Portrait of Battista Sforza

Dating to 1474, the portrait demonstrates the portrait tradition that Piero della Francesca contributed to within the Early Renaissance. Painted during the flourishing of the Early Renaissance, the work balances individual likeness with the idealized presentation expected by fifteenth-century patrons. Created at the threshold of the High Renaissance, this work belongs to a generation that had fully mastered perspective, anatomy, and oil technique, setting the stage for Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

The portrait is rendered with monumental stillness characteristic of Piero della Francesca's best work. The tempera medium, applied in thin layers of egg-bound pigment over a prepared gesso ground, the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.