The Piero Della Francesca Trail

by John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy

Book Overview

After four centuries of almost complete neglect, Piero della Francesca is now one of the best known and best loved of all Renaissance painters - to such an extent that the route from one work to another has become the tourists' Piero della Francesca Trail. Sir John Pope-Hennessy takes a fresh look at the facts of Piero's career and the significance of his paintings. A clear chronology establishes the probable sequence of his activities in Arezzo,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500277036
• ISBN13: 9780500277034
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Piero della Francesca book

A gem of a book - makes a great gift for an art history lover

A compact delight

One of the pleasures of a small book is the ability to savour the author's writing. This volume combines Huxley's essay (which makes the startling claim that Piero's Resurrection is the best painting in the world) with Pope-Hennessy's lucid descriptions of Piero's works. The plates are wonderful and well arranged. PH's swipes at Kenneth Clark and John Mortimer would seem churlish in a larger, more ponderous volume, but are merely charmingly opinionated here. A lovely way to spend an hour or two.

This Trail is worth finding

This small volume (fewer than 60 pages of text) is well worth tracking down through the 'out-of- print' mechanisms. Originally a lecture, the book introduces Piero della Francesca as a "reclusive, silent, rather taciturn friend", but a friend nonetheless. Mr Henessey's rounded analysis and warm descriptions of both the painter and his paintings certainly allow the reader to establish a relationship with Piero. Depsite the author's slightly disparaging remark about "tourists in their rented Fiats" following the Piero della Francesca trail, I urge travellers (Fiat driven, armchair or others) to increase their knowledge, appreciation and sheer enjoyment of Piero by slipping this volume into their luggage or onto the bookshelf. The book is usefully illustrated.