by Jon Lackman | 24 January 2008 | Uncategorized
Piero della Francesca’s The Flagellation continues to attract attention. From the Times of London:
An historian claims to have solved a Renaissance murder mystery by deciphering one of the world’s most enigmatic masterpieces.
The true meaning of Piero della Francesca’s The Flagellation, kept at the National Gallery of the Marches in Urbino, has been the subject of intense speculation for five centuries. Bernd Roeck, Professor of Early Modern History at Zurich University, argues that the work offers clues about the murder of Oddantonio da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, at the hands of his half-brother.
In Piero della Francesca and the Assassin, just published in Italy, Professor Roeck argues that although the painting appears to represent the flagellation of Jesus Christ before the Crucifixion, the figure tied to the pillar is in fact the murdered duke and the figure seated on the far left of the painting “like Pontius Pilate” is his half-brother, Federico da Montefeltro …
