This trip focuses on the work of Piero della Francesca, (1420-1492).
AREZZO
Basilica of San Francesco - Bacci Chapel - Piazza San Francesco. 9-19, Sat. 9-18, Sun. 13-18, closed June 13. Tel. 0575 70713. Piero's masterpiece (1453-64) The Legend of the True Cross. In restoration but guided viewing is allowed. Reservation necessary online or tel.: 0575 184.00.00, € 6.00
Based on an obscure history of the Cross: a tree is planted on Adam's grave, which Solomon tries to use in the building of the Temple. When the Queen of Sheba sees the wood she has a premonition that from it will come the end of the reign of the Jews. Solomon, to thwart the prophecy, has the wood submerged in a pond; but it returns to the surface, and is used to build the Cross upon which Christ is crucified. Three hundred years later, on the eve of his battle at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine sees a vision: an angel appears to him and exhorts him to fight under the sign of the Cross. Constantine does, and becomes Emperor of Rome. Converted to Christianity, he sends his mother, Helena, to Jerusalem in search of the wood of the True Cross. Only a Jew by the name of Judas knows its whereabouts, and he refuses to speak. The Empress Helena has him thrown into a well; when he is brought out seven days later, Judas reveals that the Cross is buried beneath a temple dedicated to Venus. The temple is destroyed, and the three crosses of Calvary are brought to light. The True Cross is recognized when a dead youth is restored to life by touching it. Helena brings the relic back to Jerusalem.(From Ginzburg, The Enigma of Piero.)
Badia SS. Flora e Lucilla - Piazza della Badia, 3. 8.00 - 12.00; 16.00 - 19.00. Dome with a trompe l’oeil fresco by Andrea Pozzo (1703).
Duomo - Piazza del Duomo. 7-12.30, 15-18.30. At the end of the left aisle, Piero's Mary Magdalen. In the Cappella Madonna, 15C terracottas by Andrea della Robbia.
San Domenico - Piazza San Domenico. 7-13, 15.30-18. Crucifix by Cimabue (1260-1265).
Santa Maria della Pieve - 8-13, 15-18.30. Vast Romanesque church with a polyptych by Pietro Lorenzetti. Behind is the Piazza Grande. The film Life Is Beautiful was made here.
Museo Archeologico - Ex Monastero Olivetano di San Bernardo Via Margaritone, 10. Tel. 0575/20882. 9-14.00. Housed in a 16C monastery built over ruins of a Roman amphitheater. Aretian vases, Etruscan bronzes 6-5C BC. € 4
Museum of Medieval and Modern Art - Via San Lorentino, 8. Tues-Sun 8.30-19.30. Tel. 0575/409050. Works by Vasari, Signorelli, Guido di Siena, ceramics of the Renaissance and 17-18C. € 4
Antique and flea market - the first weekend of every month. The whole center of town becomes an outdoor market.
SANSEPOLCRO
Piero della Francesca's birthplace and home town.
Museo Civico - Via Aggiunti 65. 9-13.30, 14.30-19.30. Tel. 0575 732218. Piero della Francesca's Resurrection, Madonna della Misericordia, St. Julian, St. Ludovic. Also Signorelli, Pontormo, Bassano. Inlaid wooden choir with still-lifes (15C). Downstairs, Romanesque and medieval sculpture. Upstairs, sinopie. € 6
Chiesa di San Lorenzo - Via Santa Croce; Deposition of Rosso Fiorentino.
MONTERCHI
Madonna del Parto - 9-13, 14-19. Piero's fresco, the pregnant Madonna. Only one painting but well worth the trip. Heavily restored.
URBINO
The castle of Federico di Montefeltro is an architectural allegory of the renaissance state, a palace open to the circulation of people and ideas: solid and harmonious, rational in its functionality and internal organization, a city in the form of a palace with the idea of becoming the center of a new model of civilization (Luciano di Laurana, 1465, architect, completed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, and Girolamo Genga). Federico was a successful condottiere, a skillful diplomat and an enthusiastic patron of art and literature. At his court Piero della Francesca wrote on the science of perspective, Francesco di Giorgio Martini his Trattato di architettura ("Treatis on Architecture") and Raphael's father Giovanni Santi his poetical account of the chief artists of his time. Federico's brilliant court, through the descriptions in Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier set standards of what characterized a "gentleman" in early modern Europe.
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche - P.za Duca Federico – Tel. 0722 322625. Tues-Sun 8.30-19.15, Mon 8.30-14. Raphael, Portrait of a Young Woman (La Muta), Predella of the Profaning of the Holy Host by Paolo Uccello, the Madonna di Senigallia and Flagellation by Piero della Francesca, Titian's Last Supper and Resurrection, the Ideal City attributed to Laurana. There is also the superb intarsia small room (Studiolo) where Duke Federico retired to read. Also Luca Signorelli, Verrocchio, Federico Barocci, Melozzo da Forlì. € 8 reduced (18-25 years) € 4
