San Bernadino degli Zoccolanti near Urbino, the painting’s intended
location. If so, the viewer would be compelled to believe in Federico’s
presence in the church before the Virgin, Christ Child, and saints.
That Piero depicted Federico in left profile was undoubtedly a con-
cession to his patron. The right side of Federico’s face had sustained
severe injury in a tournament, and the resulting deformity made him
reluctant to show that side.
The Brera Altarpiecereveals Piero’s deep interest in the proper-
ties of light and color. In his effort to make the clearest possible dis-
tinction among forms, he flooded his pictures with light, imparting
a silver-blue tonality. To avoid heavy shadows, he illuminated the
dark sides of his forms with reflected light. By moving the darkest
tones of his modeling toward the centers of his volumes, he sepa-
rated them from their backgrounds. Because of this technique,
Piero’s paintings lack some of Masaccio’s relieflike qualities but gain
in spatial clarity, as each shape forms an independent unit sur-
rounded by an atmospheric envelope and movable to any desired
position, like a figure on a chessboard.The Princely Courts 57121-42Piero della Francesca,
Enthroned Madonna and Saints
Adored by Federico da Montefeltro
(Brera Altarpiece), ca. 1472–1474.
Oil on wood, 8 2 5 7 .
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
The illusionism of Piero’s Brera
Altarpiece is so convincing that
the viewer is compelled to believe
in Federico da Montefeltro’s
presence before the Virgin Mary,
Christ Child, and saints.1 ft.