Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ Video Lecture - Humanities/Arts

(piano music)
Woman: Looking at a very
large panel painting
by Piero della Francesca
of the baptism of Christ.
This is a typical subject
that we see a lot.
Man: But not a typical treatment.
Piero was one of those Renaissance artists
that I think the modern era has loved.
In part because of the
emphasis on geometry
and a kind of abstraction
of space and form.
Woman: He really stands
out as having a really
unique style in the early Renaissance.
It's defined by a kind of
stillness of the figures,
a kind of quietness.
Man: It has all of the
characteristics of an ideal moment.
This is the moment literally the moment
when John allows the water
to pour from that bowl
onto Christ's head and
would be that moment
when the Holy Spirit in the
form of the dove appears.
Woman: John is so ever
so gently and tentatively
pouring that water over Christ,
who of course Christ
asked John to baptize him
and John at first refused
and Christ insisted
because John said, "No
you should baptize me."
Man: The angels on the
left look equally concerned
and there is a kind of tentativeness.
Look at the focus in John's eyes.
Woman: The sort of
tentativeness is expressed
in his left hand.
Man: Yes, oh absolutely, and you can see
that in the hands of the angels as well.
Woman: There is a kind
of stillness and sense
of linearity to the figures.
Christ occupies the exact
center of the composition
directly under the dove.
He stands in a lovely contropposto
with his hands in prayer.
Man: There is a really strict geometry.
You have the verticality
that you already mentioned.
But not only was there bilateral symmetry
of Christ's body in the
center of the canvas
but of John being quite
strayed of the angels
very erect, the tree, all the trees.
Then there is a series
of perfect horizontals.
Look at the way that John's
belt continues the movement
of the man who is taking
off his shirt to the right,
moves across Christ's waist and picks
up the belt of the middle angel.
So you have a kind of perfect horizontal
that moves across that is echoed
by the horinzontality of the dove,
whose line is continued by the clouds,
and then there are a series of circles.
The painting itself is an arch
but that arch of that circle
is picked up and continued by
the arc of the top of the cloth
that covers Christ's
waist and then by John's
hand and arm and even by the sort of line
that is created as the man
pulls his shirt over his head
so that you've got really
this sort of continued
negative arc or the bottom
of the arc of the circle.
Woman: This love of geometry.
We know that perspective
was something that Piero
also was really interested
in and wrote a treatus about.
This interest in the mathematical
foundations of beauty
and harmony is something
that we really see
very broadly in the early renaissance.
Man: I think that there is an
additional kind of peculiarity,
which has to do with the placement.
Clearly this is not the middle east.
The hill town that we see
just below Christ's elbow
is clearly of Tuscany.
Woman: Maybe even where Piero was from,
which was Borgo Santo Sepolcro.
Man: That's right but we have a reference
to the river Jordan in back of Christ,
which is in and of
itself a sort of peculiar
almost minimized and
abstracted into a little stream
that almost seems to stop, as if
it's a little pathway actually,
going back a kind of reflective pathway.
Woman: There is a kind
of intentionality here
and a kind of formality that
I think is very appealing
in the 21st century.
(piano music).