In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: The Paris Sequel -- The Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta

Energized by an In his Footsteps tour of Piero della Francesca's working range, I have been on a months-long quest to identify and view his paintings that have migrated beyond those borders. I had identified the Louvre as the home of his Malatesta portrait (Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, 1451) but the area wherein the piece was housed was closed on the occasions that I visited. I was finally able to see the painting when I visited the institution with my daughter in August of this year.

Piero della Francesca, Portrait of Sigismondo
Pandolfo Malatesta, 1451

The subject of the painting was a powerful and ambitious mercenary captain with an "immense capacity for cruelty." He was born in 1417 and inherited the lordship of Rimini from his father. "... from the outset his life was one of warfare, political intrigue and ceaseless ambition." He fought for and against many Italian states as well as the Papacy, eventually becoming the biter enemy of Pope Pius II.

Malatesta surrounded himself with scholars, poets and artists and this "intellectual curiosity" and "enlightened patronage" transformed Rimini into a "vibrant center of Renaissance culture" (wonderfulmuseums.com). As a part of his image and legacy building initiatives, Malatesta was remaking the modest family Franciscan church -- Tempo Malatestino -- into a "classical temple and personal mausoleum" (wonderfulmuseums.com). Towards that end he invited Piero della Francesca to come to Rimini and paint a fresco in the church of him kneeling in front of his namesake saint.While conducting that effort, Piero was asked to paint the standalone portrait.

Alessandro Angelini (Piero della Francesca, SCALA, 2023) stipulates that the portrait was modeled on a medal made by Pisanelli for Sigismondo. "What was just an emblem on a coin becomes a fully rounded, almost sculptured portrait, with a proud expression of unrelenting cruelty. The three-dimensional effect is achieved also by a most realistic skin tonality, created with the technique of oil paint."

Marilyn Aronberg Lavin (Piero della Francesca, 1972) sees the profile as "fiercely silhouetted against an almost too solid dark background" where the "dark red hair is made to fit like a tight cap around the skull. His tucked, cut-velvet jacket stands as stiff as a pedestal, supporting the column of his neck ... A counter-light coming from behind illuminates the back edge of his neck with a warm glow ..."

And wonderfulmuseums.com describes the piece variously as "a cornerstone of Renaissance painting," "an awe-inspiring masterpiece," and as "instantly recognizable for its stark profile and the enigmatic aura of its subject."

Piero della Francesco

Italian

1412/16 - 1492

Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta

1451

Oil on wood (poplar)

44.9 x 34 cm

Musée du Louvre

Room 709, Denon

Inventory #: RF 19781

Acquired: 1978

Ownership: Etat

Held by: Musée du Louvre, departement des Peintures

In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: The Milan sequel -- Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and Federico da Montefeltro (1469 - 70)

"... the painting ... is sublime. Serene, sculptural, luminous, muted in color and masterly in its creation of an illusionistic space, the altarpiece crystallizes the extraordinary talents of its creator, Piero della Francesca." Thus does Judith Dobrzynski (Masterpiece: Underwriting and Outstanding Altar, The Wall Street Journal, 3/5/22) describe the work Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and Federico da Montefeltro. The painting, housed in Milan's Pinocoteca di Brera, is also known by the names The Montefeltro Altarpiece, The San Bernardino Altarpiece, and The Brera Altarpiece. Karen and I had the honor of viewing it in situ on September 1 of this year. 

Piero della Francesca, Madonna and
Child with Saints, Angels and
Federico da Montefeltro, 1469 - 1470

The Patron

The painting was ordered by Federico da Montefeltro to honor either his late wife (died 1472) or their newly born son. Federico had also been considering his mortality and had chosen the church of San Bernardino as the site of his mausoleum. The painting was intended to be installed therein. 

Who was Federico? Also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG, he “was one of the most successful mercenary captains of the Italian Renaissance” and lord of Urbino from 1444 until his death in 1482. 

According to blog.der-leiermann.com:

Few names embody the paradox of the Italian Renaissance as fully as that of Federico da Montefeltro. He was a condottiere, a man of war who spent his life on the battlefield and whose power rested on military discipline. Yet at the same time he was one of the greatest patrons of his age, a humanist who supported philosophy and science, who gathered artists and architects around him and transformed Urbino into a radiant island of culture.

According to the Uffizi, Piero was a frequent guest at Federico's court, "finding himself in a cultured and refined atmosphere which would soon become one of the most important cultural and artistic hearts of Italy."

So Federico had the cultural pedigree and financial resources to solicit the creation of a masterpiece from the artist and Piero's appreciation for the court augured well for timely and successful completion of the effort.

The Painting

Style

All sources characterize this painting as a "sacred conversation" a genre which, according to Dobrzynski, originated in the first half of the 15th century and "replaced the traditional triptych and polypytch altarpieces." The sacred conversation pieces generally included Mary and Jesus flanked by saints and, in some cases, donors "in a single architectural space." The scene for these conversations were frequently the church apse.

Construct

The construct of the paintings and its interpretations are presented in the following annotated diagram. The annotations are drawn mostly from the Dobrzynski article.

Disposition

According to breraplus.org, the altarpiece came from the Church of San Bernardino in Urbino to Brera after the Napoleonic absolutions. Subsequent restorations and studies have revealed that the current instance of the painting has been reduced in size from its initial implementation

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In late-November 2025 I toured the cities wherein Piero della Francesca did most of his work and where many of his existing works are still displayed. I have previously written about the precipitating factors -- as regards the trip -- as well as  early experiences and will continue to flesh out the entirety of the trip over time. I have also previously described post-trip Piero experiences in Massachusetts and the foregoing falls into that latter category.

In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: The Massachusetts sequel -- Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels (1460 - 70) and Hercules (c. 1470)

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. 

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 Clark Art Institute was founded by Robert Sterling Clark, Yale Engineer and beneficiary of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. He began collecting art in Paris where he had settled in 1910. He met Francine in Paris and the two were married in 1919. The couple considered a number of locations as potential sites for a museum to display their collection but eventually settled on Williamstown on account of the family's past asociation with Williams College. The Clark Art Institute opened for business in 1955.

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.

Detail: Statue-like baby reaching out ...

Detail: ... for flower held by mother

Detail: Top of wings in red. Also note
symmetry in bejeweled v-neck

Detail: Folds in clothing appear as
though carved from stone

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.

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.

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,

After Piero della Francesca, Battista Sforza,
Countess of Urbino, Late 18th century

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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.

In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: Meetup and the Maddalena

Piero della Francesca's import to pre-Renaissance art and how I became involved in a trip to walk in his footsteps have previously been detailed. Now for the journey.

What I will call Day 0 of the trip entailed traveling from one's source-location to Hotel Tiferno in Citta di Castello, said hotel serving the role of Expeditionary HQ. Most of the trip participants were coming in from England and were scheduled to travel together on a BA flight to Bologna and then by coach to Citta di Castello. I will come back to that later.

I had flown into Rome earlier in pursuit of some church-bound Caravaggio paintings and then had gone on to Siena to visit some of the city's famous art repositories. My trip to Città, therefore, originated in Siena. Citta di Castello is almost due east of Siena but, due to intervening mountains, public transportation between the two locations is both circuitous and time-consuming. After exploring a number of alternatives, I settled on the train between Siena and Arezzo and a private car (NCC) between Arezzo and Hotel Tiferno. This arrangement still necessitated going north to Florence and then southeast to Arezzo  but saved significant time over taking the train from Florence to Citta di Castello. The chart below shows the journey.

I left Siena early enough to get to Hotel Tiferno for a meet-and-greet scheduled for 6:30 pm. Unfortunately, BA cancelled the flight from Heathrow and the organizers had to scramble for alternate arrangements. Fortunately they were able to get everyone to the hotel; ragged, tired, and late though they were. The meet-and-greet was dispensed with and the group dinner started after 8:30 pm.

Day 1 began with a breakfast in the hotel dining room followed by a pre-trip lecture by Tour Tutor Agnes Crawford.

Agnes Crawford and Day 1 lecture

This was the only "day-of" lecture of the entire trip; all subsequent lectures were delivered on the evening of the day prior to the tour. The intent of the lecture was to provide insight into our destinations and the Piero piece(s) we would see once there.

Our Day 1 journey entailed travel to Arezzo to see Piero works at the Cathedral of San Donato and the Basilica of San Francesca. This was a return journey for me as I had traveled from Arezzo to Città on the preceding day. We boarded our coach filled with anticipation. Piero's footsteps loomed large ahead of us.

After about 45 minutes of travel, we arrived at Arezzo.

We were dropped off at the bottom of the hill and made our way to the Cathedral of San Donato. 

Cathedral of San Donato, Arezzo

This cathedral, dedicated to Saints Donatus and Peter, is the largest Christian building in Arezzo and can trace its roots all the way back to the end of the 13th century. The original Arezzo Cathedral had been built nearby over the burial place of Saint Donatus, Arezzo's patron saint. In the 13th century the Pope ordered that the cathedral be moved to its current location within the town walls. Construction began in the 13th century but was sporadic with the facade only completed at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to its extended period of construction, it is a blend of architectural styles. According to Audiala.com: "The Duomo di Arezzo, as it stands today, is not a pure representation of any single architectural style. Instead, it stands as a fascinating blend of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance elements, each layer telling a story of the city's rich past. This fusion of styles, rather than creating a sense of disharmony, contributes to the Duomo's unique charm and visual appeal."

The Cathedral was beautifully appointed with stunning ceilings, stained-glass windows, and wall-mounted or frescoed paintings. 

But we were here to see Piero della Francesco's work: Santa Maria Maddalena.

Piero della Francesca,
  Santa Maria Maddalena, 1459.
Viewed in situ 9/27/2025

Piero was given the commission for this effort more or less at the same time that he was working on the final scenes of the cycle of the Legend of the True Cross. According to the accompanying literature:

The fresco, mentioned by Giorgio Vasari, is next to the vestry door and neatly hidden by the fourteenth-century cenotaph of Bishop Tarlati, which was moved here in 1783, destroying the ancient chapel. It was painted by Piero della Francesca before 1459, the year the great painter had probably completed the cycle of the Legend of the True Cross in the Church of Saint Francesco in Arezzo. The Magdalene is portrayed according to the ancient iconography, her long hair worn loose, while holding in her hand the container of ointments that she would then rub on Jesus' body in the Holy Sepulchre. The Saint, set within a classical-style Renaissance arch, embellished by an extremely elegant frieze, must have been represented on a blue background of which some traces remain, just as the gold of the halo has fallen off.

Not dissimilar to early 16th-century Venetian works, the painting relies on large patches of bright colors which are also rich in symbolism: green for hope; white for faith; and red for charity. The painterly skills of the artist are manifested in the shining light reflected on the glass container in the subject's hand and the strand by strand depiction of her hair on her shoulders. These reflect the attention to detail typical of the artist's mature works.

One source has described Magdalene's look as being "triumphant, rather than penitent" and as looking down at the viewer in a deep and expressive manner with her beauty being "elegant, almost transcendent."

According to centopassidalduomo.it, "Mary Magdalene ... portrayed in a state of deep reflection and spirituality, becomes an emblem of a beauty that transcends mere physical esthetics and succeds in reaching to the soul, demonstrating Piero's ability to fuse technical innovations with profound sensitivity."

A third source: "Piero della Francesca's "Maddalena" is recognized as an incredible masterpiece of the Renaissance, marking a crucial phase in the artistic and cultural revolution of that era ... the Fresco is positioned in a period of intense creative expression for artist, highlighting  a moment of synthesis between his investigations into perspective, the use of lighting and human portraiture."

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This was breathtaking. This piece was stunningly beautiful and had rested in this space, regally looking down at viewers, for almost 500 years. We needed a break to contemplate this before going on to see the Legend of the True Cross. A story that I will pick up on a subsequent post.

Piero della Francesca: Life highlights

I was ready to follow in the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca. I had "happened" on this small, English company (Learn Italy) specializing in leisurely educational tours focused on Italian history, art, and culture; had committed to their Piero della Francesca tour; and had completed a fair amount of preparatory work. Now it was time to embark. But before I do, a brief introduction to the painter is in order.

Piero della Francesca 

Piero was born in Sansepolcro (then known as Borgo San Sepolcro) sometime around 1415. 

His family was prosperous, engaged, as they were, in the leather and indigo industries. Being the son of a merchant, Piero received training in mathematics and those skills were reflected in his work. With his family background, and education, it would have been normal for Piero to enter the family business. But this was not to be. He would use his mathematical education to great benefit in his chosen profession. 

Portrait of Piero della Francesca
from a 1648 edition of The Lives
(Wikipedia)

A summary of key aspects of the painter's life is presented in the chart below.

Piero is, today, "regarded as a genius and a foundational artist of the Early Renaissance period" and, indeed, was held in the highest esteem while alive. His friend -- and a great mathematician -- Luca Paciola called him 'el monarchs de la pittura (the monarch of painting). His works disappeared from radar screens in the 17th century, however, only re-emerging with the European and American Grand Tours of Europe. His works gained greater acclaim, and his resurrection more sustained, with the 1991 John Pope-Hennesey lecture at the New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In describing the painter, Natalia Iacobelli, writing in dailyartmagazine.com, states thusly:

Piero della Francesca was not only an accomplished artist of the Early Renaissance, but also one of the greatest mathematicians of his day. His works reveal his innovative mind and his meticulous understanding of space, perspective, and proportion. Piero della Francesca was at the cutting edge of Humanism, writing extensively on the topics of arithmetic and geometry. His transfixing compositions built on geometric principles demonstrate his mathematical prowess and his sensibility of the classical past.

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With some perspective on the painter, you are now ready to accompany me in his footsteps.