Word: sepolcro
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...little (pop. 12,600) Italian town of Borgo San Sepolcro, lying in the fertile valley of the upper Tiber, has a proud boast: one of its townsmen was the great Renaissance painter and mathematician, Piero della Francesca (circa 1418-92). Legend has it that Piero was a fatherless boy who took the name of his mother Francesca. He studied at Florence, returned to Borgo San Sepolcro to get his first major commission, traveled through Italy painting in Rimini, Ferrara, Rome, Arezzo and Urbino, then settled down to spend his last 14 years in his native town compiling two mathematical treatises...
Last month workmen in Borgo San Sepolcro were remodeling a building that was, in Piero's time, the church of Sant' Agostino, but has since been turned into a movie theater and the home of the local symphony. While repairing a wall in what was once the apse, a workman touched a loose piece of plaster (spread on by Franciscan nuns who took over the church in the 16th century); it broke away under his hand. Beneath the plaster was a life-sized painting of a haloed young man, fair-haired with wide, topaz eyes. One look...
Three days later an impressive array of government art experts descended on Borgo San Sepolcro. After spending a full day in careful inspection, Professor Ugo Procacci, director of Florence's Department of Restorations, announced: "The decision to attribute the painting to Piero della Francesca is unanimous. Even if the painting is not mentioned in original sources, it emerges beyond challenge, from other documents, that Piero della Francesca did work in this church on some panels...
Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo, the son of a tinman of Borgo San Sepolcro who settled in Siena, was born about 1435. He was considered the best Sienese painter of his time and may be said to have adopted the manner of Sano di Pietro and improved it by modernizing it. His ablest authentic picture, "The Virgin Entroned with Angeles" (1470) is in the Siena Academy. Matteo painted several pictures representing the "Massacre of the Innocents," two of which are still preserved. A third is in the Naples Gallery. A mosaic by him of the same subject...
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