The Montefeltro Altarpiece

Beneath a vast classical apse the Virgin sits enthroned with the sleeping Christ Child, ringed by saints and angels in perfect stillness, while Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, kneels at right in gleaming armor - shown, as always, from the left, the side left whole after a tournament cost him his right eye. From the shell vault hangs an ostrich egg, emblem of creation and of the miraculous birth, drawing every sightline down to the group. The Child's coral necklace foretells his blood, his sleep his death. Piero gathers the holy figures into one measured, silver-lit space: the grandest of sacred conversations.