Piero della Francesca was an early Italian Renaissance painter who brought innovation to religious art by applying geometric and mathematical theories, using linear perspective and foreshortening to give biblical scenes grandeur and solidity. From Florence and Arezzo to the court of Urbino, he produced works such as the fresco cycle “The Legend of the True Cross” and wrote the treatises “On Perspective in Painting” and “On the Five Regular Bodies.” Little recognized in his own lifetime, he was reassessed in the 19th century, and his geometry and color left a lasting impression on modern painters such as Paul Cézanne.