Art trail: following in the footsteps of Piero della Francesca in Italy

Marcus Field follows in the footsteps of Piero della Francesca on a new trail that takes in the artist’s masterpieces in the Tuscan towns where he created them
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Marcus Field13 May 2016

I’m looking into the face of Piero della Francesca. Well, not literally; the great Renaissance artist died in 1492 but he left several likenesses of himself in the paintings he created for the churches and civic buildings of central Italy.

The Piero who meets my gaze is looking down from the glorious cycle of frescos he painted in the church of San Francesco in Arezzo, the city of palaces and squares 80km southeast of Florence. He is square-jawed, with a long nose and almond-shaped brown eyes. He wears a natty black hat, and his mouth is about to break into a smile. I think I’m going to like him.

Arezzo is my first stop on the Piero della Francesca Trail, a new initiative setting out routes for visitors to see the artist’s works where they were made. You can drive (like me) or take public transport across the collaborating regions — Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Le Marche and Umbria — but walking and cycling are encouraged too.

We don’t know Piero’s exact date of birth but he was probably in his late thirties when he arrived in Arezzo around 1452 to work on the frescos, now regarded as his masterpiece. The paintings occupy the entire chapel behind the altar of the church and depict the Legend of the True Cross. The story begins high up on the walls and proceeds episode by episode, like scenes in a movie. My guide, Susanna Buricchi, an expert in Renaissance art, points out the highlights, including the meeting between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon in which Piero’s self-portrait appears, and the Dream of Constantine, a sublime painting of the sleeping Roman emperor.

On the art trail: Sansepolcro 
Alamy/Robert Wyatt

Piero’s reputation rests largely on his style of representing biblical figures as if they were real people in modern settings. This would have seemed radical to a congregation more used to the stylised figures of Gothic art, and they would have been equally thrilled to see Arezzo standing in for Jerusalem in one of the scenes.

The historic centre of the city is not much changed, and a walk up the hill from San Francesco is the cathedral where Susanna points out another fresco by Piero. Most of the scene is obscured by a tomb but what remains is an atmospheric portrait of Mary Magdalene, her hair wet from drying Christ’s feet. Piero excelled at studies of perspective, and the classical arch he painted around the figure looks so real you want to touch it. It feels incredible to stand here more than 550 years after this was made.

There is plenty to enjoy in Arezzo, not least a grand loggia designed by Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari, complete with an excellent restaurant named after him, but after a quick tour I set off for Sansepolcro, Piero’s hometown on the eastern edge of Tuscany. The journey takes me through the Tiber Valley, its landscape of vineyards and hills dotted with cypress trees just as Piero painted it.

Before I arrive, however, an important diversion to the hill town of Monterchi, birthplace of Piero’s mother, Romana. The artist came here around 1459 to paint a fresco depicting the pregnant Virgin Mary in a country church. The building sat on an ancient site of fertility rituals and the subject of motherhood in this spot may have especially appealed to Piero.

A statue of Piero Della Francesca 
Alamy

The Madonna del Parto remains an extraordinarily theatrical image, with the young Mary exposed in her pavilion as two angels hold back the curtains for us to see. She is heavily pregnant, her hand on her back to relieve the weight of her belly, her eyes cast down in modesty. The fresco is a site of pilgrimage for pregnant women, for whom the €6 fee is waivered.

All around Sansepolcro there is evidence of Piero’s life, including the house where he lived (now a foundation), a street named after him, and the paintings he made here. Of these only two remain, both in the civic museum. Sadly I have to make do with a slide show of the Resurrection, a fresco painted on the walls of the museum and now under restoration (to be completed in September). In a 1925 essay Aldous Huxley described this depiction of Christ emerging triumphant from his tomb as “the best picture in the world”. Hanging close by are the principal parts of a large altarpiece called Madonna della Misericordia, one of Piero’s earliest surviving works.

Sansepolcro’s unspoilt medieval streets are lined with magnificent palazzi and it is from a church here that Piero’s Baptism of Christ in London’s National Gallery comes. Local legend has it that the town only escaped destruction by the allies in the Second World War because a British officer remembered it from Huxley’s essay and refused to bomb it for fear of damaging Piero’s paintings.

Legend of the True Cross 
AP

Alessia Uccellini, owner of the Fiorentino restaurant, has written a book on Piero and food and will cook you a Renaissance feast. I try it and leave feeling like a Medici prince.

The Piero della Francesca Trail then heads to Urbino and Rimini, sites of further celebrated works. Short of time, I end my journey in Perugia, the magnificent Etruscan city which rivals Florence for beauty. Here Piero painted a splendid altarpiece — now in the National Museum of Umbria —that is today regarded as a Renaissance blockbuster. By the time I finish the trail Piero has become like an old friend whose face I know well.

Details: Italy

Marcus Field flew to Florence on CityJet from London City and was a guest of the Terre di Piero Project (terredipiero.it), on whose website you can download the trail.

Hotel Continentale, Arezzo (hotelcontinentale.com). Doubles from €98 B&B. Palazzo Magi, Sansepolcro (palazzomagi.it). Doubles from €80, B&B. Brufani Palace, Perugia (brufanipalace.it). Doubles from €162, B&B.

Susanna Buricchi (artours.it) offers guided art tours.

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