The ''Brera Madonna'' (also known as the ''Pala di Brera'', the Montefeltro Altarpiece or Brera Altarpiece) is a painting by the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

master

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca ( , ; ; ; – 12 October 1492) was an Italian Renaissance painter, Italian painter, mathematician and List of geometers, geometer of the Early Renaissance, nowadays chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is charact ...

, executed in 1472–1474. It is housed in the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, where it was deposited by Napoleon. The work, of a type known as a ''

sacra conversazione In art, a (; plural: ''sacre conversazioni''), meaning "holy (or sacred) conversation", is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child (the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus) amidst a group of sain ...

'', was commissioned by

Federico III da Montefeltro Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG (7 June 1422 – 10 September 1482), was one of the most successful mercenary captains (''condottieri'') of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 (as Duke f ...

Duke of Urbino The Duchy of Urbino () was an independent duchy in early modern central Italy, corresponding to the northern half of the modern region of Marche. It was directly annexed by the Papal States in 1631. It was bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the ea ...

, to celebrate the birth of Federico's son, Guidobaldo. According to other sources, it would celebrate his conquest of several castles in the

Maremma The Maremma (, ; from Latin , "maritime and) is a geographical region located between Lazio and Tuscany, Central Italy. The biggest city is Grosseto. The region, with a long history, is traditionally populated by the '' butteri'', mounted c ...

Dating

The painting was executed between 1472 and 1474; the ''terminus ante quem'' is established by the absence from Federico's figure of the insignia of the

Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...

, which he received in the later year. When it was rediscovered at the Brera at the end of the 19th century, the painting was so disfigured by darkened varnish it was attributed to Fra Carnevale (Bartolomeo di Giovanni Corradini), as Piero's use of oil technique was not yet known. Some sources suggest that the work was commissioned to celebrate the birth of Federico's son, Guidobaldo, who was born in 1472. According to this hypothesis, the Child could represent Guidobaldo, while the Virgin may have the appearance of Battista Sforza, Federico's wife, who died in the same year and was buried at San Bernardino.

Description

The work represents a sacred conversation, with the Virgin enthroned and the sleeping Child in the middle, surrounded by a host of angels and saints. On the right low corner, kneeling and wearing his armor, the patron of arts, duke and

condottiero Condottieri (; singular: ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian military leaders active during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The term originally referred specifically to commanders of mercenary companies, derived from the ...

Federico da Montefeltro. Federico's choice of wearing armor had not been observed in other donor paintings of the past century. The donning of armor here signifies his military prowess and devotion to protect his faith, a new concept for presenting in armor when in a holy presence. The background consists of the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

of a church in Renaissance classical style, which is rendered in such meticulous perspective that the feigned depth of the coffer-vaulted

at the rear can be calculated. At the center, hanging by a thread from the apse shell is an egg, emblem alike of Mary's fecundity and the promise of regeneration and immortality. The Child wears a necklace of deep red

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

beads, a color which alludes to blood, a symbol of life and death, but also to the redemption brought by Christ. Coral was also used for teething, and often worn by babies. The saints at the left of the Madonna are generally identified as

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

Bernardino of Siena Bernardino of Siena, Order of Friars Minor, OFM (Bernardine or Bernadine; 8 September 138020 May 1444), was an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in Italy. He was a systematizer of Scholasticism, ...

(dedicatee of the painting's original location) and

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

; on the right would be

Francis Francis may refer to: People and characters *Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025) *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) * Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie2 ...

, Peter Martyr and

Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

. In the last figure, the Italian historian Ricci has identified a portrait of

Luca Pacioli Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli, O.F.M. (sometimes ''Paccioli'' or ''Paciolo''; 1447 – 19 June 1517) was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and an early contributor to the field now known as account ...

, a mathematician born in

Sansepolcro Sansepolcro, formerly Borgo Santo Sepolcro, is a town and ''comune'' founded in the 11th century, located in the Italian Province of Arezzo in the eastern part of the region of Tuscany. Situated on the upper reaches of the Tiber river, the town ...

like Piero della Francesca. The presence of John the Baptist would be explained as he was the patron saint of Federico's wife, while St. Jerome was the protector of

Humanists Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has ...

. Francis, finally, would be present as the painting was originally thought for the Franciscan church of San Donato degli Osservanti, where Federico was later buried. Modern cleaning has revealed the great detail in characters' clothes, the angels' jewels, Federico's reflective armor and the oriental carpet beneath the feet of the Virgin, reflecting the influence of

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting is the body of work by artists active in the Burgundian Netherlands, Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period, once known as the Flemish Primitives. It flour ...

. The apse ends with a shell

semi-dome In architecture, a semi-dome (or half-dome) is a half dome that covers a semi-circular area in a building. Architecture Semi-domes are a common feature of apses in Ancient Roman and traditional church architecture, and in mosques and iwans in Isla ...

from which an

ostrich egg The egg of the ostrich (genus ''Struthio'') is the largest of any living bird (being exceeded in size by those of the extinct elephant bird genus '' Aepyornis''). The shell has a long history of use by humans as a container and for decorative ...

is hanging. The shell was a symbol of the new

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, Mary (in fact it is perpendicular to her head) and of eternal beauty. According to another hypothesis, the egg would be a pearl, and the shell would refer to the miracle of the virginal conception (the shell generates the pearl without any male intervention). The egg is generally considered a symbol of the Creation and, in particular, to Guidobaldo's birth; the ostrich was also one of the heraldic symbols of the Montefeltro family. According to Italian art historian Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, the work has been cut down on both sides,Lavin 2002 reports the loss at the right side and loss of floor at the base. as shown by the portions of

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

s barely visible in the upper corners.

References

Sources

External links

Page at artonline.it
{{Paintings by Piero della Francesca 1470s paintings Paintings by Piero della Francesca Paintings in the Pinacoteca di Brera Paintings of the Madonna and Child Paintings of Jerome Paintings of John the Baptist Paintings of Francis of Assisi Altarpieces Churches in art

Dating

Description

See also

References

Sources

External links