Ressurection of Christ - Art History 103b Lisa Uddin...

Art History 103b
Lisa Uddin
October 6, 2013
Triumph of Reason
Piero Della Francesca’s The Resurrection is the perfect renaissance piece; rational
geometry, an unemotional use of color, a mathematically perfect composition resulting in the
piece being exceptional. Documentation about the fresco is lacking; it is thought to have been
compiled between1460-1465, in Piero Della Francesca’s home town of Sansepolcro, Tuscany,
Italy. The fresco is 225cm x 200 cm (89 in x 79 in) was commissioned by and painted in the local
Benedictine Abbey, which today serves as Sansepolcro’s civic Museum. The room the Abbey
wanted the piece in was the building’s state chamber, a room reserved for the Abbey’s top
officials. The reason the Abbey specifically commissioned the scene of the resurrection was they
wanted Christ to descend and bless their important meetings.

The fresco is Christ’s resurrection; Christ is erect, awake with an unflinching stare into