History

Arretium was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan League — a confederation of the principal Etruscan cities that reached its peak of power in the seventh–fifth centuries BCE. The city was known particularly for its bronze casting; the Chimera (found near Arezzo in 1553) and the Minerva di Arezzo (also in the Florence archaeological museum) are the most important surviving examples of Etruscan bronze work. In the Roman period, Arretium was a prosperous municipium; the red Arretine ware (terra sigillata) — thin-walled red-glazed pottery with moulded decoration — was the standard tableware of the Roman Empire from the first century BCE to the second century CE and was exported from Arezzo to Britain, Germany, Egypt, and India.

The fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca was commissioned by the Bacci family (wealthy Aretine merchants) for the choir of the Franciscan church of San Francesco. Work began in 1452 (the commission had been initially given to Bicci di Lorenzo, who died in 1452 after completing only the preliminary decorations) and was completed around 1466. The iconographic programme follows the “Legend of the True Cross” — a popular medieval narrative tracing the history of the wood of Christ’s cross from the death of Adam to the seventh-century emperor Heraclius — in twelve scenes arranged over three registers on the east wall (altar wall) and the two side walls of the choir. Piero’s treatment is notable for its geometric clarity (the figures are monumental and simplified, placed in architectural compositions of great formal rigour), its use of light (the soft even light of a cloudy day, which Piero calculated geometrically), and its emotional detachment (the narrative scenes are presented with an objectivity more characteristic of the documentary than the devotional).