Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino

Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, lost his right eye and the bridge of his nose in a tournament in 1450. For the rest of his life he was painted only in left profile — never full face, never right side. His nose in every surviving portrait bears the same distinctive concave bridge, faithfully painted by Piero. His wife Battista Sforza, on the facing panel, is painted in matching left profile so that they gaze at each other across the frame. She was 26 when she died in childbirth. Piero painted her portrait posthumously from a death mask. Now at Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence @uffizigalleries