Nicholas Lochoff (?-1948) after

Piero della Francesca (Umbrian, 1415-1492) FEDERICO DA MONTEFELTRO and BATTISTA SFORZA

Originals (after 1474) in the Uffizi, Florence Tempera on wood panel

The original portraits are mounted together in a double frame, and show Federico as Duke of Urbino, a rank that he achieved in 1474, and his wife. His misshapen nose is the result of a sword fight which also took his right eye. Behind him stretches the landscape of the area he ruled. His wife's likeness was done from a bust or a death mask, as she had died in 1472 after giving birth to their son Guidobaldo in the city of Gubbio, which is represented behind her. The reverses of the panels in the Uffizi show the couple with their allegorical Virtues. Lochoff never finished these portraits, and thus they demonstrate his tempera on wood technique.

Text by Robert Gerwing.
Copyright 2004.