Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino
Diptych of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino — full diptych
Piero della Francesca, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Piero della Francesca's diptych portraits of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and his wife Battista Sforza are the founding images of Italian portrait painting — the first monumental portraits to place subjects against an open landscape background, and the first to bring the rigorous geometry of Piero's architectural painting to the human face. On the reverse of each panel, the respective sitter is shown in a triumphal procession (the allegorical Triumphs, derived from Petrarch): Federico borne in a chariot representing power; Battista representing virtue. Battista had died in 1472, probably in childbirth, shortly after giving birth to the long-desired male heir Guidobaldo; the diptych is both a commemorative portrait and a political document of the Montefeltro dynasty.
Piero della Francesca (c.1415-1492) was the supreme geometric intellect among 15th-century painters — his treatises on perspective and regular bodies were the most sophisticated of their era. The Urbino diptych applies his mathematical approach to portraiture: the faces are analysed in clear, cool light with absolute precision, the profiles arranged on the picture plane with architectural authority.
The Flemish influence (oil paint, landscape background, cool northern light) is evident — Piero saw works by van Eyck, van der Weyden, and Petrus Christus in Italian collections. Federico's profile deliberately shows his left side (his right eye was lost in a tournament; his nose was partially removed to improve his field of vision) — the portrait is commemorative documentation as much as aesthetic idealisation.
The two panels should be read together as a diptych — Federico on the left (our left), Battista on the right, their profiles facing each other across a central hinge. The landscape behind both figures is continuous across the two panels — the hills, water, and fields of Umbria form a single panorama.
Battista's pearl jewellery and the elaborate braiding of her hair were fashionable conventions of the period; her pale, almost white flesh tone has been interpreted as a reference to her posthumous state (she was dead when Piero painted her) or simply as Flemish-influenced idealization. The reverse Triumphs carry Latin inscriptions praising each subject's virtues.
When standing before this work, look carefully: Diptych of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino — full diptych. Give it time — what seems decorative often carries the central meaning.
When standing before this work, look carefully: Federico da Montefeltro — the left profile. Give it time — what seems decorative often carries the central meaning.
When standing before this work, look carefully: Battista Sforza — the memorial portrait. Give it time — what seems decorative often carries the central meaning.
When standing before this work, look carefully: The reverse panels — the allegorical Triumphs. Give it time — what seems decorative often carries the central meaning.
Uffizi Gallery, Room 26. One of the rooms in the Uffizi most worth seeking out beyond the famous Botticelli rooms.