Melozzo da Forli, a brilliant painter known…

Melozzo da Forli, a brilliant painter known for his mastery of illusionism in ceiling and wall painting, works from 1465 to 1475 in Urbino (where he may have come into contact with Piero della Francesca, a strong influence on his style).

At Urbino, Melozzo is one of the decorators of the “Studiolo” in the ducal palace.

Francesco Laurana, while executing sculptures for the court of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, models at least some of the nine surviving portrait busts of women that represent perhaps his finest work.

His bust of Battista Sforza, duchess of Urbino, executed in about 1475, typifies his highly individual style, which owes more to the stylized elegance of Byzantine art than to the work of contemporary Florentine masters such as Donatello.

A master portraitist, Francesco has a remarkable ability to simplify forms into almost abstract geometrical patterns.

Renowned Sienese painter, sculptor, and architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini paints his striking “Nativity” around 1475, while working as an architect in Urbino.

He draws up his multivolume Trattato di Architectura civile e militare, a rich amalgam of precepts and illustrations that anticipates many of the developments of the following century.

Although it will never be published, it will circulate widely in manuscript copy, and duplicates of many of Martini's drawings will appear in books published many years after his death.)