PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
The legend of the True Cross1452-60
Select the single parts of the Chapel to see them in detail
This cycle of frescoes is in the Basilica di San Francesco, in Arezzo, and is the highest expression of the Renaissance art. It has finally been brought back to its splendour by the restoration work that has saved it from the injuries of time and men.
The restoration project became urgent because of the severe degradation of the frescoes and was started in 1985. The team, lead by the Soprintendenza di Arezzo (Art Department of the Arezzo Town Hall) and by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Gemstones Workshop), had to face extreme difficulties which could be overcome thanks to the application of last-generation scientific methods. The commitment of Banca Popolare dell'Etruria e del Lazio, which completely financed the restoration work, has allowed the team to carry it out and ensure the frescoes future conservation, taking the responsibility for one of the most valuable expressions of art that belongs to the human kind.
The Chapel
The works on one of the frescoes of the Cappella Maggiore in San Francesco Church were started in 1452, when Piero della Francesca visited Arezzo. The Florentine painter Bicci di Lorenzo was working at them when he died in 1452, leaving the Chapel decoration unfinished. Piero probably began his work after Bicci's death, and in few years he painted on the walls of the Gothic Chapel the most sophisticated and modern frescoes, in terms of perspective, that the XV century Italian art had ever produced.
The crucifix with Saint Francis, of the XIII century, was already in the church when Piero della Francesca painted his frescoes in the Chapel; it has been recently placed above the altar.
The Fresco
The stories illustrated by Piero are taken from a XIII century legend The Golden Legend, by Jacopo da Varagine, that tells the miraculous story of the wood of Jesus Christ's Cross.
The story tells that Adam, when he was in his deathbed, sent his son Seth to Archangel Michael who gave him some seeds from the tree of knowledge that he should put in his father's mouth at the moment of his death. The tree grown on the Patriarch's grave was then cut by King Solomon and its useless wood was used to build a bridge. The Queen of Sheba, who was travelling to meet King Solomon, before crossing the bridge had a vision where she saw that the Saviour would be crucifixed on that very wood. She does not cross the bridge and kneels in adoration. When King Solomon realised the divine nature of the message received by the Queen of Sheba, he ordered that the bridge be removed and that the wood be buried. But later, the wood was found and after a second premonition became the instrument of the Passion. Three centuries later, before the battaglia di ponte Milvio (the Battle of Ponte Milvio), Emperor Constantine had a dream where he was told to fight in the name of the Holy Cross to defeat his enemy. After his victory, his mother Helena travelled to Jerusalem to recover the miraculous wood. Nobody could tell where the Cross relic was, except a Jew called Judas. Judas was tortured in a well and finally revealed the name of the Temple where the three crosses of the Calvary where hidden. Helena ordered that the temple be destroyed, and the crosses were found. The True Cross was recognised because it caused a miraculous resurrection. In the year 615 Chosroe, the King of Persia, stole the wood to add it to his collection of worship objects. Heraclius, the Emperor of the East, waged war to the Persian King and, after defeating him, returned to Jerusalem with the Holy Wood. A miraculous power prevented him from making his triumphal entry and Heraclius, forgetting his showiness and magnificence, entered the city carrying the Cross, in a humble attitude, following Jesus Christ's example.
