On May 15, 1992, Vatican City issued four stamps commemorating the fifth centenary of the death of the Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca. The 750-lire value features a detail from the fresco "Our Lady of Childbirth," which is found at the Chapel of the Cemetery of Monterchi in Arezzo, Italy.
Piero della Francesca was born in Borgo San Sepolcro to a family of artisans and merchants, probably between 1415 and 1420. At about 18, he moved to Florence, where he began to paint under the tutelage of Domenico Veneziano. He also worked in Rimini, Urbino, Borgo San Sepolcro, Citta di Castello, and Ferrara. The ornamentation in the Chapel of St. Michael in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, Rome, is attributed to him.
Some of the masterpieces attesting to his extraordinary talent include the "Baptism" (National Gallery, London), the "Flagellation" (Urbino), the portraits of Federigo da Montefeltri and his wife (Uffizi, Florence), the "Resurrection" (Borgo San Sepolcro), "Our Lady of Childbirth" (Monterchi), and the frescoes of the "History of the True Cross" (Church of St. Francis, Arezzo).
Piero della Francesca died in Borgo San Sepolcro on October 12, 1492.
Along the top of each stamp appears the inscription PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA. Immediately below this appear the dates 1492-1992 and the value. At the bottom of each stamp appear the words POSTE VATICANE.
The stamps are vertical in format, measure 30 x 40 mm, and have a perforation of 13ΒΌ x 14. The Instituto Polygrafico e Zecca dello Stato Italiano produced the stamps on white chalky paper in multicolored rotogravure. They were issued in sheets of twenty, and 450,000 complete series were printed.
Crimando, Thomas I. "New Issues." Vatican Notes 41, no. 1 (July 1992): 1, 4.
