Piero Della Francesca - Baptism of Christ

Episode image for Piero Della Francesca - Baptism of Christ

Episode 3 of 3

Duration: 1 hour

Matthew Collings concludes the series by looking at the invention of Renaissance painting.

The Baptism of Christ by Italian master Piero Della Francesca showed the household names of the High Renaissance how to use the big new trick of Renaissance painting - illusionism and perspective. Without him their achievements would have been impossible, but change came so rapidly in the Renaissance that the qualities that made Piero famous in his own time quickly went out of fashion.

The Baptism was bought for the National Gallery in 1861 and later Cezanne and Picasso saw him as the real deal: the authentic, honest Renaissance, a model for modern painting. Now he is so in tune with secular modern taste that a tourist trail links his work in the beautiful hills of Umbria, Tuscany, and a few galleries around the world who own a precious panel by him.

Collings follows his trail and hunts down the forensic detail in the highest-resolution images of paintings yet seen on television.

  • BBC Knowledge's Adam Barker's blog

    BBC Knowledge's Adam Barker's blog

    BBC Knowledge's Adam Barker on applying new technology to examine old masters: "The scary thing about working with graphics in this way is that you only see them right at the end of the edit. But some of the techniques used in the series are able to achieve astounding visual effects."

    Read Adam's blog

Credits

Series Producer
Paul Tilzey
Presenter
Matthew Collings
Director
Randall Wright
Producer
Randall Wright
Writer
Matthew Collings

Broadcasts

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