The Legend of the True Cross
sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo
The Legend of the True Cross (Italian: Leggenda della Vera Croce) or The History of the True Cross (Storie della Vera Croce) is a sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. It is his largest work, and generally considered one of his finest, and an early Renaissance masterpiece.
Its theme, derived from the popular 13th century book on the lives of saints by Jacobus de Voragine, the Golden Legend, is the triumph of the True Cross – the legend of the wood from the Garden of Eden becoming the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. This work demonstrates Piero's advanced knowledge of perspective and colour, his geometric orderliness and skill in pictorial construction.
History
Dating of the frescoes is uncertain, but they are believed to date from after 1447, when the Bacci family, commissioners of the frescoes, are recorded as having paid an unknown painter. It would have been finished around 1466. Most of the choir was painted in the early- to mid-1450s. Although the design of the frescoes is evidently Piero's, he seems to have delegated small parts of the painting to assistants, as was usual. The hand of Giovanni di Piamonte, in particular, can be recognised in some of the frescoes.
An exhaustive restoration began in 1991 and was completed in 2000.
The public source identifies “The Legend of the True Cross” as sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Legend, True and Cross.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2755131. Authority coordinates are 43.465, 11.881. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1447, 1466, 1991 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Legend of the True Cross” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.