We set out at 8:30 a.m. from Florence to see what one critic called, “the greatest picture in the world.” The destination was Sansepolcro, a town in eastern Tuscany, to see the 15th-century fresco, “The Resurrection,” by Piero della Francesca.
In “Along the Road: Notes and Essays of a Tourist,” his 1925 book, Aldous Huxley made that assessment — immediately admitting it was ludicrous — but backed it up in detail. One man’s opinion, but enough to inspire a trip.
It was an all-day excursion, because the work was one of many Pieros we planned to see. (Like many aficionados of Renaissance artists, we tend to call the masters by their first names.) In Florence, Piero, a brilliant, early Renaissance master, is not well-represented. The Uffizi Gallery houses only his small portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, both in profile, the determined duke with Roman nose contrasting the peachy delicacy of the beribboned duchess.
But the village of Monterchi holds his rare fresco of a pregnant Mary, “Madonna del Parto,” and in Arezzo his cycle of “The Legend of the True Cross” decorates the Romanesque Basilica di San Francesco. The entire loop was about 140 miles and we planned to arrive back in Florence at 6:30 p.m., ready for Negronis.
There were four of us, so we shared the price of a car, driver and guide; about $450 per person. We could have halved it with audio guides instead of our well-informed leader, an art historian. But we indulged for Piero.
First Stop: ‘The Resurrection’
“The Resurrection” is in Sansepolcro’s Museo Civico, formerly the Palazzo Comunale. It portrays a miracle: Christ rising three days after having been crucified and then entombed just outside the walls of Jerusalem, where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands. Sansepolcro, where Piero was born in 1415, is named for that church because relics from it were brought to the village by pilgrims.
The very existence of the fresco, and that it can be viewed, is a miracle of its own. A century or so after it was completed, in 1463, it was plastered over and it took a couple of centuries for it to be rediscovered. The imposing fresco, some seven feet on each side, emerged undamaged, later escaping demolition during World War II.
It’s hard to look away from it. An idealized muscular Christ in beautifully rendered drapery steps out of his carved stone tomb holding a banner, his brightly determined eyes staring straight ahead. The composition is triangular, common during the Renaissance. The use of perspective and vanishing point is also evident, techniques which, at the time, were still developing. In the foreground are sleeping soldiers, one of whom, dressed in brown, is said to be a self-portrait. The background landscape on the left is somewhat barren; to the right of the figure of Christ it blooms, symbolic of rebirth.
The gallery also has two small fresco portraits of the Saints Louis of Toulouse and Julian, both by Piero. But before you step into the room to see “The Resurrection,” there’s Piero’s gilded, dramatically lit Polyptych of the Misericordia to study. Among the artist’s earliest works, its main central panel shows the Madonna generously enfolding her followers into her garments. Other, smaller panels depict St. Sebastian, John the Baptist, other saints, the Crucifixion and scenes from the life of Jesus.
There’s more to see in Sansepolcro, including the Duomo, but we didn’t linger. It was already 11:30 and Monterchi was about 30 minutes away.
‘The Madonna al Parto,’ But First, Lunch
Monterchi is a well-crenelated hilltop village. Its Piero, the “Madonna del Parto,” has over centuries become a destination for women seeking protection in pregnancy or hoping to bear a child. It was supposedly painted from 1455 to 1465 for the Cappella di Santa Maria di Momentana in honor of the artist’s mother, Romana di Pierino da Monterchi, who was born in the village. It’s now in the small Museo Civico. But first we needed lunch. A small, rustic restaurant, La Terrazza di Piero, was steps away, one of about three options in the village.
The genial chef and owner (and waiter, and sommelier), Christian D’Addario, proposed starting with crostini, followed by pici in a rich tomato sauce, then braised pork and a dessert of apple crumble, a nod to his New York guests. He poured house wine, a local sangiovese or vermentino. Pici, a Tuscan specialty and less well-known than the familiar pappardelle of the region, is a thick spaghetti, like bucatini but hand-rolled and fresh, and alluringly toothsome. The lunch was 80 euros each (about $93).
From the restaurant it was just a few steps down the street to the Piero. Like “The Resurrection,” the painting (a copy of which was on a wall in the restaurant), is also large and arresting, showing the visibly pregnant Madonna, painted with Piero’s often delicate touch, holding her blue dress slightly open at the waist to reveal her undergarment. A pair of angels part a tent embroidered with pomegranates, a symbol of fertility, that surrounds her. We spent about 40 minutes with the guide before hitting the road to Arezzo, about 20 miles west.
And Finally, the Basilica di San Francesco
Arezzo is a significant Tuscan city, known not only for the Pieros but also as the birthplace of the 14th-century poet and philosopher, Petrarch (his house is open to visitors) and Giorgio Vasari, the 16th-century artist and biographer of artists (ditto). Piero was commissioned to decorate the 14th-century Basilica di San Francesco after another artist pulled out. The work is a masterpiece, its colors still vibrant. It covers the high walls of the Cappella Bacci from bottom to top, including the ceiling vaults, telling the story like a graphic book of the Legend of the True Cross, the wood used for the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. Before movable type and a literate populace, the purpose of ecclesiastical decoration, whether sculpted, painted or crafted from stained glass, was to instruct with the stories of the Bible, the lives of Jesus and the saints, the glory of kings and so forth.
More than a dozen scenes in the chapel show Adam and his sons, as well as King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and the Emperor Constantine; battle scenes that recall the work of Paolo Uccello; the Annunciation, with a Mary strikingly similar to the “Madonna del Parto”; and the discovery and proof of the True Cross as revealed by Judas. Genre details like styles of dress and facial features are rendered in exquisite detail. Taking in this complete painted cycle calls for efficient concentration, because timed tickets allow only 30 minutes, though we lingered somewhat longer.
Heading for the car we were tempted by several gelaterias across from the Basilica but did not succumb. It was already 5:30 p.m., we had to get going; Arezzo would need a return, maybe on a Sunday for the weekly flea market. Back in Florence, we went to Giacosa 1815, a luxurious bar on Via della Spada, which claims to have created the Negroni when the bar was across the street. A flight of them awaited.
Florence Fabricant writes the Off the Menu column and other stories about food, wine and restaurants. She is the author of 13 cookbooks and a new memoir: “Salty, Not Sweet: A Life in the Food World.”
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