'The dream of Constantine'

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

c.1455
fresco in the Church of San Francisco de Arezzo - 329 - 190 cm.

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Despite being one of the most important figures of the quattrocento, the Art of Piero della Francesca has been described as “cold”, “hieratic” or even “impersonal”. But with the apparition of Berenson and the great historians of his era, like Michel Hérubel -who defended the “metaphysical dimension” of the paintings by Piero-, his precise and detailed Art finally occupied the place that it deserves in the Art history

We would have to advance almost two centuries to find a night scene of such intensity. Piero della Francesca has painted the moment just previous to the awakening of Constantine, who is going to be visited by the angel who appears in the top left corner in a spectacular effect of backlighting. This light is really the true protagonist of the painting, a light that creates an excellent volumetric effect in the conical roof above the King, a light that hides the faces of the soldiers, with the exception of the one who, with the elbow unusually placed in the Emperor's bed, looks directly to us.

Text: G. Fernández, www.theartwolf.com

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