Piero della Francesca was born in Sansepolcro, Italy in around 1420 AD. The exact date of his birth is unknown but most estimates think his date of birth is around 1420, some sources that stated that his date of birth was 1420, while others stated as early as 1412. The general consensus was a date of birth around 1420. His date of death is known to be October 12th 1492. Piero della Francesca was one of the great resonance men, and the following is a biography of his life.
Piero della Francesca painted many religious works and used geometry in his art. Piero della. His father was a well to do tanner and shoemaker, and his various accomplishments point to a good education. He most likely started to study art with the artists of the Sienese school that lived in Sansepolcro. Francesca received a scientific education where he excelled in the fields of mathematics and geometry. This led into his development as a painter. He had a stronger science background then either of his contemporaies, Paolo Uccello or Andrea Mategna. His study of linear perspective led to him fixing rectangular planes in a precise order and measuring them. This led him to paint objects and people in true proportional height. He inspired artists like Domenico Ghirlandaio to project shadows in his works to give true atmosphere. He excelled in architectural painting because of his linear and exact style of paitning. He also excelled at oil-coloring and helped push the envelope on oil coloring in Italy in his time.
The first works that can be found of Piero della Francesca as a painter can be found in 1439. This is when he was apprenticing under Domencio Veneziano, assisting him in painting the chapel of S. Egidio, in S. Maria Novella of Florence. He then was found to have executed some extensive frescoes in the Vatican; although these were destroyed when Raphael undertook the same walls for his “Liberation of St. Peter.” In by 1451 he was painting on his own. There is a fresco in Rimini by Piero della Francesca from 1451 that still remains. “His most extensive extant series of frescoes is in the choir of S. Francesco in Arezzo -- the "History of the Cross", beginning with legendary subjects of the death and burial of Adam, and going on to the entry of Heraclius into Jerusalem after the overthrow of Chosroes. This series is, in relation to its period, remarkable for effect, movement, and mastery of the nude1.”
There is some controversy about two statements about Piero della Francesca’s life. First, there is a statement that Piero della Francesca went blind at the age of sixty. Proponents to this argument state the fact that he continued to paint well past the age of sixty and he could have not been blind and painted such amazing works. A second controversy is that some think that his scientific disciple Pacioli did not credit him with the appropriate acknowledgements in his scientific findings. They feel that a large portion of that he wrote about was first discovered by Piero della Francesca and after his death his disciple took the credit for his work.
In addition to Florence, he also worked in Rimini, Arezzo, Ferrara, and Rome. One of the works he did was a diptych for Count Federigo da Montefeltro that portrays the count and his wife was most likely painted in honor of their wedding. Of the other works he painted, another one of his larger accomplishments was a series of frescoes entitled The Legend of the True Cross. It was not till the springtime of Piero della Francesca’s live that he stoped painting. When he stopped painting he started to concentrate more on his other interests. One of these other interests was writing.. He wrote a treatise on painting and others on geometry and applied mathematics. Much of Piero's algebra appears in Pacioli's Summa (1494), much of his work on the Archimedeans appears in Pacioli's De divina proportione (1509), and the simpler parts of Piero's perspective treatise were incorporated into almost all subsequent treatises on perspective addressed to painters4. It is said, but not proved, that he lost his sight toward the end of his life2.
NNDB tracking the world, Piero della Francesca: http://www.nndb.com/people/888/000084636/
Web Museum, Paris, Piero della Francesca: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/piero/
Web gallery of art: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/p/piero/francesc/biograph.html
Francesca biography: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Francesca.html