Art Captions

Author notes

0047. The Baptism of Christ.

CornTown

on Feb. 26, 2010

By Piero della Francesca. (1415-1492)
Circa. 1450
Early Italian Renaissance

Piero della Francesca was not only an artist, but was also a great mathematician of the time, specializing in geometry. His love of math is apparent as in every piece of his art, Francesca was always certain to divide his works into a serious of shapes and angles. For instance, this fresco painting, “The Baptism of Christ” can be divided many ways. The first being that the painting can be cut down the center axis to make two symmetrical parts. At the same time, the painting can be cut vertically where the tree stands, dividing the painting by the golden ratio. Other geometrical factors can be seen in the painting such as in John's arms and legs which form two angles of the exact same size. Many masters in both painting and architecture would continue this practice of exact angles and symmetry such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Leone Leoni.

On a side note having nothing to do with angles or shapes, Francesca died in 1492 on the exact date that Columbus set foot on America.

Jacob "Corntown" Gray