Diptych of Federico da Montefeltro with his wife Battista Sforza
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| Diptych of Federico da Montefeltro with his wife Battista Sforza |
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| Piero della Francesca , circa 1472/73 |
| Tempera on wood |
| each wing 47 × 33 cm |
| Galleria degli Uffizi , Florence |
Piero della Francesca's double portrait of the Duke and Couple of Urbino is one of the most famous portraits in Western art history. Are presented Federico da Montefeltro , Duke of Urbino and his wife Battista Sforza .
Diptych of Federico da Montefeltro with his wife Battista Sforza
In its original form, the diptych was probably provided with a frame made of walnut, the two panels were connected by hinges and could be folded together. This explains why the sides depicting the ducal couple are much better preserved than the outer sides with the triumphal procession . The double portrait was probably created after the death of Battista Sforza, d. H. around 1472/1473.
Piero della Francesca , the painter of the picture, had worked sporadically at Federico's court since 1469, he had dedicated his treatise on perspective to him and the Pala Montefeltro, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, with the portrait of the duke as the donor, was founded around 1472 accomplished. Piero's diptych is the first of a stately series of portraits of the former condottiere , who only received the longed-for title of a dux from the Pope in 1474 , with which he finally saw his not entirely legal claims to rule confirmed.
According to Tönnesmann and Roeck, 33 images of the duke are still preserved today, most of them commissioned by himself. This makes him the most frequently portrayed person of his time. The picture with the unmistakable profile was shaped by Piero's ingenious portrait art. In addition, in an epoch that transfigured the culture of the Renaissance, it became the “ icon ” of the enlightened, comprehensively educated, art-loving and assertive Renaissance prince. It probably also corresponds to the "image", the image that the Duke wanted to create of himself with all the means of propaganda at his disposal, and as it is described by the courtier in Castiglione's famous book:
- There is no lack of true and sufficient testimonies from people who are still alive today about his wisdom and education, his justice and generosity, his high-mindedness and his knowledge of war, qualities that are mainly due to the victories he has won, his conquests of impregnable places and be hardened by his repartee in the field ...
It is believed that the diptych was initially placed in the ducal palace of Urbino . After the Montefeltro died out , the palace and duchy fell to Francesco della Rovere , the old owners were no longer of interest to the successors. With the estate of della Rovere, it came to Florence in 1631, was first brought to the Villa Medici Poggio Imperiale and only shown in the Uffizi from 1773 . Who is shown in the pictures has been forgotten over the centuries. It was not until 1834 that the sitters were correctly identified again.
Federico da Montefeltro
When Federico commissioned the picture, he was at the preliminary peak of a steep career. Tainted illegitimate birth - he was the illegitimate son of an illegitimate daughter of Count Guidantonio da Montefeltro - he was by lucky circumstances - the adoption by its hitherto without legitimate male heir remained grandfather with papal deed by Pope Martin V - heir of the House of Montefeltro . The new heir was shaped by his time as hostage of the Pope in Venice, where he frequented the Jeunesse dorée at the time , and by his training in the Casa Giocosa in Mantua with Vittorino da Feltre , head of the most famous humanist school of his time.
His military career began in 1438, which made him the most successful condottiere in Italy. Successively, sometimes at the same time, he was in the service of the Visconti and the Sforza , the Republic of Venice , the Florentines, the Pope, the King of Naples. He was probably a participant in the Battle of Anghiari , one of the most famous battles of the time, depicted by Leonardo in a spectacular mural that unfortunately has not survived.
He always kept an eye on his own advantage: increasing his fortune, expanding his land holdings and the ducal dignity of Urbino. Roeck calls the Condottiere Montefeltro a "war entrepreneur" and master of a "commercial enterprise ... specializing in the leasing of mercenary troops and military equipment ".
After Guidantonio's death in 1443, the Pope named Oddantonio da Montefeltro , a younger half-brother of Federico, as Duke of Urbino. However, he was murdered a year later. Federico's role in the conspiracy against Oddantonio could never be fully clarified, the suspicion that he was the mastermind could never be refuted.
By 1472, when Piero was working on the picture, Federico's rule in Urbino was consolidated, and the renovation of the Palazzo ducale in Urbino into a court of muses admired by artists, writers and rival royal courts was under way. On Federico's project of his stylization as a humanistically educated prince, as a patron of art and science, of Urbino as a refuge of culture, art, science and a humanity based on ancient standards , which is the not very beautiful image of an upstart, bloody warlord and a violent man Piero della Francesca's double portrait should be forgotten by people in power.
Battista Sforza
Battista was born in 1446 as the daughter of the Lord of Pesaro , Alessandro Sforza. At the age of almost fourteen she was married to the then 38-year-old Federico da Montefeltro. The first child, a daughter, was born the following year, but died shortly after birth. Seven more daughters followed and it was not until 1472 that the longed-for heir to the throne Guidobaldo da Montefeltro , whose birth on January 24, 1472, the mother only survived by a few months. Battista Sforza died in March 1472.
description
The Duke
In 1472 Federico was already 50 years old, an old man in his day. His face was disfigured by an accident that he had suffered in a knight tournament when he was 28 years old. During a fight, his opponent's lance had penetrated the viewing slit of the visor into the right eye and had broken the bone in the process. The battered helmet on the Pala Montefeltro is a reminder of the fight.
The painter was faced with the problem of creating a portrait of the state on the one hand that expresses the dignity, rank and “greatness” of the ruler, and on the other hand he should ... imitate nature, so show Federico in his individuality , as art theory does the early Renaissance demanded. The unusual placement of the man on the right side of the diyptych - the double portrait deviates here from the conventions of married portraits - is explained here. Through the presentation of the Duke in the profile whose distinctive face could be faithfully reproduced and incidentally caused to ruler portraits on Roman coins and medals in the viewer the association that the sitter in this way ennobled .
The portrait is chest-piece , face and body in strict profile. Federico is dressed in a red beret , the usual headgear of the nobility at the time, and a simple robe made of bright red cloth, from which a narrow strip of the white undergarment peeks out at the neck. There are no insignia of rank, power or wealth, such as medals, jewelry or props of power.
Federico's face is suntanned and tanned by the weather, but shows little evidence of age, just as his thick hair is a youthful black. Here the painter will have embellished his client a little if he also faithfully reproduces the distinctive nose and the warts on the cheek.
The bright scarlet color of the clothing stands out dominantly against the foil of a pastel blue sky and a landscape shining in the morning sun. The wide calmly flowing river, on which two fishing boats sail, and which in the morning light becomes a light-intensive mirror, convey an image of calm, peace and harmony. Fields, avenues and tree gardens indicate the flourishing economy and culture in Federico's rule, which is finally secured by the birth of the heir to the throne.
Piero has broken new ground in the conception of the picture. Following the example of Flemish portrait painters, who also worked at the court of Urbino , Piero placed the sitter in front of a landscape, but no longer as a full figure, as had been practiced by the Flemings up until then.
Triumphal procession of the Duke
The Duke is enthroned on a triumphal chariot drawn by two white horses, which is being driven with a scepter by a little Cupid. It is accompanied by the four cardinal virtues , provided with their usual attributes and the allegory of Fama . Unlike in antiquity, Fama has positive connotations in images of the Renaissance and Baroque and can mean eternal fame. Federico is bareheaded, wearing his armor and a command baton in his right hand. Apart from the distinctive profile, there is no evidence of his destroyed eye on the triumph picture that shows him from his right side. Fama crowns him with laurel , just as victorious generals in ancient Rome were honored with laurel wreaths. The panorama of the background landscape corresponds on the whole to that in the portrait. In the retention and continuity of the landscape panorama on the inside and outside of the diptych, Hessler sees a reference to a continuing narrative inspired by Petrarch's Trionfi , with which Piero competed with poetry.
The Latin inscription in Roman Antiqua on the base zone of the triumph, which looks illusionistically as if it was carved from marble, reads:
- CLARUS INSIGNI VEHITOR TRIUMPHO '
- QUEM PAREM SUMMIS DUCIBUS PERHENNIS '
- FAMA VIRTUTUM CELEBRAT DECENTER '
- SCEPTRA TENENTEM '
Translated accordingly: He, whom the eternal glory of virtue celebrates, worthy bearer of the scepter, like the greatest prince, with the insignia of triumph
The message of the picture is repeated - eternally carved in stone.
The Duchess
The left side of the diptych shows a half-length portrait of Battista Sforza, also in profile and also in front of a pastel blue sky and the Umbrian hilly landscape, whose horizon line meets that of the other picture.
This almost exhaustively describes the similarities between the two portraits, the contrast in all the details could not be greater. If the duke radiates strength, vitality and the self-confidence of a ruler, emphasized by the dominant red of his clothes, his wife is strikingly pale and delicate. Her mask-like face with a skin like ivory, which is only modeled by a few faint shadows, seems almost lifeless. The fashionable eyebrows, the shaved forehead and the barely colored lips underline this impression. The thin blonde hair is pinned into an elaborate snail hairstyle with a plaited white band that billows into a wrinkled ball at the back of the head. A golden piece of jewelry with pearls on the head and another golden agraffe in the hair snail complete Battista's elaborate hairstyle. The color of her clothes is extremely reserved: the dress made of dull black cloth is only enhanced by the brocade sleeves with pomegranate pattern. Battista wears a wide ribbon around his neck, which is richly decorated with pearls, small corals and precious stones. A medallion set in gold is attached to the ribbon itself with a pearl necklace.
Triumphal procession of the Duchess
Battista is enthroned on a triumphal chariot drawn by unicorns. The pedestal of her throne chair stands on a black cloth that covers the floor of the carriage. She is dressed in a dark red robe with brocade sleeves and is reading a book. Behind her throne stand two allegorical figures, the allegory of chastity and - so one can assume - the Christian virtue of hope , completely wrapped in a gray robe and covered with a head veil. The other two virtues, Caritas and Fides , love and faith, sit on the front of the cart. Caritas carries a pelican in its hands, a symbol of the self-sacrificing love of a mother who sacrifices her blood for the lives of her children, an allusion to Battista, who paid for the birth of the heir to the throne with her own life. The triumphal chariot is being driven by a little Cupid with white wings.
Unicorns are mythical animals that have diverse and complex meanings in emblematic and profane and Christian symbolism. The chariot of Minerva, Roman equivalent of Pallas Athene , the Greek goddess of wisdom, is pulled by unicorns in the Palazzo Schifanoia , and Battista was a very educated woman who spoke Greek and Latin and was an equal partner in the discussion circles of the humanists and in the absence of Federico led the affairs of state. Unicorns can also be symbols of chastity and marriage, and here they correspond with the Latin text on the tablet:
- QUEM MODUM REBUS TENUIT SECUNDIS '
- CONIUGIS MAGNI DECORATA RERUM '
- LAUDE GESTARUM VOLITAT PER ORA '
- CUNCTA VIRORUM '
in the sense: the call of her modesty ran from mouth to mouth, her adornment are the deeds of her husband.
The long shadows of the evening lie over the landscape and darken large areas of the Umbrian hilly landscape in the background. The fact that Piero painted Battista's triumph in the evening light is seen by interpreters as well as Battista's strikingly pale skin color in the portrait itself and the black cloth of the car as an indication that the picture was painted after Battista's death.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Roeck, Tönnesmann 2007. pp. 190–191.
- ↑ Baladassare Castiglione: The Hofmann. 1996. p. 13
- ↑ Bertelli. 1992. pp. 218-220.
- ↑ Roeck Tönnesmann 2007. p. 23.
- ↑ Roeck, Tönnesmann 2007. pp. 63-65.
- ^ Roeck, Tönnesmann (pp. 12–13)
- ^ Christiane J. Hessler: To the Paragone. Painting, sculpture, and poetry in the quattrocento culture of dispute over rank . De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin, 2014, p. 261ff. ISBN 978-3-05-006100-9
- ↑ Translations from d. Lat. Bertelli 1992. p. 220.
- ↑ Guy de Tervarent: Attributes et symboles dans l'art profane. Geneva 1997. pp. 111, 284
- ↑ Translations from d. Lat. Bertelli 1992. p. 220.
- ↑ According to Jacques-Edouard Berger, a Swiss Egyptologist, Battista had already been dead for 6 years when the picture was painted (the exact source is missing here!)
literature
- Baldassare Castiglione : The Hofmann (Libro del Corteggiano [1528]). Way of life in the Renaissance. From d. It. By Albert Weselski. Berlin 1996.
- Carlo Bertelli : Piero della Francesca. Life and work of the master of the early Renaissance. Cologne 1992. ISBN 3-7701-3058-8 .
- Bernd Roeck , Andreas Tönnesmann : The nose of Italy. Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-8031-2558-3 .
- Alfred Semerau: The Condottieri . Jena 1909.
