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Who appears in Piero della Francesca’s diptych portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza?
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Piero della Francesca
The Flagellation of Christ, tempera on wood panel by Piero della Francesca, late 1450s; in the National Gallery of the Marches, Urbino, Italy.
In the famous diptych portraits by Piero della Francesca, the subjects are Federico da Montefeltro, the ruler of the city-state of Urbino, and his wife, Battista Sforza.1
The portraits feature the couple in profile, facing one another against a landscape background. Federico is depicted with realistic details, including his distinctive hook nose and skin blemishes, while Battista is portrayed with an unearthly quality, possibly because her likeness was taken from a death mask following her early death. The panels were likely commissioned by Federico as a memorial to his wife, who died shortly after giving birth to their son.1