Piero della Francesca, Madonna Del Duca Da Montefeltro, 1472
From Details of Renaissance Paintings

Medium: Screenprint in colors on Arches Aquarelle (Cold Pressed) paper
Year: 1984
Sheet: 32×44 inches (81.3 x 111.8 cm)
Image: 25×37 inches (63.5 x 94 cm)
Edition: 36 TP (Trial Proofs) with a unique color combination
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New York
Publisher: Editions Schellmann & Kluser, Munich, Germany/New-York
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.316A

Signed and numbered in pencil lower left

 

In 1984, Andy Warhol turned his focus away from his ubiquitous silkscreens of everyday, commercial objects and portraits of Hollywood’s elite to focus his attention on the history of art itself through his series Details of Renaissance Paintings. In doing so, not only did Warhol pay homage to the Renaissance masters, but he also placed himself as inheritor and predecessor of their revered lineage by incorporating excerpts of their acclaimed works and thus dramatically expanding the scope of his oeuvre.

“We were thinking of important Renaissance paintings or details of such…. Ultimately, we suggested four subjects to Andy. He looked at them and without listening to our wordy explanations simply asked ‘can’t you find more famous paintings?’”
—Jörg Schellmann

Details of Renaissance Paintings renders masterworks of Italian Renaissance artists like Paolo Uccello, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sandro Botticelli in the twentieth-century medium of screen printing. This particular image retains the Quattrocento master’s palette of peachy flesh and a blue background but cools off the tones. After Warhol saw Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in 1963, Warhol began his first experimentation with Renaissance masters. Two decades later, he returned to the subject with the eyes of a mature artist, making bolder compositional choices with cropping and overdrawing. In reproducing and reinventing these masterpieces, Warhol placed himself in the canon of greats.

Jörg Schellmann and Andy Warhol, Warhol Studio at Broadway/Union Square, New York, 1983. Image: © Schellmann Art

In 1983, the renowned German publisher Jörg Schellmann, together with his business partner Bernd Klüser, suggested to Warhol that he make a portfolio of prints based on Renaissance masterworks. After carefully considering which paintings would be most fitting, Schellmann and Klüser settled on Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (c. 1485), Leonardo da Vinci’s The Annunciation (1472), Paolo Uccello’s St. George and the Dragon (1472), and Piero della Francesca’s Madonna del Duca da Montedeltro (c.1474). Despite being created five centuries prior, these mighty paintings were pertinent subjects for Warhol due to their status as revered icons of art history. Warhol’s enduring fascination with mass reproduction, iconic imagery, and the allure of celebrity reverberated powerfully within these masterpieces. In transforming them into twentieth-century icons, Warhol amplified their historical significance as they tookcentre stage in his own Pop renaissance.

Piero della Francesca’s Madonna del Duca da Montefeltro is a remarkable Renaissance masterpiece that showcases Renaissance-era developments in theories of perspective. Painted between 1472 and 1474, the work depicts the Duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro, and his wife, Battista Sforza, kneeling in adoration before the Madonna and Child. The scene is set under a harmoniously rendered barrel vault ceiling, depicted with meticulous geometric precision and a subdued color palette. Famous for its refined balance, the painting reflects contemporary interests in mathematical proportions and perspective. Poignantly, in Warhol’s reworking of the painting, he chose to closely crop the composition to disregard the figures and focus only on the architecture. In doing so, Warhol not only firmly reinvented the composition as a Pop masterpiece, but also emphasized the icon-status and cultural prestige of this painting’s rendering of perspective, which is recognizable even from just a small detail.

Piero della Francesca, Madonna del Duca da Montefeltro, 1472-74, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Image: Photo Scala, Florence – courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali e del Turismo

Warhol made use of his favorite technique, the screenprint, to render the historic Renaissance paintings in bold plains of vibrant colors, overlaid with this signature misaligned outline. Notably, unlike most of Warhol’s screenprints, in Details of Renaissance Painting the margins were not trimmed and instead left as wide plains of exposed paper. This was due to a joint decision between the artist and publishers that the borders were in keeping with the historical imagery, representing a classical passe-poute. A trial proof, the present lot is a unique work that embodies Warhol’s central concerns in his later years – fame, reproduction, icons, and the canon of art history.

 

 

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Auction Results

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Ketterer Kunst: 7 June 2025
Estimated: EUR 12,000
EUR 21,590 / USD 24,395

ANDY WARHOL
Details of Renaissance Paintings (Piero della Francesca, Madonna del Duca da Montefeltro, circa 1472), 1984
(Cf. Feldman, Schellmann, Defendi, no. IIB.316A)
Silkscreen in colors on firm wove board
Signed and numbered
Unique object
From a print run of 36 trial copies marked “TP”

Phillips London: 17 January 2024
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 30,480 / USD 38,499

ANDY WARHOL
Details of Renaissance Paintings (Piero della Francesca, Madonna del Duca, circa 1472), 1984
Unique screenprint in colors on Arches Aquarelle pape
Signed and numbered ‘TP 28/36’ in pencil
A unique color variant trial proof, there was no edition

Phillips London: 8 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 30,480 / USD 37,935

Phillips London: 6 June 2019
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 22,500 / USD 28,625

Sotheby’s London: 22 March 2016
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 15,000 / USD 21,345

ANDY WARHOL
Details of Renaissance Paintings (Piero Della Francesca, Madonna Del Duca Da Montefeltro, circa 1472) (F. & S. IIB.316A), 1984
Screenprint in a unique combination of colors on Arches Aquarelle paper
Signed in pencil, numbered TP 34/36

Sotheby’s London: 29 September 2015
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 16,250 / USD 24,635

ANDY WARHOL
Details of Renaissance Paintings (Piero Della Francesca, Madonna Del Duca Da Montefeltro, circa 1472) (F. & S. IIB.316A), 1984
Screenprint in a unique combination of colors on Arches Aquarelle paper
Signed in pencil, numbered TP 35/36