In late-November 2025 I embarked on a tour of the cities wherein the Italian painter Piero della Francesca did most of his work and where many of his existing works are still displayed. This tour was titled In the Footsteps of Pierro della Francesca and was led by Learn Italy, a small English tour company. I have previously written about the precipitating factors -- as regards the trip -- as well as our early experiences and will continue to flesh out the entirety of the trip over time.
I have always assumed that I would see Piero paintings post that trip and made a mental commitment to treat those sightings as sequels. I had sequel-level experiences over the past weekend, encountering both Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels and Hercules.
Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels, Clark Art Institute
My research had identified Clark Institute as home to the Piero work Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels but the town of Williamstown, where it resided. was so far off my beaten path that a special trip would be required. I placed it on the back burner.
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| Piero della Francesca, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels, 1460 - 1470 |
This past weekend I went Boston for July 4th festivities and, while there, noticed that Williamstown was slightly less than 3 hours away by car. Further, the museum was open every day of the week. I had a car and made the time, setting off early in the morning so that I could be there when the museum opened.
The painting under discussion was commissioned by the Gherardi family -- rich merchants in the town of Sansepulcro -- as a devotional object for their private chapel. The painting shows the Virgin Mary and the Christ-child attended by angels. The angel wings are partly visible. The angel in red, according to the literature accompanying the displayed work, directs our attention to the infant reaching for the flower held by the Holy Mother. The angel in white casts a shadow across the base of Mary's throne suggesting that the painting hung to the right of a window.
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| Detail: Statue-like baby reaching out ... |
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| Detail: ... for flower held by mother |
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| Detail: Top of wings in red. Also note symmetry in bejeweled v-neck |
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| Detail: Folds in clothing appear as though carved from stone |
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| Detail: Intricate design details on capitals and lintels |
As is the hallmark of this artist, the painting is immaculately designed and architected: "In this enigmatic painting, the figures seem three-dimensional, like marble statues, and occupy a space inspired by classical architecture."
This was one of Clark's early purchases and eventually reached Williamstown in 1957.
Hercules, Isabella Gardner Museum, Boston
On the day following my visit to Clark Art Institute, I paid a visit to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum to see the Piero della Francesca work in their collection.
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| Gardner Museum (museumsofboston.org) |
Isabella Stuart Gardner and her husband traveled extensively through Europe and Asia and her experiences sparked a deep interest in arts and culture. She supplemented these experiences with classwork at Harvard where she met Bernard Berenson, her eventual art advisor. "Starting in the 1890s, she and Berenson worked together to assemble one of the most important art collections in the world, acquiring everything from major works of Italian Renaissance art to textiles to Chinese sculpture to French paintings made in the1800s.”
Construction on the museum began in 1899 and was completed in 1901. Installation of her collection took two years, with the museum opening to the public in 1903 under the name Fenway Court.
Hercules is a fresco fragment which was discovered in a room of Piero’s family home in Sansepulcro during the second half of the 18th century. The painting was initially displayed “in the upper corner of a room with the right edge bordering the wall.” Such a placement explicates the steep perspective of the image. The fresco was removed from the wall in the 1860s and did incur some damage during removal and transportation.
Hercules is Piero's only known secular work. Herein, the persona is atypically presented as a youth, with his only attire being a Lion's skin. The tail of the lion is seen between the legs of the subject. Rather than his strength being displayed in musculature, the attire implies that strength through a perceived killing of the Lion (probably with his bare hands), skinning it, and wearing the skin as a trophy.
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| Piero della Francesca, Hercules, 1470 |
The fresco was purchased by the Gardner Museum in 1903 from Joseph Linton Smith who had previously purchased it from the Florentine art dealer Elia Volpe. Transit out of Italy was delayed by the Italian Government with export rights finally granted in 1908. The piece was seized by US Customs upon its arrival for payment of duties and taxes. The fresco was released upon payment of said dues and taxes.
While at the Museum I came upon a portrait of Battista Sforza, Countess of Urbino. This was intriguing because I have been in pursuit of the Piero double portrait of her and the Duke for a while but have been unable to locate it on my visits to the Ufizzi. This is a striking facsimile of the portrait but, due to its dating, is a masterful copy of the original,
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| After Piero della Francesca, Battista Sforza, Countess of Urbino, Late 18th century |
Encountering these two pieces has lit a fire under me to complete my series on the "In the Footsteps ..." series. I had been slightly overwhelmed by the amount of work required to fully cover the story of The Legend of the True Cross and had tried to everything but; I am now resolved.
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