The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI

ASP Conference Series, Vol. 441

Enrico Maria Corsini, ed.
c
2011 Astronomical Society of the Pacic
Piero della Francescas Sky in The Dream of Constantine
Vladimiro Valerio
Facolt` a di Architettura, Universit` a IUAV di Venezia, Venezia, Italy
Abstract. The recent restoration of the frescoes by Piero della Francesca in the
Church of San Francesco in Arezzo has made to appear on the background of the scene
of Constantines dream a number of stars. They are clearly painted with the intention
to illustrate a sort of natural sky. In 2001 Anna Maria Maetzke recognized in a group
of stars the constellation of the Ursa Minor, but so far no further study has been carried
on to nd any relation between the painted and the true sky. In this paper I show the
existence of more constellations in the fresco, which are hardly detectable due to the
mirror representation of the starry sky. Such a mirror image, as the Universe was seen
from the outside, has a Greek origin and this kind of representation was introduced in
Western Europe not only in celestial globes but also in star maps. This discovery leads
to consider that Piero had at his disposal either a globe or a map which he reproduced
on the fresco. My hypothesis is that a star map might be supplied to Piero by the as-
tronomer Regiomontanus who was in Italy since 1461 following the Cardinal Bessarion
in his journey from Wien to Rome. In 1463, Cardinal Bessarion was named papal legate
to Venice and in July of the same year he leaved Rome together with Regiomontanus
to reach Ferrara and Venice. The road to Venice crossed Umbria nearby Sansepolcro,
Pieros birthplace not far from Arezzo. The trip took more than two weeks due to a
stop before crossing the Apennines because the plague in Ferrara. Bessarion and Re-
giomontanus might have met Piero who was painting the cycle of frescoes in Arezzo
and supplied him with a star map. Unfortunately, due to the lack of the horizon and any
right line in the scene it is not possible to detect the latitude of the place corresponding
to the painted sky.
1. The Sky in the Fresco and the True Sky
At a rst glance, the starry sky in the background of The Dream of Constantine by
Piero della Francesca in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo looks like a real sky
(Figure 1). The stars in the fresco show a variety of shapes and sizes and are located
like in a star map (Figure 2). On instinct we look at them as if they were painted using
the natural sky as a model and the way of representing them seems to anticipate what
was done a century later by Alessandro Piccolomini in his atlas De le stelle sse
1
. But
Pieros sky is dierent from the real sky because there is no correspondence neither
with any map nor with any night skyscape. The stars of the fresco behind the eld tents
should correspond to a portion of sky visible from Central Italy in Northern Rome,
either from Ponte Milvio where the Roman camp of Constantine was supposed to be,
or from the small village of Sansepolcro where Piero was born.
1
A. P, De le stelle sse libro uno, Venezia, Al Segno del Pozzo, 1540.
161
162 Valerio
Figure 1. Piero della Francesca, The Dream of Constantine, fresco, Church of
San Francesco, Arezzo. (Credit: Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il
Paesaggio, per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico e Etnoantropologico della Provincia
di Arezzo)
Nevertheless, Pieros sky is completely new and dierent from the abstract and
geometric starry sky in the pictorial tradition, from Giotto in the barrel roof vault of the
Scrovegni Chapel in Padua onward.
The Sky in The Dream of Constantine 163
Figure 2. Detail of the background sky in The Dream of Constantine. (Credit:
Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il Paesaggio, per il Patrimonio Storico,
Artistico e Etnoantropologico della Provincia di Arezzo)
Without taking into account the size of stars, it is possible to identify some con-
stellations in Pieros sky. This is the case of the stars forming the bowl and the handle
of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) with the North Star at the end of the dipper handle.
Immediately after the restoration of the fresco, Anna Maria Maetzke noticed that the
stars sono cos` ben leggibili che vi si riconosce la costellazione dellOrsa Minore
2
.
However, the image of the Little Dipper is inverted as it was taken from a sky map
or a globe and not as seen at night. The mirror image of the starry sky has a Greek
origin. One of the oldest record of the Greek astronomy is The Farnese Atlas, a marble
statue representing the kneeling titan with a celestial globe weighting heavily on his
shoulders. The globe shows a depiction of the constellations (with no actual stars) as
seen from outside the outermost celestial sphere
3
. The Farnese Atlas was the key to
understand Pieros sky and identify some other asterisms.
2
The stars are clearly dened and we can recognize the shape of the Little Dipper in A. M. Mxrrzkr-C.
Brarriir (eds.), Piero della Francesca. La leggenda della Vera Croce in San Francesco ad Arezzo, Milano,
Skira, 2001, p. 116. The results of my work were rst presented by M. Dxixr Emrirxxr, Nuovi indizi del
metodo prospettico di Piero della Francesca nel cantiere di San Francesco ad Arezzo alla luce dei recenti
restauri, in M. Cosxxxor-Lr Bixxc-M. Dxixr Emrirxxr-P. Dtrotao Gixrrox. (eds.), Lartiste et luvre ` a
l epreuve de la perspective, Roma, Collection de l

Ecole Francaise de Rome, 364, 2006, p. 300. A rst

step of the research was published in V. Vxiraro, Piero e gli astri. Il primo cielo stellato nella pittura
occidentale, in C. Brarriir-A. Pxoitccr (eds.), Piero della Francesca e le corti italiane, Milano, Skira,
2007, pp. 81-85.
3
See V. Vxiraro, LAtlante Farnese e la rappresentazione delle costellazioni, in E. Lo Sxaoo (ed.), Eureka,
il genio degli antichi, Napoli, Electa, 2005, pp. 233-239.
164 Valerio
Figure 3. Plot of the stars identied in the background sky of The Dream of Con-
stantine. (Credit: V. Valerio)
Figure 3 shows some of the stars of The Dream of Constantine as they are actually
painted in the portion of the fresco between the eld tents and the wing of the angel.
They have been inverted in Figure 4 and connected with lines to unveil the shape of the
constellations as shown in Figure 5. Figure 6 shows a modern sky map with the actual
shape and size of the constellations.
The mirror representation of the stars in the fresco with respect to that in the actual
sky suggests that Piero might have adopted a map as model for his painting. The depic-
tion of realistic objects in natural settings was becoming important in Renaissanceas
recognized by Burckhardt when he stated that Italians were among the early moderns
to enjoy the landscape aesthetics
4
. Nevertheless, the representation of the sky, although
mimicking the natural sky, is not based on the direct observation but it is the result of a
graphic elaboration. Similarly, the perspective representation of the buildings implied
the use of drawings and tridimensional models. For this reason, Piero painted as natu-
ral a sky which was actually copied from a star map. As a perspective practician, Piero
did not hesitate to prefer practice over theory. For example, when facing the puzzle of
marginal deformations he concluded that:
[. . . ] et perch e operando le vere ragioni se meraviglino che le colonne pi` u remote
da locchio venghino de pi` u grossezza che sono le pi` u propinque, essendo poste
sopra equali basi. S` che io intendo de dimostrare cos` essere et doverse fare.
5
4
J. Btacknxaor, La civilt` a del Rinascimento in Italia, Firenze, Sansoni, 1968, p. 270.
5
[. . . ] some people wonder whether the farther columns look larger than the closer ones, although they
have equal bases. I want to demonstrate that this is correct and has to be done. Prrao oriix Faxxcrscx,
De prospectiva pingendi, G. Nrcco Fxsoix (ed.), Firenze, Le Lettere, 1984, pp. 125-126.
The Sky in The Dream of Constantine 165
Figure 4. Inverted version of Figure 3. (Credit: V. Valerio)
2. A Date for the Fresco
On 5 May 1460 Cardinal Johannes Bessarion arrived in Wien as papal legate to the
Holy Roman Empire. He was strongly interested in spreading the Greek learning and
tradition in Western Europe. Indeed, he commissioned the transcription of many Greek
manuscripts as well as their translation into Latin. For this reason, Bessarion entrusted
Georg von Peurbach the task of writing a summary of Ptolemys Almagest. Bessarions
interest in astronomy dated back to his youth when he was taught by the philosopher
Georgius Gemistus Plethon in the town of Mystras in Peloponnese
6
. Peurbach did
not know Greek and therefore decided to summarize the Latin translation of the Al-
magest done by Gerard of Cremona in the 12
th
century. Peurbach died on 8 April 1461
when only six out of the thirteen books of the Almagest were completed. The work
was then continued by Peurbachs pupil Johannes M uller von K onigsberg known as
Regiomontanus. According to Regiomontanus, he was charged with completing the
abridgment by Peurbach himself on his deathbed
7
. Following the last will of the men-
tor, Regiomontanus joined Bessarion in his journey back to Rome in the autumn of
1461. Regiomontanus completed the Epitome of the Almagest before April 1463 as it
results from his dedication of the manuscript to Bessarion, who was appointed Latin
Patriarch of Constantinople in those days. Bessarion was also appointed papal legate to
6
See A. Rroo, Bessarione, Giovanni Regiomontano e i loro studi su Tolomeo a Venezia e Roma (1463-
1464), Studi Veneziani, XXI, 1991, pp. 49-110:53 and A. Rroo, Gli interessi astronomici del cardinal
Bessarione, in G. Frxccxooar (ed.), Bessarione e lUmanesimo, Napoli, Vivarium, 1994, pp. 105-117.
7
See the introduction of Epytoma Ioannis de Monte Regio in Almagestum Ptolomei, Venezia, 1496. See
also G. Uzrriir, La vita e i tempi di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, Roma, Forzani, 1894, pp. 281-282.
166 Valerio
Figure 5. The actual constellations identied in Figure 4. (Credit: V. Valerio)
the Serenissima Republic of Venice in order to organize a crusade to free Constantino-
ple from the Turkish rule. On 5 July 1463, Bessarion left Rome to Venice together
with Regiomontanus. The astronomer wanted to go to Venice to meet some illustrious
scholars and give lectures in the University of Padua. Their travel was quite dicult
and long. Indeed, a plague outbreak prevented them to stop in Ferrara, where they
had to meet Giovanni Bianchini, a renowned astronomer and court astrologer of the
Marquis of Ferrara
8
. Bessarion and Regiomontanus arrived in Venice only on 22 July
1463. Regiomontanus taught in Padua in 1464 and his opening lecture was devoted to
the astronomy by al-Farghani which was published later on.
My hypothesis is that Bessarion and Regiomontanus might have met Piero della
Francesca during their unusually long travel from Rome to Venice. At that time Piero
was still painting the frescoes in the Church of San Francesco. Probably, Bessarion
and Regiomontanus did a stop before crossing the Apennines either to wait for news
about the plague in Ferrara or for an early planned meeting with Piero in Arezzo or in
Sansepolcro. A star map might have been supplied by the Regiomontanus to Piero to
be adopted for the background sky of The Dream of Constantine. I believe that Bessar-
ion might have suggested to Piero some details for the fresco, which was particularly
important for him. The dream of the fresco ideally represented the beginning of a new
Christian age and the emperor Constantine was actually the founder of Constantino-
ple, Bessarions patriarchal See. The cardinal himself was appointed Latin Patriarch
8
About the the comments in the letters between Regiomontanus and Bianchini on the detour due to the
plague in Ferrara, see S. M, Johannes de Blanchinis ferrariensis e il suo carteggio scientico col
Regiomontano (1463-1464), Atti e memorie della Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia Patria, XXII, 1917,
III
The Sky in The Dream of Constantine 167
Figure 6. Star map of the sky region plotted in Figure 5. (Credit: V. Valerio)
of Constantinople ten years after the city was besieged and conquered by Turks. He
was going to Venice with the purpose of setting up a military expedition to rescue Con-
stantinople. For the above reasons, the subject of the fresco was for Bessarion more
than one episode in Constantines life or in the legend of the True Cross used as a basic
text of the whole fresco cycle in San Francesco. Luckily, Bessarion could also rely
on Regiomontanus expertise to add an extra value to scene painted by Piero
9
. If this
would be the case, a draft of the sky might have been realized on the spot by following
the Western iconographic tradition of the mirror image of the sky. This could explain
the deformation of the shape of the constellations. In this framework, The Dream of
Constantine has to be dated back to mid 1463. This does not exclude that the lower
portion of the fresco could be painted earlier. Only the portion of sky might be updated
after the meeting with Bessarion and Regiomontanus. The investigations after the re-
cent restoration of the fresco could address this issue and shed new light on the date of
Pieros cycle of frescoes in San Francesco.
This hypothesis is supported by the presence of Piero in the same years and in
the same places where Bessarion and Regiomontanus were known to be. Moreover,
Bessarion was particularly inuential on Pieros life as well as in the revival of Greek
science
10
. The rarity of the graphic representations of astronomical subject in the 15
th
centurywhen the astrological interest was still prevalent and the principal aim was to
9
About Regiomontanus astronomy see Uzrriir, Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (cit. note 7).
10
About this issue, see C. Grxzrtao, Indagini su Piero, il Battesimo, il Ciclo di Arezzo, la Flagellazione
di Urbino, Torino, Einaudi, 1981. Ginzburg rst identied Bessarion in The Flagellation of Christ. See
also the recent essay by S. Roxcnr., Lenigma di Piero. Lultimo bizantino e la crociata fantasma nella
rivelazione di un grande quadro, Milano, Rizzoli, 2006.
168 Valerio
depict the constellations and to study the inuence of the celestial bodies on the social
and human life
11
makes the starry sky by Piero an absolute novelty in painting research
as well as in contemporary scientic culture.
3. A Time for the Sky
I would like to conclude with a comment about a tentative calculation of the time and
day of the starry night in The Dream of Constantine.
It is always possible to recover the reality represented in a perspective drawing.
In principle, this is true also for the sky of The Dream of Constantine. However, it is
necessary either to have or to recover the perspective data, i.e. the horizon line, the
vanishing point, and the distance circle. Unfortunately, this is not the case for The
Dream of Constantine. These data are not evident, although Piero was a master in the
theory and practice of perspective. Therefore, we cannot measure the angular distances
of the stars, either understand which kind of projection was adopted for deriving the
elevation of the North Star. This would have made it possible to know the latitude of
the place where the depicted sky could be observed.
The only way to proceed further is to adopt an astronomical software and match
the relative position of the stars in order to derive the hour, date and latitude of Pieros
sky. The results I obtained by performing such a test are not fully reliable. Therefore, I
prefer to leave everybody to be free to nd their own Pieros sky.
Acknowledgments. I would like to thank Enrico Maria Corsini for suggestions and
help in editing the manuscript and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il
Paesaggio, per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico e Etnoantropologico della Provincia di
Arezzo for the image of The Dream of Constantine.
11
F. S, La fede negli astri, Torino, Boringhieri, 1985.