An Augustinian Nun (Saint Monica)

Piero della Francesca's Augustinian Nun, traditionally identified as Saint Monica, painted around 1454 for The Frick Collection, formed part of the dismembered Augustinian polyptych from Sansepolcro. Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, was the patron of the Augustinian order Piero della Francesca brought mathematical precision and monumental stillness to his figures, creating some of the most geometrically pure compositions in all of Renaissance painting.

The figure is rendered with Piero's impassive monumentality, the nun's black habit and white wimple reduced to stark geometric planes, her features modeled with luminous precision.