Urbino
—  Comune  —
Comune di Urbino
The Ducal Palace of Urbino
Coat of arms
Urbino Location of Urbino in Italy
Coordinates: 43°43′N 12°38′E / 43.717°N 12.633°E / 43.717; 12.633
Country	Italy
Region	Marche
Province	Pesaro and Urbino (PU)
Frazioni	Ca' Mazzasette, Canavaccio, Castelcavallino, La Torre, Mazzaferro, Pieve di Cagna, San Marino, Schieti, Scotaneto, Trasanni
Government
• Mayor	Franco Corbucci (Democratic Party)
Area
• Total	228 km2 (88 sq mi)
Elevation	451 m (1,480 ft)
Population (28 February 2009)
• Total	15,566
• Density	68/km2 (180/sq mi)
Demonym	Urbinati
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	61029
Dialing code	0722
Patron saint	St. Crescentinus
Saint day	June 1
Website	Official website

Historic Centre of Urbino *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Italy
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv
Reference	828
Region **	Europe
Inscription history
Inscription	1998 (22nd Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

The Ducal Palace.

View of the Duomo.

Urbino  listen (help·info) is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482. The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, only slightly marred by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino. Its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana.

History[link]

Antique plan of Urbino (1689) by Tommaso Luci.

The modest Roman town of Urvinum Mataurense ("the little city on the river Mataurus") became an important strategic stronghold in the Gothic Wars of the 6th century, captured in 538 from the Ostrogoths by the Byzantine general Belisarius, and frequently mentioned by the historian Procopius.

Though Pippin presented Urbino to the Papacy, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, until, around 1200, it came into the possession of the House of Montefeltro. Although these noblemen had no direct authority over the commune, they could pressure it to elect them to the position of podestà, a title that Bonconte di Montefeltro managed to obtain in 1213, with the result that Urbino's population rebelled and formed an alliance with the independent commune of Rimini (1228), finally regaining control of the town in 1234. Eventually, though, the Montefeltro noblemen took control once more, and held it until 1508. In the struggles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines where factions supported either the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire, the 13th and 14th century Montefeltro lords of Urbino were leaders of the Ghibellines of the Marche and in the Romagna region.

The most famous member of the Montefeltro was Federico III (or II), Duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482, a very successful condottiere, a skillful diplomat and an enthusiastic patron of art and literature. At his court, Piero della Francesca wrote on the science of perspective, Francesco di Giorgio Martini wrote his Trattato di architettura ("Treatise on Architecture") and Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, wrote his poetical account of the chief artists of his time. Federico's brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castiglione's Il Cortegiano ("The Book of the Courtier"), set standards of what was to characterize a modern European "gentleman" for centuries to come.

In 1502, Cesare Borgia, with the connivance of his Papal father, Alexander VI, dispossessed Duke Guidobaldo and Elisabetta Gonzaga. They returned in 1503, after Alexander had died. After the Medici pope Leo X's brief attempt to establish a young Medici as duke, thwarted by the early death of Lorenzo II de' Medici in 1519, Urbino was ruled by the dynasty of Della Rovere dukes (see also War of Urbino).

In 1626, Pope Urban VIII definitively incorporated the Duchy into the papal dominions, the gift of the last Della Rovere duke, in retirement after the assassination of his heir, to be governed by the archbishop. Its great library was removed to Rome and added to the Vatican Library in 1657. The later history of Urbino is part of the history of the Papal States and, after 1861, of the Kingdom (later Republic) of Italy.

Maiolica[link]

The clay earth of Urbino, which still supports industrial brickworks, supplied a cluster of earthenware manufactories (botteghe) making the tin-glazed pottery known as maiolica. Simple local wares were being made in the 15th century at Urbino, but after 1520 the Della Rovere dukes, Francesco Maria I della Rovere and his successor Guidobaldo II, encouraged the industry, which exported wares throughout Italy, first in a manner called istoriato using engravings after Mannerist painters, then in a style of light arabesques and grottesche after the manner of Raphael's stanze at the Vatican. Other centers of 16th century wares in the Duchy of Urbino were at Gubbio and Castel Durante. The great name in Urbino majolica was that of Nicolo Pillipario's son Guido Fontana.

Main sights[link]

Palaces and public edifices[link]

• The main attraction of Urbino is the Palazzo Ducale, begun in the second half of the 15th century by Federico II da Montefeltro. It houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, one of the most important collections of Renaissance paintings in the world.
• Other interesting buildings include Palazzo Albani (17th century), Palazzo Odasi and Palazzo Passionei.
• The Albornoz Fortress (known locally as La Fortezza), built by the eponymous Papal legate in the 14th century.^[1] In 1507-1511, when the Della Rovere added a new series of walls to the city, the rock was enclosed in them. It is now a public park.
• Raphael's house and monument (1897).

Churches[link]

• The Duomo (cathedral) is a church founded in 1021 over a 6th century religious edifice. The 12th century plan was turned 90 degrees from the current one, which is a new construction also started by Federico II and commissioned to Francesco di Giorgio Martini, author of the Ducal Palace. Finished only in 1604, the Duomo had a simple plan with a nave and two aisles, and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1789. The church was again rebuilt by the Roman architect Giuseppe Valadier, the works lasting until 1801. The new church has a typical neo-classicist appearance, with a majestic dome. It houses a San Sebastian from 1557, an Assumption by Carlo Maratta (1701) and the famous Last Supper by Federico Barocci (1603–1608).
• The church of San Giovanni Battista, with frescoes by Lorenzo Salimbeni da Sanseverino
• Sant'Agostino, built in Romanesque style in the 13th century, but largely modified in the following centuries. The façade has a late-14th century almond portal in Gothic-Romanesuqe style, while the interior is greatly decorated. It houses a precious carved choir from the 6th century, manufactured for the marriage of Costanzo Sforza and Camilla of Aragona. The bell tower is from the 15th century.
• San Francesco (14th century), originally a Gothic-Romanesque edifice of which an 18th century restoration has left only the portico and the bell tower. The interior has a nave and two aisles, and houses the Pardon of St. Francis, a 15th century work by Barocci.
• The Oratory of San Giuseppe (early 16th century), composed of two chapels: one of which contains a 16th century presepio or Nativity scene by Federico Brandani, the stucco figures are lifesize and highly naturalistic.

Outside the city is the Church of San Bernardino, housing the tombs of the Dukes of Urbino.

Other points of interest[link]

• Orto Botanico "Pierina Scaramella", a botanical garden

People from Urbino[link]

• Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, medieval condottiere and patron of the arts.
• Elisabetta Gonzaga Duchess of Urbino (1471–1526)
• Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, commissioned the famous Venus of Urbino painting.
• Donato Bramante was born nearby, and witnessed Laurana's work going up while he was a youth
• Raphael was born at Urbino, where his family's house is a museum-shrine
• Paolo Volponi (1924–1994), writer and poet
• Giovanni Francesco Albani, Pope Clement XI

Others notable people from Urbino include:

• Crispino Agostinucci -bishop of Montefeltro
• Federico Barocci, painter
• Bernardino Baldi, mathematician and writer
• Raffaello Carboni, writer.
• Bartolomeo Carusi, theologian and professor at Bologna and Paris
• Clorinda Corradi, lyrical singer (1804–1877)
• Federico Commandini (1509), mathematician
• Raphael Gualazzi, jazz pianist and singer, runner-up in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
• Battista Malatesta (1384 - 1448), Renaissance poet.
• Ottaviano Petrucci, inventor of the music print with movable type, was born nearby
• Francesco Puccinotti (1794–1872), pathologist
• Umberto Piersanti, poet and writer
• Valentino Rossi, multiple MotoGP World Champion, was born nearby
• Giovanni Santi, painter and poet, father of Raphael, was born nearby
• Polydore Vergil or Virgil, chronicler in England
• Federico Zuccari and Taddeo Zuccari, painters, were born nearby

See also[link]

• Archdiocese of Urbino-Urbania-Sant'Angelo in Vado
• Dukes of Urbino

Sources[link]

• Negroni, F. (1993). Il Duomo di Urbino. Urbino. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Urbino

• Official website of Urbino
• Urbino e Provincia

References[link]

Notes

v t e World Heritage Sites in Italy North West Crespi d'Adda Genoa Mantua and Sabbioneta Portovenere Cinque Terre (Monterosso al Mare Vernazza Corniglia Manarola Riomaggiore), Palmaria Tino and Tinetto Residences of the Royal House of Savoy Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes1 Rock Drawings in Valcamonica Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan Monte San Giorgio North East Aquileia Botanical Garden, Padua Cathedral Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena The Dolomites Ferrara Ravenna Venice Verona Vicenza and Palladian Villas of the Veneto Centre Assisi Cerveteri and Tarquinia Florence Hadrian's Villa Piazza del Duomo, Pisa Pienza Rome2 San Gimignano Siena Urbino Val d'Orcia Villa d'Este South Alberobello Amalfi Coast Castel del Monte Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park Paestum and Velia Certosa di Padula Naples Palace of Caserta Aqueduct of Vanvitelli and San Leucio Complex Pompeii Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata Sassi of Matera Islands Aeolian Islands Archaeological Area of Agrigento Barumini nuraghes Syracuse and Necropolis of Pantalica Val di Noto (Caltagirone Militello in Val di Catania Catania Modica Noto Palazzolo Acreide Ragusa Scicli) Villa Romana del Casale Nationwide Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568-774 A.D.) Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps3 1 Shared with Switzerland 2 Shared with the Holy See 3 Shared with Austria, France, Germany, Slovenia, and Switzerland

Piero della Francesca
A self-portrait, detail from Resurrection
Birth name	Piero della Francesca
Born	1415 (1415)[1] Sansepolcro, Republic of Florence
Died	October 12, 1492 (1492-10-13) Sansepolcro, Republic of Florence
Nationality	Italian
Field	Painting, Fresco
Movement	Italian Renaissance
Works	The Baptism of Christ Flagellation of Christ Brera Madonna

Piero della Francesca (c. 1415^[1] – October 12, 1492) was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The Legend of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Piero was born in the town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro,^[1] modern-day Tuscany (where he also died), to Benedetto de' Franceschi, a tradesman, and Romana di Perino da Monterchi, part of the Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family.

The Baptism of Christ, 1450 (National Gallery, London).

He was most probably apprenticed to the local painter Antonio di Giovanni d'Anghiari, because in documents about payments is noted that he was working with Antonio in 1432 and May 1438.^[2] Besides he certainly took notice of the work of some of the Sienese artists active in San Sepolcro during his youth; e.g. Sassetta. In 1439 Piero received, together with Domenico Veneziano, payments for his work on frescoes for the church of Sant'Egidio in Florence, now lost. In Florence he must have met leading masters like Fra Angelico, Luca della Robbia, Donatello and Brunelleschi. The classicism of Masaccio's frescoes and his majestic figures in the Santa Maria del Carmine were for him an important source of inspiration. Dating of Piero's undocumented work is difficult because his style does not seem to have developed over the years.

Mature work[link]

In 1442 he was listed as eligible for the City Council of San Sepolcro. Three years later, he received the commission for the altarpiece of the church of the Misericordia in San Sepolcro (including the Madonna della Misericordia), which he was to complete only in the early 1460s. In 1449 he executed several frescoes in the Castello Estense and the church of Sant'Andrea of Ferrara, also lost. His influence was particularly strong in the later Ferrarese allegorical works of Cosimo Tura.

Two years later he was in Rimini, working for the condottiero Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. In this sojourn he executed in 1451 the famous fresco of St. Sigismund and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in the Tempio Malatestiano, as well as Sigismondo's portrait. In Rimini Piero may have met the famous Renaissance mathematician and architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had redesigned the Tempio Malatestiano; although it is known that Alberti directed the execution of his designs for the church by correspondence with his building supervisor. Thereafter Piero was active in Ancona, Pesaro and Bologna.

In 1454 he signed a contract for the polyptych in the church of Sant'Agostino in San Sepolcro. The central panel of this polyptic is lost and the four panels of the wings, with representations of Saints, are scattered around the world. A few years later, summoned by Pope Nicholas V, he moved to Rome: here he executed frescoes in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, of which only fragments remain. Two years later he was again in the Papal capital, for frescoes in Vatican Palace which have also been destroyed.

The Baptism of Christ, in The National Gallery in London, was executed around 1460 for the high altar of the church of the Priory of S. Giovanni Battista at Sansepolcro. Other notable works of Piero della Francesca's maturity are the frescoes of the Resurrection in Sansepolcro and the Madonna del parto in Monterchi near Sansepolcro.

Frescoes in San Francesco at Arezzo[link]

Legend of the True Cross - the Queen of Sheba meeting with King Solomon.

In 1452, Piero della Francesca was called to Arezzo to replace Bicci di Lorenzo in painting the frescoes of the basilica of San Francesco. The work was finished before 1466, probably between 1452-1456. The cycle of frescoes, depicting the Legend of the True Cross, is generally considered among his masterworks and those of Renaissance painting in general. The story in these frescoes derives from legendary medieval sources as to how timber relics of the True Cross came to be found. These stories were collected in the "Golden Legend" of Jacopo da Varazze (Jacopo da Varagine) of the mid 13th century. ^[3]

Piero's activity in Urbino[link]

Between 1469 and 1486 Piero della Francesca worked repeatedly in the service of Count Federico III da Montefeltro (Duke in 1474). According to Giorgio Vasari, Piero would have worked for Federico's father Guidantonio, who died in February 1443. However, this is unlikely because this statement is not confirmed by documents or paintings. Vasari may have confused Guidantonio with Federico. The Flagellation is generally considered Piero's oldest work in Urbino (dating c. 1455–1470). It is one of the most famous and controversial pictures of the early Renaissance. As discussed in its own entry, it is marked by an air of geometric sobriety, in addition to presenting a perplexing enigma as to the nature of the three men standing at the foreground.

Another famous work painted in Urbino is the Double Portrait of Federico and his wife Battista Sforza, in the Uffizi. The portraits in profile take their inspiration from large bronze medals and stucco roundels with the official portrets of Fedederico and his wife. Other paintings made in Urbino are the monumental Montefeltro Altarpiece in the Brera Gallery in Milan and probably also the Madonna of Senigallia.

In Urbino Piero met the painters Melozzo da Forlì, Fra Carnevale and the Flemish Justus van Gent (or Joos van Wassenhove or Giusto di Gant), the mathematician Fra Luca Pacioli, the architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini and probably also Leon Battista Alberti.

His later years[link]

In his later years, painters such as Perugino and Luca Signorelli frequently visited his workshop. It is documented that Piero rented a house in Rimini in 1482. Although he may have given up painting in his later years, Vasari's remarks that he went blind at old age and at the age of sixty, have to be doubted, since in 1485 he completed his treatise on regular solids, dedicated to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, son and heir of Duke Federico, in his own fine handwriting. Piero made his will in 1487 and he died five years later in his own house in San Sepolcro, on the very day that Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Americas. He left his possessions to his family and the church.

Work in mathematics and geometry[link]

The Resurrection.

His deep interest in the theoretical study of perspective and his contemplative approach to his paintings are apparent in all his work. Three treatises written by Piero are known to modern mathematicians: Abacus Treatise (Trattato d'Abaco), Short Book on the Five Regular Solids (Libellus de Quinque Corporibus Regularibus) and On Perspective for Painting (De Prospectiva Pingendi). The subjects covered in these writings include arithmetic, algebra, geometry and innovative work in both solid geometry and perspective. Much of Piero’s work was later absorbed into the writing of others, notably Luca Pacioli. Piero’s work on solid geometry appears in Pacioli’s "De divina proportione", a work illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci.

Selected works[link]

• Polyptych of the Misericordia (1445–1462) - Oil and tempera on panel, base 330 cm, height 273 cm, Pinacoteca Comunale, Sansepolcro
• The Baptism of Christ (c. 1448-1450) - Tempera on panel, 168 x 116 cm, National Gallery, London
• St. Jerome in Penitence (c. 1449-1451) - Oil on panel, 51 x 38 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
• St. Jerome and a Donor (1451) - Panel, 40 x 42 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
• Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta Praying in Front of St. Sigismund (1451) - Fresco, Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini
• Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (c. 1451) - Tempera and oil on panel, 44.5 x 34.5 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
• The History of the True Cross (c. 1455-1466) - Frescoes, San Francesco, Arezzo
• The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1460) - Tempera on panel, 59 x 81.5 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
• Polyptych of Saint Augustine (1460–1470) - Oil and tempera on panel
• Resurrection (c. 1463) - Fresco, 225 x 200 cm, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro
• Madonna del parto (1459–1467) - Detached fresco, 260 x 203 cm, Chapel of the cemetery, Monterchi
• Nativity (c. 1470) - 124.5 x 123 cm, National Gallery, London
• Polyptych of Perugia (c. 1470) - Oil on panel, 338 x 230 cm, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia
• Madonna and Child with Saints (Montefeltro Altarpiece, 1472–1474) - Oil on panel, 248 x 170 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
• Paired portraits (c. 1472) of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, respectively the Duke and Duchess of Urbino- Oil on panel, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
• Madonna di Senigallia (c. 1474) - Oil on panel, 67 x 53.5 cm, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino

Inspirations[link]

Bohuslav Martinů wrote a three movement work for orchestra entitled Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca. Dedicated to Rafael Kubelik, it was premiered by Kubelik and the Vienna Philharmonic at the 1956 Salzburg Festival. Piero's geometrical perfection and the almost magic atmosphere of the light in his painting inspired modern painters like Giorgio de Chirico, Massimo Campigli, Felice Casorati and Balthus.

References[link]

• Bertelli, Carlo, Piero Della Francesca, Yale, 1992.
• Damisch, Hubert, A Childhood Memory by Piero della Francesca, Stanford University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8047-3442-9.
• Gantz, Jeffrey, Strong, silent type: Piero della Francesca, international artist of mystery, The Boston Phoenix, Arts section, September 1, 2006.
• Ginzburg, Carlo, The Enigma of Piero: Piero Della Francesca, Verso, 2002. ISBN 1-85984-378-6
• Pope-Henessy, John, "The Piero della Francesca Trail" including Aldous Huxley Piero essay "The Best Picture" ISBN 1-892145-13-8.
• Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus, corredato della versione volgare di Luca Pacioli [fac-sim du Codice Vat. Urb. Lat. 632]; eds. Cecil Grayson,... Marisa Dalai Emiliani, Carlo Maccagni. Firenze, Giunti, 1995. 3 vol. (68 ff., XLIV-213, XXII-223 pp.). ISBN 88-09-01020-5
• Pierpaolo Tofanelli, La Madonna del Parto, Pagine Nuove di Storia dell'Arte e dell'Architettura N. 3, Firenze, 2009. ISBN 978-88-95450-21-6.
• Pierpaolo Tofanelli, La Natività, Pagine Nuove di Storia dell'Arte e dell'Architettura N. 4, Firenze, 2010. ISBN 978-88-95450-22-3
• Piero's Archimedes, [fac-sim du Codice Riccardiano 106 par Piero della Francesca]; eds. Roberto Manescalchi, Matteo Martelli, James Banker, Giovanna Lazzi, Pierdaniele Napolitani, Riccardo Bellè. Sansepolcro, Grafica European Center of Fine Arts e Vimer Industrie Grafiche Italiane, 2007. 2 vol. (82 ff., XIV-332 pp. English, Francais, Espanol, Deutsch, Italiano et Arabic) ISBN 978-88-95450-25-4.
• Longhi, Roberto "Piero della Francesca" ISBN 1-878818-77-5.
• Roberto Manescalchi, L'Ercole di Piero, tra mito e realtà,( ParteI), Grafica European Center of Fine Art (Terre di Piero), Firenze, 2011. ISBN 978-88-95450-05-6
• Vasari, Giorgio, Lives of the Artists, (George Bull translation), London, 1965.

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Piero della Francesca

• Piero della Francesca and the Italian Courts - Exhibition 2007 in Arezzo *Paul Johnson, Art: A New history
• Piero della Francesca article at the University of St. Andrews
• MathPages - Piero della Francesca's Tetrahedron Formula
• Piero della Francesca