Peering at Piero

If you are reading on a tablet, turn the tablet to vertical to see this painting something like actual size.

It’s on the wall of the room at the Frick Collection, which has brought together more work by Piero della Francesca than has ever been seen in one place in America: [seven paintings], six from an altarpiece, long since scattered to various collections, and the freestanding Virgin and Child with Attendant Angels from the Clark Institute in Williamstown.

I went to the exhibit the other day (miraculously, I found a parking space right outside). The Frick is full of wonders, but the rarity of the Piero exhibit forced me to focus on those seven works only for the full hour (until the parking meter was up). It was a reminder of how rarely we take a good long look, determined to get the most value from our museum visits. The philosopher and art historian Richard Wollheim described looking at paintings in the National Gallery for entire mornings: the guards tried to shoo him out, thinking him a kook.

The experience put in mind Richard Rodriguez’s essay about the church of the Holy Sepulchre. “After [1980] years, it is my turn.” Well, I had my turn with the Piero della Francescas. Don’t miss yours. The exhibit closes May 26. Ted Loos calls out the high points here.

• 26 Jun 2013

• #the muses