Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #743150 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca combined deep humanism and passionate faith in his most famous fresco cycle, The Legend of the True Cross , completed around 1466 in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo. His narrative scenes dealing with the death of Adam, the Annunciation, Sheba and Solomon, Emperor Constantine's vision on the eve of a battle and so forth transformed popular fables into "heroic myths" about the triumph of Christianity over paganism, as art historian Lavin notes in this erudite monograph which reproduces the entire fresco cycle. The author, who has taught at Yale and Princeton, deciphers the cycle's political overtones, for example, its allusions to Italian princes' concern about the ever-increasing danger posed by the Ottoman empire. Lavin also analyzes the qualities that make Piero's art so contemporary, observing that his preoccupied, silent figures "offer some assurance that there is a realm where human intelligence rules, where it is still worth aspiring to be."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Great Paiinting with Scholarhsip; in details
Confined to a small part of Italy Piero della Fransescalk is oone of the great artists of of the ages. Ginzbubg, a great historian, deals with all thje accounts of who and who is ij the paitinga to extract a plausible list of personalities. Acadmiec for experts, but an interestimg browse, with many illustrations to encourage the reader to see more of the paiktings.

Piero della Francesca book
Terrific book I'd been looking for - came quickly, in excellent condition, and just as advertised.