I started with a nice slow morning which I hope will give me energy before meeting the “Piero Trail” group as Art History Abroad calls this trip. It’s a reference to the travel caused by the English writer Aldous Huxley’s 1925 essay “The Best Picture” in which he argued that Piero della Francesca’s fresco, The Resurrection of Christ, in San Sepolcro, was the best picture in the world. (You can find Huxley’s essay online.) This in turn caused people, mostly British, to go on holidays to the small towns where Piero’s works can be found. This travel was described as “Following the Piero Trail”. It used to be a popular trip for the British. The writer of the Rumpole of the Bailey books, John Mortimer, uses following the Piero trail as an element of the plot in his novel Summer’s Lease.

Following the Piero trail is no longer popular—although that’s exactly what this group is doing. But many people today do not know about Piero. As Huxley wrote, if more of Piero’s works were in the Uffizi, he would be much more famous.

The Uffizi in Florence has his portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and his wife. The National Gallery in London has three paintings but most of his surviving works are frescoes and remain in situ in places somewhat obscure.

He worked in central and northern Italy for many of the Renaissance courts in the area as well as for popes in Rome. He was a mathematical theorist – he wrote books on scientific perspective and geometry among other mathematical topics – which he exemplified in his paintings. His great innovation was the use of geometry in the design of his paintings, the volume of figures and in perspective. As well, his oil painting technique, learned from Netherlandish painters, depicts light and texture. He is considered one of the foundation Renaissance artists.

His style is highly linear and calculated, characterized by a calm derived from a lack of motion and emotion. Not everyone loves him because of the stillness and plasticity which can be regarded as overly static. No Caravaggio dramatics for Piero.

Nothing is known about his training and dating of his works is difficult, partly because so many paintings and related documents have been lost.

Back to my travels. As I had lots of time to try it out, I decided to take the Marconi Express, a monorail that goes to the airport. It’s located on the backside of the train station on the other side of the tracks. You can get there underground but as I have had so many misadventures in Bologna’s train station, I walked outside. I left the hotel room at 10:59, checked out, walked basically around a large block, overshot the entrance so walked back a few minutes, used my credit card to get to the platform and it was 11:45. I don’t know how I wasted so much time.

The ride was a bit like an amusement park ride, tipping sideways around corners, going up and down. But it was inexpensive—less than 10 Euros for one way—and only took 10 minutes.

I arrived at the arrivals area of the airport just as the group from London was exiting the secure area. We boarded a bus and headed toward Città di Castello or Castello. It is about a two and a half hour drive. Because of a mix up, we ended up going to lunch at an Autogrill, which would be a greasy spoon diner in North America but turned out not too bad.

Castello is in the Umbria region. The only region without any coastline. Its population is 40,000 and the Tiber river runs through the city. During the medieval period it was an independent commune but eventually part of the Papal States. It has some of its old walls.

We’re staying here because the nearby towns with Piero paintings don’t have enough room for a group of 18.

After checking in we did a small tour of the nearby streets. The city has no Piero painting but is famous for being the site of the first work where Raphael was the master painter, at age 17, and there is a stone plaque explaining this on the church where his work was located. It was taken by Napoleon—surprise!

The Pinacoteca Communale, city art museum, has mostly copies of Renaissance works by Raphael, as well as Luca Signorelli.

The above is a computer reproduction of Raphael’s first altarpiece which now has parts all over Europe including the Louvre and a lot of missing parts. Below is a Luca Signorelli altar painting believed to have influenced Raphael.

Another copy of a Raphael

The Church of San Domenico where the Raphael was originally located now also has a copy but the original stone frame is still there (and poor lighting).

Raphael’s “Marriage of the Virgin” is a copy but was originally located in Castello. Now the original is in Milan.

The one original Raphael work is a banner painting.

It was originally double sided but split in two. It’s on canvas so presumably the canvas was not split but was two separate pieces of fabric. The splitting as well as carrying around the banner outside in all weather has resulted in the very bad condition. What looks like brown leaves and vines is where the paint has flaked off.

For dinner, the organizers book a restaurant and you can join or not. If you go, you pay for your dinner. I had salad for lunch so tagliatelle and tartuffo biano (white truffle) for dinner. It truffle season here.