Piero Della Francesca: The Legend of the True Cross in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo

A breath- taking view of Piero della Francesca's frescoes of The Legend of the True Cross, the pictorial cycle painted by the artist in the basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo and known throughout the world as one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, shown for the first time after the long restoration. The book presents for the first time the entire cycle of frescoes after the complex job of restoration documenting in detail each scene with spectacular close- up images. Recent restorations have infact made possible to evaluate on a closer basis the techniques used in the execution of the frescoes as well as the method with which the artist worked. The sense of harmony that spectator derives from the perfect co- ordination of attitudes, gestures and anatomy in every single scene, must have been the result of an exceedingly lengthy phase of study through preparatory sketches and drawings readied for each individual figure, done in such a way that each one occupies its own space, geometrically measurable, in careful relation to all the others, with a view to creating a scene with a powerful sense of illusion in which the miracle of light that reveals all offers a precise perception of the true and the natural. Fifteen long years to repair, recover and safeguard the fascinating stories that Piero painted in the mid- 15th century to illustrate the major episodes of the Legend of the True Cross, an iconographic theme quite widespread from the time of the Crusades up to the Renaissance and especially dear to the Franciscan friars.