Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ
Video transcript
(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).