Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/23

Rh Borgo San Sepolcro,—now a city, which it was not at that time,—and was called Della Francesca, from the name of his mother; whom the death of her husband and his father had left a widow before he was born, and because he had been brought up solely by herself, who furthermore assisted him in the attainment of that learning to which his good fortune had destined him. Piero gave considerable attention to mathematics in his early youth; and although he was induced to become a painter in his fifteenth year, he yet never deserted the study of that science; but, on the contrary, made extraordinary progress therein, as well as in painting. He was much employed by Guidobaldo Feltro the elder, Duke of Drbino, for whom he executed many pictures. These works comprised numerous small figures, and were extremely beautiful, but have, for the most part, been much injured, or altogether destroyed in the many times that this Duchy has been disturbed by wars. Some of the writings of Piero della Francesca, on geometry and the laws of perspective, are nevertheless still preserved there. In knowledge of these sciences Piero was certainly not inferior to the best-informed of his contemporaries; nay, was per-