A Piero Without Peer
The Legend of the True Cross
(Wall Street Journal) The art of Piero della Francesca can be described in terms of its severity, its refusal to please or to court approval, yet the artist is passionately loved by his admirers. He inspires his fans to undertake pilgrimages along “the Piero della Francesca trail”: to Arezzo, for the frescoes of “The Legend of the True Cross”; to Monterchi, for the ruined, ravishing image of the “Madonna del Parto”; to San Sepolcro, his native town, for the confrontational “Resurrection.” Those with more time go to Urbino, for the enigmatic little painting once called a flagellation, now identified as “The Dream of St. Jerome.”
Perhaps the most spectacular stop on the Piero trail is the church of San Francesco, in Arezzo, for “The Legend of the True Cross” — painted in the 1450s, recently hidden for decades for conservation and stabilization, now visible again. The frescoes, lining the walls of the chapel behind the high altar, present Piero at his most inventive and rarefied, distilling a complex narrative into images striking for their geometric lucidity, their unexpectedness, their resonant silence, and their intense, disciplined emotion. Piero lovers — I am one — strain to account for the uncanny power of his still, deeply stirring images; strive to unravel his complex, terrifyingly logical compositions; revel in his clear forms and strange, chalky color; and emerge hungry for more. (read full article)
