Renaissance Find

The 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. Latterday Sansepolcrans prided themselves on owning three of Piero's major works, and kept alive the hope that more would one day come to light.

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 was enough to send Giuseppe Nomi, the town's honorary inspector of fine arts, running with the news.

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."

The find may well boost interest in the very great Renaissance painter who had all but dropped from sight 400 years after his death. Famed in his day as one of Italy's greatest masters of mathematical perspective, Piero trademarked his work with his magnificent handling of translucent atmosphere, and his ability to use form and light to give flesh tones an almost silver sheen. It took the followers of Cezanne, with their taste for color and geometric form, to start Piero's comeback; other modernists, in rebellion against the 19th century love of the elaborate and ornate, were impressed by the simplicity and truthfulness of Piero's peasant types.

Just what Piero's original masterpiece looked like will never be fully known, for only the head, shoulders and torso of his haloed young man remain. The rest of the figure was apparently destroyed generations ago, when the church wall was cut away for a doorway and a new partition added.

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