches for and asks people about where the True Cross would be buried. I don't know why she thinks they would know, but she does. And, in fact, the way she finds out is there is a Jew. I think his name is Judas -- not Iscariot. But she hears that he knows where the cross is, and so she tortures him by lowering him into a well where he is starved until he tells her the location of the cross. And then, of course, he's converted to Christianity, as these stories go. Probably because of the miracle that follows. So, they dig up the crosses. And you can see them digging up the crosses here. St. Helena, looking an awful lot like Queen of Shebah, is standing, giving the orders, giving the directions. And this is all going on in the left And they have found the cross except they found too many crosses. They found three crosses. So one they believe is the cross of Christ, and the other are the crosses of the theives that were crucified with Him. Now, how are we going to find... Well, I've left out part of the legend. I'm sorry. I've jumped ahead. Actually, of course, part of the cross had been dug up and used as the cross of Christ. So, it wasn't still buried because of Solomon. It was now buried because of somebody else. Sorry. They didn't put a picture for that in the cycle of the senses. Okay, so, the cross has been used as the cross of Christ. The would has been used as the cross of Christ. And then it's been reburied, and Helena discovers where it is. They find three crosses. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! How can we know which one's the True Cross? The cross of Christ? Well, a funeral procession is going by. And so, Helena -- she's the empress, the mother of the emperor -- She stops the procession, and one by one, they lay the three crosses on top of the dead man. Nothing happens with the first two, but with the third one, he comes back to life! So by this miracle, the know that this is the True Cross. Sometimes, the story is called the Invention of the True Cross. Probably, though, the meaning is more like the "Discovery" of the True Cross. And then there is another scene that I didn't show you because of time, but later on the Persian emperor acquires the cross, which he attaches to his throne. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeats the Persian emperor and brings back the cross. And then, there is another scene of the return of the cross to Jerusalem. And now, I'm going to show you one of the most puzzling scenes by Piero della Francesca. Sounds straight-forward, doesn't it? Flagellation of Christ. Christ is being wiped before he is executed. And you'll notice that is shown with Pilate watching in the background. You may notice that Pilate looks a lot like John Palao At least, he's wearing a very similar hat. Many people think that this may have something to do with the relationship with the Byzantine Empire and the westerners essentially betraying them. But at any rate, maybe it is or maybe it's just that this type of hat says exotic eastern ruler, so Pontius Pilate, the governor of Jerusalem, gets to wear a hat that looks like the Byzantine emperor's crown. Christ is tied to a classical column. The palace of Pilate is, logically enough, a classical building. Well, of course it would be. The Romans are ruling the ancient Judea as... they've conquered it and are ruling it and can build classical buildings. That's the style. In fact, there is an idol at the top in gold. I don't know which god but a nude classical deity. So it's almost like, you know, here's the false god, which is shown in the precious medal of gold but it's nothing to the spiritual values of the true God who is Christ, who is being flogged below. It's just this whole idea of evil. The good God and the false god are juxtaposed there. Now it does seem odd, doesn't it, to put the Flagellation of Christ way back in the middle ground of this picture. Why not have it in the foreground? And who are those three people taking up so much space in the foreground? And I might also point out, and I think you can see this, that this does use proper one point linear perspective. It's all worked out that way. Okay, who are they? I'm going to tell you right off I don't know. There have been so many interpretations of them. Really our only clue is that there once, from a written source, says there once was an inscription on this. The inscription has been lost, but it's was preserved. And it was a verse from John, the gospel St. John, 18 verse 28. The verse has to do with the members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish priests who condemned Jesus. Actually, of course it was Pilate who condemned Jesus. The jews did not have the right of execution. They could not rule on a capital crime. It had to be the governor of Rome. But, they think that at the time the Gospel was written, Jews and Christians may have been competing for converts, so they tried to make the Jews collectively more the "bad guys." So the members of the... ...what it says in the Bible, the members of the Sanhedrin "went not into the judgment hall lest they be defiled." In other words, they're not going into the hall of Pilate, who is this Roman -- very cruel. I mean, he's a historical figure. And if he would think things were going bad, he would just crucify people. Just pick them out... really for terror. So, he's not a nice guy. But they don't want to go into Pilate's hall because they have to be ritually pure, and they don't want to come in this close contact with this unbeliever. There is a tradition that at the trial of Jesus, there were three prosecutors: one a chief priest, one an elder, and who is this other guy? Well, they've called him all sorts of things. They've sometimes called this figure in the center with bare feet, this youth with bare feet, "the gardener" because Jesus was buried in the garden. And the man with the black hat, it's said that he's been dressed a number of ways. One of the things that I've read is that he was dressed like a Greek Orthodox priest; other people have thought that he was dressed like an astronomer or someone else. There's that bald man with the brocade robe. And I noticed I've seen this figure in other pictures by Piero or at least very similar. The courtier at The Court of Solomon. In the Madonna of Mercy, which is a wonderful picture that I didn't show you. He's a similar figure that is seen kneeling before the Madonna. Some people think they're all portraits. And I should warn you that the heavy set man on the far right the nose is reconstruction which makes that a little difficult. There is some paint loss there. So, there is this inscription. It's... It was still there on the frame in the early 19th century. The art history Passavant quotes it. It is in latin. It's "Convenerunt in Unum" or "They are gathered to gather." And this appears several places in the Bible: Psalm 2 and Acts 4:26. "Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the Earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ." So, with this interpretation, these would be not Jewish figures but the kings of the Earth who gathered against Christ. And all we've got is "they come together", "they're gathered together." That's what the verse says. "They," plural, "are gathered together." "Gathered 'in Unim'," "Gathered as one." And the verse continues, "as against his Lord and against his Christ." We said that Pilate was wearing a Byzantine emperor's hat. Hart suggests this symbolizes the Greek repudiation of a pact of unity with Rome, which was signed at the Council of Florence in 1439. And as we already said, Byzantium and Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, which is around the time this was painted. We don't know if it was right before or right after, but we know it was around the time this was painted. And so there had been an attempt to unify the Greek and Latin churches which didn't work out. In this interpretation, the Church as the body of Christ is being flagellated. As I said, there are lots of different interpretations. Marilyn Levin wrote a book about this, and she sees the three figures as contemporary personages. And there are other people that have been suggested as well. The man in brocade, who is bald, she thinks is Ludovico Gonzaga the Marquess of Mantua. The man with the black hat... Ottaviano Ubaldini, the nephew of Federico da Montefeltro, who was also an astrologer, that is the idea of it being an astrologer's robe -- a councilor, a treasure, and a human scholar -- or he's a scholar at the court of Urbino. And Federico de Montefeltro is an importan patron for Piero della Francesca. And then the young guy, and I think, "Why the bare feet, for heaven's sake?" We think that is Berardino Gonzaga who is Ludovico's son but has died by now. I guess the bare feet is...He's in heaven; he doesn't need to wear shoes. At any rate... At this point, I'd say your guess is as good as mine. All you have to take into consideration is that verse, though, about "They came together." "Gathered together." "The kings of the Earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." So, I think it's got to do with that idea of somehow standing up against Christ. I don't see why you would have, let's say, Ludovico Gonzaga. If he were the patron of this, why he would have himself painted and then that inscription with all those extended meanings about standing up against Christ. i don't see that. As I say, I don't know what they mean. But one thing we can say about it, we can say: linear perspective, classical references, and a mysterious question remains. I told you that Piero della Francesca worked for Federico da Montrefeltro, the duke of Urbino, among other people. And this is one of the paintings that he painted for him This is the Madonna & Child with Saints painted in the mid 1470s. And we see the duke, I think he becomes duke about 1475, in armor, kneeling before Mary and these saints. Sort of a sacra conversacion but with the patron there, kneeling at the feet of Mary and the Christ child. Federico da Montefeltro was a condottiero. He was a mercenary soldier, a mercenary general, who worked for both the Pope and the Duke of Milan. And they both paid him lots of money just to be on call even when he didn't fight. And then if he had to go out and fight, they paid him even more money. Actually, this made him very popular with his people because he didn't have to tax them as much. Cause he's getting all the money from the Pope and from the people of Milan via the Duke of Milan. He wanted to be seen as this perfect Renaissance prince. And he is a great art patron. Not only with Italian artists; he has an artist named Justus van Gent or Joos van Wassenhove comes down from Flanders and paints in his court. There is another painter from Spain who comes and paints in the court of the Duke of Urbino. And I'll show you in a minute he is one of the most recognizable figures in Italian Renaissance art. There is no mistaking that profile. It appears in many paintings. I'll show you in a minute a portrait of him. They believe that this was painted after the death of his wife, and that's why she's not there, as you can see. It takes place in a beautiful Renaissance building in the apse of a church. Mary, as we've said before, seated in the apse of the church suggests that she is the aura day or the aura coli -- "the Alter of God" or "the Alter of Heaven". And Christ, here, is reclining on her lap as though... Well, it reminds us, the sleeping Christ reminds us of the dead Christ of the Pietà. So that idea of Christ as the sacrificial victim, the Eucharist, is intensified here. The angels, the saints form a semicircle around her. And you might notice that up above her head is hanging a large egg. Now, that's an ostrich egg. And because of some of the beliefs about ostriches, the sort of hatched without the mother's help, it somehow became a symbol of the virgin birth. And they actually, you doo see in a numer of pictures, the ostrich egg above the head of Mary. And I think at least one has survived, actually. They used to hang them over alters and places like that. Now I want to talk about some of the most famous potraits in the 15th century. These are often known as the Montefeltro portraits, and they represent Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro. Okay, who are they? Well, Federico da Montefeltro was a condotierro. He worked for Milan. He worked for Naples. He worked for Florence. He worked for the Papal States. And he is known, actually, as the most successful condotierro. He is said to never have lost a battle. He became the Marquessa of Urbino. And then, in 1474, was named Duke of Urbino. So sometimes, people will just say this is the duke and duchess of Urbino. And it's a slight inaccuracy because Battista Sforza, Federico's wife, did not live until the date that her husband became a duke. Okay, let me tell you a little bit more about Federico. When he became the ruler of Urbino, he built this beautiful palace, and he could do this because he made tremendous amounts of money as a mercenary general. when he was on call, he'd be paid a lot of money. When he actually had to fight, he'd be paid even more money. And this was good for his people because it helped keep the taxes down, and it also allowed him to live the lifestyle of a Renaissance prince. He built a beautiful palace. And he was a patron to philosophers, poets, humanist scholars. He had a scriptorium where they copied manuscripts and created this wonderful library that was supposed to cover all of human knowledge of the time. He also was a great art patron. As we can see, he gave commissions to Piero della Francesca, to Andrea Mantegna, and also to some artists from other countries. The artists that we know as Joos van Gent or Jus - Justus van Wassenhove comes down from Gent and works at the court of Federico da Montefeltro. Pedro Berruguette comes from Spain and works at the court of Federico da Montefeltro. Now, By all acounts, he was one of the best rulers for his people. Which may seem a little odd when you think of all his time spent as a general. But he really was kind of an examplar of what a Renaissance prince should be. In fact, it's said that Machiavelli did use him as one of the examples in his book on The Prince as someone who was also able to handle, let's say, conspiracies and difficult situations. Now, Battista Sforza was the daughter of the ruling family of Milan. And she was a very educated woman. It's said that when visiting dignitaries came to her, to Urbino, she would welcome them with impromptu welcomes in Latin. She also seems to have been very beloved by Federico. Part of the evidence of this is that after her death, he swore he would never marry again, which was very unusual. Women were always dying in childbirth. She didn't die in childbirth. She died- Well, she gave birth in late January, and then it was in early July, July 6th of 1472, that she died. But he came rushing back when he heard that she was ill. And he had this portrait and also there is a painting by Joos van Gent that's the, essentially, the First Communion service. And in the background you see Federico and you Battista Sforza holding her baby, the next duke, Guidobaldo. But she was dead by that time, probably. And so he seems to have wanted to immortalize her in, her image, in paint. She was known for her piety, her charital works, of course the feminine virtue of chastity. And we see how she is portrayed here. We aren't sure exactly when this was created. But we'll see there are inscriptions on the back, and she is referred to in the past tense. So we think she was already dead when this was painted and that perhaps her death mask was used or possible other portraits that had been created earlier were used for her likeness. We do know that there was a death mask taken of her. In fact, I've seen a photograph of it. What's a death mask? When someone prominent dies, particularly when you want to have a likeness of them created after their death, sometimes a plaster cast will be made of a person who is just deceased. And then, of course, they can use that cast to cast a positive to show the person's appearance. And we think that this may have been created on the occasion of the duke being named- well, of Federico being named duke. Of course, Battista was already dead by then. The frame that you're seeing here is not original. There's reference in the 16th century to this being hinged, and so we think that originally it was hinged and could fold over. And it was probably kept as kind of a precious object that you could bring out and look at it. It wouldn't have been hung on the wall because there are, as we'll soon see, there's elaborate allegories on the back of these, and you'll want to be able to see the back as well. So what is the appearance here? We have two facing profile portraits against a vast panoramic landscape. The figures are shown as though they are what? Maybe very high up on a parapet, maybe looking out at the landscape at a lower distance. This was painted in oil. And Piero was on of the early Italian artists who used oil at a fairly early time. And this makes perfect sense because evidently Federico was importing artists from Flanders, and they were known for their use of oil paint. So, he may have very well favored oil paint, and Piero may have learned it from one of the flemish artists at the court. Now, there's a couple other things that should be said about this. Usually, in a picture of a man and his wife, the man will be on, to the viewer, the right side. Excuse me, to the viewer, the left side when you look at it. But usually, when the rules of heraldry and of hierarchy come into being, the thing about the figures, the left and right side of the painting itself, not necessarily the viewer. So, what we're looking at and calling the left side as we see it is is the "dexter" or right side. And that's where Battista is shown. And usually the man would be shown there because the right side, the dexter side, is the most prominent place. And the man, certainly in Renaissance society, would have pride of place. He'd be the more important one. That's another indication to us that Federico had great love and respect for his wife. He gives her the most important place in the portraits. Let's talk about the profile portrait. Often times, the profile portrait seems to be very popular in Italy. And one suggestion is that it relates to things like Roman coins, where the emperor's image may be shown in profile. So, a humanistic idea. There is also another reason why Federico da Montefeltro is, well, always shown in profile, always from this one side. You might notice that there is a break in the bridge of his nose. This, actually, is Federico's goo side. He was badly injured in a joust. Tournaments, jousts were the way that knights and military people kept their skills honed. And they were also sometimes associated with festivals and entertainment, as well, in a court. And he was in a joust, and the lance broke his nose and pierced his eye but fortunately, did not enter into his brain. So when he recovered from this and when he had portraits painted of himself, he always had himself painted in the profile so you can't see the destroyed eye. So, we say this is his good side. One of the the things too talk about, too, is this idea that the figures, of course, dominant the landscape. We talk about Renaissance art as man or human beings in their world. So here, they are the rulers of all they survey because the landscape does relate to the landscape around Urbino. But it is the human being that dominate the surface. And there are some really interesting little details here of showing this beautiful landscape. Usually, the profile portraits that we know of would have something like a colored or a dark background or maybe a pattern. This is, and of course we are only dealing with the paintings that have survived, but this a little unusual and then sort of a new to show again in Italy the landscape background. And we think that this may come from this influence, once again, of Netherlandish artist. Hans Memling, he's actually born German but he lives and works in Bruges, is a very famous late 15th century artist. And many of his paintings, especially portrait paintings, seem to have come down to Italy. And this is an example of a portrait that is now in the Uffizi Gallery and seems to have been in Italy. Later on, we talk about Perugino. We'll see that Perugino evidently did know this particular portrait because it's influenced him, as well. But I just bring is in to show you a Memling with a landscape background. Now, Memling didn't invent and a landscape background but he certainly popularized it. And, these painting were coming into Italy. The newest thing, essentially. So what we see here is Piero Della Francesca is painting, instead of the three quarter view of the head, he's painting a profile view of the duke. And then, this spacious landscape going back to the kind of blue-green atmospheric perspective on the horizon that is a trait of Netherlandish-Flemish art. We also want to talk about the way light shines on, for example, Battista Sforza's jewels, and some of the decorations in her garment, and her hairstyle, for example. This idea of light reflecting off the jewels, of reflecting off the brocades, this was something that was the Italians saw in Flemish art and adopted for their own as well. And of the things that oil paint was famous for were the effects of light, the luminosity. Now, you might be wondering about her hairstyle. At the time that this was painted, this would have been a very fashionale hairstyle. And one of the things the ladies liked to do was to pluck out their eyebrows and to pluck out the hair at the beginning of their forehead to give themselves this, considered to be, beautiful domed, curving shape of this very, very high forehead. So, this is all very fashionable for the time. On the back of the portrait, we have two allegories and some inscriptions. And in these pictures, we can call them triumphs because they are the people portayed are seated in a chariot or a carro that is pulled by horses or unicorns. So, it is the Triumph of Federico da Montefeltro and the Triumph of Battista Sforza. And, allegorically, it shoes, you know, what they hope to be known for, and according to the eulogies that were pronounced over Battista Sforza, for what she was known for. I should talk about this little tradition of the chariots or the carros. In Italy, there is a very famous 14th century poem. It's called...it's Petrarch's Triumphs. And it's an allegorical poem. He starts out with love, for example, and describes the chariot love and all the famous people in history and mythology who fall sway to love, and then follows the chariot of chastity. Because chastity overcomes love. And death overcomes chastity. And fame overcomes death. And then, eternity conquers all. And each one of these qualities is represented by a different carro or chariot. They also kind of the ancestory for our parade floats. At Carnival, certainly in Florence and I imagine in other places, they would have a parade with what we would call floats with the carri that would be decorated. And this was usually done just before lent. And of course, we still have the decedent of that in New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama when they have their vast celebrations on Mardi Gras just before lent. There's parades and excitement and things like that. So, the idea of creating a chariout as a triumph -- remember the Roman emperors would ride in triumph after their victories -- it's a classical motif, and it's something that works well for allegory. And that's what we're really seeing here. Federico's chariot is drawn by two white horses. He is crowned by fame, and you see him in his armor with the light reflecting off the armor. And the female figures that are sitting here represent the four cardinal virtues. Things like justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude. And then there is a little Cupid, a little Eros figure, a little putti who is driving the horses. Now, is it intended just to be decorative or is it emblematic of the love that he bares for his wife? On his wife's chariot, it's drawn by unicorns, which as you know is a symbol of chastity. Which some people say, you know, this is the chief virtue of women. Well, Battista has some other virtues, as well. The two figures standing behind her, sort of to each side, are chastity and modesty. And then the figures that we see seated at the front of the carro. The one who is in blue, facing forward, is charity. And what she's holding, I know you can't make it out in the picture, what she's holding in her lap is a pelican. Now, the pelican in its piety, as it's sometimes called, was what was believed of pelicans in Medieval bestiaries, what was written down, it was believed that pelicans would even pierce their own breasts to feed their young with their blood. Some of you know, if you've listened to my Jan van Eyck lecture or just know it from other sources, know that this is often used as a symbol of the crucifixion of Christ. Christ sheds His blood for the faithful, just as the pelican sheds its blood for its young. In this case, it is referring to the charity of Battista Sforza. She would give up herself, as it were, in charity. And she's known for giving alms to the poor and even buying dowries for the daughters of impoverish noblemen. Because they couldn't marry without dowries. This was considered a very important charity in the 15th century. It's said of Federico da Montefeltro that he provided dowries for the daughters of some his soldiers, as well. The figure in red is holding a chalice with a host. So, she would represent faith or piety. She'd probably represent faith in attest to Battista's piety. In fact, Battista asked that when she died, that she be be buried in a Franciscan habit and be buried with the Poor Clares. And this was done. She used to go there for devotions. Now, I can't really see another figure. We'd imagine that there'd be another figure on the other side. I'll have to look very closely sometime at this and see if we can even see if there is the back of a head or something, but if there is another figure on the other side, it presumably would represent hope. Because faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues. But I can't see whether... I don't see hope there. As I said, this is a remarkable portrait. It shows some very human things, and it also shows the qualities of the ruler, essentially, as he provides for his fame. And attest to his love for his deceased wife.