(soft jazz music)
- [Man] Okay, we are looking at Piero della Francesca's
double portrait of Battista Sforza.
- [Woman] On the left.
- [Man] On the left.
And Frederico da Montefeltro on the right, from 1465.
- [Woman] The Duke and Duchess of Urbino.
- [Man] The Duke and Duchess of Urbino, yes.
- [Woman] And I think that they're not very attractive.
Is that a bad thing to say?
- [Man] That's not a bad thing to say is it?
Because they might be very distinctive in their,
in the way that they might not be attractive.
- [Woman] In their features.
- [Man] For example, this might not be the most attractive--
- [Woman] Nose.
- [Man] Nose, for example.
- [Woman] No, and her high forehead which I think today
seems a little strange to us,
but which in the Renaissance was considered
very beautiful. - [Man] Very fashionable
Very fashionable way to have your hair.
- [Woman] Yeah, I think women plucked their foreheads,
didn't they?
- [Man] Yes, yes.
- [Woman] Which is creepy.
- [Man] Battista seems to have a lot of things which
show us how fashionable she is, doesn't she?
- [Woman] She does.
- [Man] Headdress, with jewels at the top.
- [Woman] And a very fancy hair ribbon thing going on.
- [Man] Her necklace.
- [Woman] Pearls and gems.
- [Man] The fabric of her clothing.
Whereas Frederico seems to be adorned
in this contemporary Florentine hat and red robe.
We seem to be focusing much more on his face over here
on the right, on his distinctive features.
Because Piero has set these figures
in perfect precise profile for us.
- [Woman] Yeah, and that was kind of the standard
in the Early Renaissance, for the portrait.
You know, when they start doing portraits again
because they, of course in the Middle Ages,
didn't do portraits.
- [Man] Right.
- [Woman] Because individuals weren't important,
but when they start doing portraits again,
this is the form that they take, this profile pose.
- [Man] It makes them seem kind of aloof.
- [Woman] And very, sort of, powerful, kinda.
What do you think?
- [Man] I think, powerful, yes.
Perfect profile just in a kind of solidity and stability
and its perfection that makes them seem powerful
or conveys their power.
- [Woman] And it gives them a kind of timelessness too.
Like, a, you know, a figure in profile on a coin.
- [Man] And the way they're set,
this landscape that they're set against
seems so distant.
It makes them seem a little bit bigger to me,
since this landscape is so small, minuscule.
They seem to be towering over it.
- [Woman] Yeah, they look very powerful,
sort of like land owners or aristocracy, and they are.
- [Man] And we get to see so much of it
because of the nice recession into space
that Piero's laid out for us.
We go from hill to hill to hill
to this nice atmospheric perspective which takes us--
- [Woman] It's beautiful.
- [Man] As far back as we can want to go.
- [Woman] So not everyone got their portrait painted,
of course, in the Early Renaissance.
- [Man] That's right.
- [Woman] So if you're gonna do it, you dressed up.
- [Man] You'd want to be in your finery I suppose, yes.
- [Woman] You wouldn't want to be in your pajamas
watching TV or something.
- [Man] She had already passed away
also when this was painted.
- [Woman] Oh, so this is a posthumous portrait.
- [Man] Of Battista.
I believe that this is meant to commemorate her
after she has passed away.
She would want to be made up for that.
We have looking at her, remembering her.
He, I know that he had an injury to this nose,
and I don't know if what we're looking at
with this very distinctive bridge,
is the injury itself or maybe,
I know that we're seeing an injury which is hidden from us.
He had lost an eye,
so we turn him in that direction.
Sword fight.
I don't know if this is a distinctive trait or--
- [Woman] Or from the injury.
- [Man] Or the injury.
But it's an imperfection over here
which let's us know about him.
Let's us know exactly what he looked like.
Whereas she seems to be more timeless, more--
- [Woman] Sort of generalized.
- [Man] Yeah.
- [Woman] An idealized beauty.
- [Man] There's less modeling on her face.
- [Woman] Yeah, that profile pose has a kind of stiffness
to it.
- [Man] It does.
- [Woman] A kind of rigidity.
And we don't learn very much about who they are.
We kind of know his distinctive features,
but we don't really sense who they are as people.
- [Man] What they look like and what their social rank is,
but not who they are as people.
And these would have been hung in their homes
as a kind of spotlight on their status
and of their family's status,
but there's no interest in them as human beings.
- [Man] No.
They can afford to have Piero paint these, though.
That's another sign of their status, I suppose also.
- [Woman] That's true.
But you know soon Leonardo is going to come along,
and turn his figure a little bit more frontal
and include the hands in the Mona Lisa,
and a whole new kind of portrait will be born.
- [Man] Very, very done.
(cheerful piano music)