Arezzo is a provincial town about 40 miles from Florence, which would
seldom be visited by modern tourists were it not for the important fresco
cycle that Piero painted, the Legend of the True Cross. This was painted in
the chancel of the church of San Francesco. Piero would have seen the same
subject painted in the same location in the Florentine church of Santa Croce.
That fresco cycle of the 1380s was especially appropriate, because the church
was dedicated to the Holy Cross. These pre-Renaissance paintings would
have offered a model for the individual subjects from the legend but not for
Piero’s unique style. The complex Legend of the True Cross is a medieval
narrative that can be read in the Golden Legend, an essential source for the
lives of the saints. Compiled by a Dominican friar (later archbishop) in Genoa
named Jacobus de Voragine around 1260, it is also the principal source for
the story of the True Cross. The decoration of the chancel in San Francesco
was begun by another artist who died after completion of the vault, which
gave Piero the opportunity to paint the main scenes. Despite severe water
damage, the cycle remains a pilgrimage goal for lovers of Renaissance art.
We will look at three views of the walls of the chancel so that the layout can
be visualized. The largest frescoes are on the lateral walls, three on each, and
there are two smaller scenes on each side of the tall Gothic window at the
end of the chancel. The right wall contains the Death of Adam at the top, the
Story of Solomon and Sheba in the middle, and the Battle of Constantine and
Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge on the bottom. This last scene is preceded
by the Dream of Constantine, painted on the window wall abutting the battle
scene. The left wall comprises the Battle of Heraclius and Chosroes, out
of sequence at the bottom, and the Discovery and Veri¿ cation of the True
Cross in the middle, preceded by a scene on the window wall showing a
Jew named Judas compelled to reveal where the cross was buried; this is
next to the scene of Discovery. The Emperor Heraclius Returns the Cross to
Jerusalem is seen at the top. The window wall represents the Burial of the
Wood at the upper right, and the Dream of Constantine on the bottom right;
the Jew Removed from the Well is on the top left, and the Annunciation is on
the bottom left.
On the right wall, we will look closer at the Death of Adam. On the right
side, Adam sits on the ground and Eve supports him, while his descendants
contemplate his imminent death. Note the classical nude man leaning on his