‘The seduction of perspective’ in Sansepolcro

At the Sansepolcro Museum a behind-the-scenes display of Piero della Francesca’s paintings

From 25 March 2018 to 06 January 2019

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From 25th March, 2018 through to 6th January, 2019 the exhibition 'The seduction of perspective' will be on show in Sansepolcro (Italy). This is a compelling exhibition on the art of Piero della Francesca, who saw in the relationship between mathematics and painting one of the fundamental aspects of painting. The exhibition is housed in the Sansepolcro Civic Museum and has been collected in parallel with the restoration of the 'Resurrection' by Piero della Francesca, one of his most famous works. Just consider that the British writer Aldus Huxley has defined it as 'the best painting in the world'! In a single visit you will therefore be able to admire one of the most interesting painting exhibitions of 2018 as well as Piero della Francesca artwork and the Museum’s valuable collections. And you can top all this off with the charm of Sansepolcro, Arezzo, one of the most beguiling villages of Valtiberina: ancient medieval and Renaissance buildings, churches rich in frescoes and landscapes beautifully captured in Piero della Francesca’s paintings. So, for all of you passionate about art, paintings or simply all things 'beauty', Sansepolcro, Tuscany, is just your destination!

But let's see in detail what is in store at the unmissable 2018 Piero della Francesca mostra. The exhibition is organized around the 1475 treatise 'De prospectiva Pingendi' by Piero della Francesca, centred on the research of mathematics applied to painting. Piero della Francesca was, in fact, a multifaceted character: master of abacus, Euclidean surveyor, scholar of Archimedes as well as an extraordinary and undisputed innovator in the field of arts. Piero della Francesca perspective studies are a real milestone in the history of painting, they have given rise to the experience of perspective in Renaissance painting. The curators of the Piero della Francesca exhibition, Francesco p. di Teodoro and Filippo Camerota, have arranged the exhibition in 8 section.

1. PERSPECTIVE BETWEEN ART AND MATHEMATICS
   Several drawing reproductions demonstrate how Piero della Francesca’s 'De Prospectiva Pingendi' represents the first systematic study on perspective, where the principles and procedures are mathematically demonstrated.
   
   

2. GEOMETRIC PRINCIPLES
   This section of one of the most interesting paint exhibitions in Italy in 2018, analyses the influence that Florence had on Piero della Francesca’s work when he arrived here in 1439 to work on the frescoes of Sant'Egidio with Domenico Veneziano. Thanks to a panel of the Gate of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti, the visitor can understand the influences that animated the lily city during that period. Great artists such as Masaccio, Donatello, Brunelleschi, began, in fact, to approach the new pictorial language.
   
   

3. THE RULES OF PROSPECTIVE DRAWING
   Models and drawings by Piero della Francesca in Sansepolcro are on display: the exhibition shows how he was the first person to write a treatise addressed to artists, and, for this reason, it contained a high number of drawings.
   
   

4. GEOMETRIC SHAPES
   This section, thanks to the analysis of Luca de Pacioli’s portrait, delves on the relationship between Piero della Francesca and mathematics. Attention is also given to the 'libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus', completed in 1482, in which Piero della Francesca goes back to the theme of regular bodies.
   
   

5. THE MASTERS OF PERSPECTIVE
   This section of the exhibition on Piero della Francesca analyzes the fact that his drawings can be seen in many of 1400's inlays, which can be explained by his friendship with many of these artists. Ultimately, the art of the 'wood workers' was one of the first fields where the principles of 'De Prospectiva Pingendi' were extensively applied.
   
   

6. ARCHITECTURE DRAWING: ICHNOGRAPHIA, ORTHOGRAPHIA, SCAENOGRAPHIA.
   According to Piero della Francesca, a good painter must also be a good architect. With this in mind, this section of the Sansepolcro Museum exhibition explores many aspects of architecture such as the design of ornaments, proportions and classical orders.
   
   

7. THE HUMAN FIGURE
   This is perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the exhibition on the San Sepolcro mostra Piero della Francesca, precisely because the game of perspective in the representation of the human body becomes harder to achieve. Through several reproductions and drawings, we can understand how the artist considered the human body a geometric solid, as in the case of the head that is divided into meridians and parallels as if it were a globe.
   
   

8. THE DECEPTIONS OF VISION
   The mostra on Piero della Francesca in Arezzo ends with the analysis of the optical illusions created by the forced relationship between the eye and the observer’s distance, illusions that led the San Sepolcro’s artist to anticipate anamorphism. This is a phenomenon through which an image that seems distorted acquires the true form only when the observer is in a precise position.
   
   

This exhibition, which is one of the most anticipated Sansepolcro events in 2018 and 2019, represents a fascinating journey into the art world of Piero della Francesca and the paintings that have made him famous throughout the world. The exhibition ends with a video, which according to the curators of the exhibition, makes the geometric dimension of the Sansepolcro artist tangible.

You have a few months during which to visit the exhibition at Sansepolcro, Italy, as it is open until January 2019, so start planning your getaway to Tuscany to get to know one of its greatest masters. As already mentioned, the Piero della Francesca biglietti will give you the opportunity to visit the museum’s additional collections. What else do you need to be convinced? That’s easily answered. Why not book one of our fantastic tours to the villages of Tuscany? This way your stay will be in the name of 'beauty': of art, landscape and why not ... food also!

Piero della Francesca Mostra: 25th March 2018 - 6th January 2019 

Location: Museo Civico di Sansepolcro (Arezzo) - Via Niccolo' Aggiunti, 65

Piero della Franscesca Exhibition opening times: 10 am – 1 pm / 2.30 pm – 6.00 pm