Piero's light: in search of Piero della Francesca : a renaissance painter and the revolution in art, science, and religion

Abstract

An innovative painter in the early generation of Renaissance artists and one of the great enigmas of art history, Piero della Francesca was also a knowledgable scholar on religious topics and a mathematician who wanted to use perspective and geometry to make painting a "true science." Piero lived in a tumultuous age of princes and popes, soldiers and schisms. A skilled geometer, he was also part of the philosophical revival of Platonism, an ancient worldview that would shape our modern revolutions in art, religion, and science. In 'Piero's Light', Larry Witham presents Piero not only as a vivid character in his own time, but as an integral piece of our artistic legacy that takes us from past visions of belief, beauty, and knowledge to a secular age, a time when science is redefining our mental experiences. Although only sixteen of Piero's works survive, few art historians doubt his importance in the Renaissance. --From publisher description.

Contents

The Renaissance's apprentice -- Florentine crossroads -- A Platonic painter of light -- Strange legends in fresco -- Piero goes to Rome -- The aging geometer -- After the Renaissance -- Piero rediscovered -- Piero and modernity -- The eyes of science -- A celebrated life.