Saint Apollonia

Piero della Francesca's Saint Apollonia, painted around 1454 for the National Gallery of Art, is another fragment from the dispersed Augustinian polyptych. The virgin martyr, patron of dentists, holds her attribute of extracted teeth with the serene composure that characterizes all of Piero's sacred figures. Piero della Francesca stands apart from all his contemporaries in the particular quality of his vision: a geometrically ordered world bathed in crystalline light where human figures possess both physical solidity and an uncanny stillness that suggests meditation rather than action.

The figure is constructed with Piero's mathematical rigor, the drapery falling in simplified geometric folds and the face modeled with smooth, luminous skin tones and analytical light that are hallmarks of his mature style.