DISCOVER ITALIA!
P
iero della who?” Olivia Nesci’s first reaction
to her friend Rosetta Borchia’s excited phone
call to break the news of her ground-breaking
discovery sums up just how much they lived
in different worlds.
It was late 2006 and Rosetta, an artist and
photographer, had been enlarging some commissioned
images of the countryside near Urbino when she realised
she was looking at the landscape behind the famous
portrait of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, with
his distinctive nose, by the early Renaissance master Piero
della Francesca. Olivia is Professor in Geomorphology at
Urbino University and has a more scientific than artistic
outlook on life, yet she quickly understood the evidence
and recognised that this was a chance for the pair to
become ‘landscape seekers’.
The two women used their intimate knowledge of the
area and perfectly complementary individual skills to
identify the landscapes in the two other paintings which
complete the duke’s diptych: the portrait of his wife,
Battista Sforza, and, painted on the reverse of the two
wooden panels, The Triumphs.
The latter, along with the Duke’s own portrait,
features the gentle hills of the Metauro river valley not
far from Urbino, where his perfect fairytale castle was a
buzzing cultural hub in the 15th century; while Battista
was painted against the more dramatic scenery of the
Valmarecchia, just further north, near San Marino, where
rocky spurs, craggy hills, medieval villages and fortresses
dominate the skyline.
“Both valleys formed part of the Montefeltro dukedom
and this area was particularly dear to her after an enforcedstay with her
husband at Pietracuta
castle, where they were snowbound
for two months,” explains Rosetta.
“Another problem in placing the duchess’s landscape
accurately was Maioletto, the hill painted below her chin
in the picture,” continues Rosetta, “is that nowadays the
slope is far more rocky and irregular, but we discovered
there had been a major landslide in 1700 which actually
destroyed the old village and explains the discrepancy.”VIEWING BALCONIES
In the ten years since their first discovery, Olivia and
Rosetta have traced a total of seven landscapes in
the Montefeltro area featured in some of Piero della
Francesca’s most celebrated works, including the diptych.
Each has a clearly signposted viewing balcony at or
near the actual location chosen by the artist to capture
the panorama. Guided visits are also organised, with
the added treat of meeting Piero himself, or rather a
wonderfully believable actor who plays the part of the
artist, bringing the story behind his paintings to life.
Having always been fascinated by landscapes as well
as art, and benefiting from an exceptional visual memory,
Rosetta has had a few insights that helped the women
to track down locations painted by other artists too;
their current project involves works by the Urbino-born
Renaissance master Raphael. The real bombshell however,
came a few years ago when they realised they were on to the
landscapes behind La Gioconda, aka the Mona Lisa.
“I was down in the valley when it suddenly struck me
that the same bends in the river and the same hill feature
in the foreground of da Vinci’s masterpiece,” recalls
Rosetta, “I was astounded.” She and Olivia had already
traced one of the Tuscan genius’s works, Madonna Litta,
which includes the Maioletto hill, the one painted by
Della Francesca.“
stay with her
husband at Pietracuta
castle, where they were snowbound
for two months,” explains Rosetta.You can now
stand where Piero
della Francesca
actually painted his
masterpieces – this
particular one shows
the background to
‘St Jerome and a
Worshipper’ (1450,
L’Accademia, Venice)Landscape seekers
Rosetta and Olivia64 ITALIA! November 2016Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro, by Piero della FrancescaFor more on
Della Francesca
and the Duke
and Duchess of
Urbino, turn to
Freya’s article on
page 68IT144.ArtLandscapes.sg6.indd 64 28/09/2016 13:59pm