Think that you may own a painting by Piero della Francesca? We authenticate, appraise, research and issue certificates of authenticity (COA) and provide consultations for all paintings by Piero della Francesca.

Piero della Francesca was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries, he was known as a mathematician and geometer as well as an artist, though now he is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its serene humanism and its use of geometric forms, particularly in relation to perspective and foreshortening.

Piero was probably born and died in Borgo Santo Sepolcro, Tuscany. Most of his work was performed in the Tuscan town of Arezzo. He may have learned his trade from one of several Sienese artists working in San Sepolcro during his youth.

By 1439 Piero was working with Domenico Veneziano on frescoes for the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. He also worked in Rimini, Ferrara, and Rome. In Ferrara, his influence is particularly strong in the allegorical works of Cosimo Tura. Among his disciples is Melozzo da Forlì.

His deep interest in the theoretical study of perspective and his contemplative approach to his paintings are apparent in all his work, including the panels of the S. Agostino altarpiece. Among other mathematical writing, later in life he wrote a treatise, De prospectiva pingendi, on the rules of mathematical foreshortening applied to any object, be it a cube or human head. He died the very day Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Still wondering about a 15th century Italian painting in your family collection? Contact us…it could be by Piero della Francesca.