Piero della Francesca in America
12 February to 19 May 2013
For those of you in the NYC area, there’s a most unusual and
wonderful small exhibition at the Frick, Piero della
Francesca in America. Piero (1411/13–1492)
was a Quattrocento painter who was heir to DomenicoVeneziano’s
manifestation of the early Renaissance in Florence. (Piero, whose home was in the Tuscan town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro [now Sansepolcro, worked for Domenico
in Florence in the 1440s.) While a bit
later in the Italian Renaissance than my sweet spot (the first two or three
decades of the Quattrocento in Florence
is for me one of the most exciting moments in all of the history of art,
and produced work [e.g., Donatello, Masaccio, Brunelleschi] that I have
cherished and studied extensive. [Those
of you not already familiar with it—or who are heading to Florence at some
point—may want to check out my extensive Guide to Florence, on my website,
www.RLRubens.com, Under “Travel,” “Italy.”]), Piero used his exquisite sense
of color and light to create, in an accurately perspectival world, figures of
great power, presence, and psychological sophistication. This show at the Frick has seven paintings by Piero.
On the off-chance you do not know
the Frick, this exhibit provides an excuse for you to rectify that
bad oversight on your part. The Frick Collection
is housed in the 1913-14 mansion (at 70th
Street and Fifth Avenue) done by Carrière & Hastings (the Beaux-Arts architects most famous for their
turn of the century design of the NY Public Library) as the residence for Henry
Clay and Adelaide Childs Frick—and importantly re-designed as a museum by the
even more renowned John Russell Pope
in 1931-35 (perhaps most famous for the Jefferson Memorial on the Mall in
Washington, DC). The beautiful,
glass-roofed interior courtyard, with its central fountain, is one of the most
serenely beautiful spaces in NYC [q.v., the Frick’s online virtual tour
of it]. The Frick’s collection is very
small, but it contains major paintings by Rembrandt, El Greco, Goya, Hals,
Rubens, van Ruisdael, Turner, and Whistler, among others.
Piero della Francesca in America,
organized by Nathaniel
Silver, brings together six of the seven extant panels
from the Sant’Agostino altarpiece (a large polyptych commissioned in 1454 and completed in 1469,
originally in the Augustinian church in Borgo
Santo Sepolcro, until it was disassembled ca.
1555), the largest number from this important work ever assembled for an
exhibition. The seventh painting in the
show is the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels. [You can view online images from the show on
the Frick’s website,
or you can see individual images (and brief discussions from the Frick) by
clicking on the titles in the descriptions below.]
There are two large full length figures from the
upper tier of the altarpiece. The first
is of the church’s patron saint, Saint
Augustine (Augustine of Hippo, 354-430), who was the inspiration for
the Augustinian order. (For those of you
who do not know, Augustine was an amazingly interesting figure. His Confessions make rather wonderful reading,
not least because in it he recounts his personal journey to the Church: before
receiving his calling, Augustine was a noted whoremaster and reprobate, who [in
Book VII] recalls his famous prayer: “God grant me
chastity...but not yet.” When finally
ready for it, he eventually becomes an important theologian and philosopher—a
major source of bringing the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus into Christianity.) The painting, Saint Augustine,
was done in oil and tempera on poplar panel, and is part of the collection of
the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon.
Augustine’s face is fabulous—suggesting the depth, intensity and
grandeur of the man; his vestments emphasize opulence and importance. It is heavily restored, and suffers from an
extremely high-gloss varnish. His mantle
is edged with fascinating scenes from the life of Jesus, from the annunciation to
the crucifixion; and these small, almost impressionistic evocations of the scenes
depicted are the most wonderful aspect of this monumental figure.
The other full length figure is the elderly Saint
John the Evangelist, in oil and tempera with traces of gold on poplar
panel, from The Frick Collection. It is
in what I find to be a better state of restoration. He is a far more contemplative person,
pictured reading a book—although the presence of so many books in all of these
paintings is most certainly a reference to the scholarly attributes of
Augustine, to whom the church was dedicated.
Most fascinating is the depth and sculptural power of the folds of St
John’s robes—making me certain that Piero must have
been familiar with the Campanile sculptures of prophets (and especially Il Popolano) by Donatello in Florence, which from me is quite
a compliment to Piero (although to be accurate, I
must add that the underlying physical presence of the man beneath the drapery
does not have sculptural presence found in Donatello’s works). (I know of no other of Piero’s
works that have this level of intensity in their drapery, by the way.)
All four of the smaller paintings in the show are
described in the Frick Website as having, “gold
backgrounds, identifying them as panels that decorated the frame of the Sant’Agostino altarpiece. Its gilded surfaces reflected the
candlelight, making these figures appear as divine visions within a glittering
surround.” All four are done in oil and
tempera with gold on poplar panels. The first three of these wonderful works
are in the permanent collection of the Frick.
The first, Saint
Monica, is of Augustine’s mother! It is quite wonderful. I can’t help wondering, though, how the
sourness of her countenance may relate to her disapproval of her son’s earlier
hedonistic adventures: she is said to
have been credited for bringing about his “salvation” from his former life of
sin by her prayers. In relation to this,
it should be noted that the white scroll she is displaying is the Order’s rules
of conduct!
The
Crucifixion, is a quite beautiful work which would have been located
directly below the central image, now lost.
The unknown man in Augustinian habit, is speculatively identified as Saint
Leonard (?). It is noteworthy for the personality that is
evident in the face.
The only of the four not part of the Frick’s
permanent collection is the Saint Apollonia, which comes from the National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C. Apollonia is beautiful in her virginal innocence, holding
one of her teeth in the tongs in her right hand. (In her martyrdom, her teeth were broken to
torment her. The Frick
Website speculates that, “Light falls across Apollonia from the left, not the right as in the other
paintings. This suggests that she was located on the side of the frame where
she may have been illuminated by sunlight from a rear window.”
The only painting not from the Sant’Agostino altarpiece is the Virgin and
Child Enthroned with Four Angels, 1460–70, an oil (and tempera?) on
poplar panel, transferred to fabric on panel, from the Sterling and Francine
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. It is
a compete altarpiece in itself, intended for a church or a private
residence. We found this to be the least
interesting piece in the show
.
To have all this work by Piero della Francesca
in New York for our viewing pleasure is a rare treat, and I urge you to take
advantage of it.