Artwork
Faith
Faith is a tempera painting by the Early Renaissance artist Piero del Pollaiuolo. It dates from 1470 and is held in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Decorative details such as the pearl‑studded crucifix and a floor imitating an oriental carpet reflect Flemish influence.
Faith is portrayed as an allegorical female figure seated on a throne, embodying the theological virtue. She holds a chalice and a crucifix, wears a dress and sandals, and gazes upward toward God. The drapery is rendered with monumental, sculptural folds, and the throne is shown in a steep foreshortened perspective that reveals both its lower and upper levels.
Decorative details such as the pearl‑studded crucifix and a floor imitating an oriental carpet reflect Flemish influence. Together these attributes signify Faith’s devotion, its reliance on divine grace, and its role as one of the cardinal virtues commissioned for the Tribunale della Mercanzia’s audience hall.
Technique & Style
Faith is executed in tempera on a dark poplar panel measuring 168 cm in height and 90.5 cm in width. The technique involves direct painting onto the unprepared wood support, using the panel’s natural dark tone to articulate shadowed areas of the modelling.
The composition presents an allegorical female figure with attributes of a chalice and crucifix, seated on a throne rendered in an exaggerated, foreshortened perspective. The drapery is handled with broad, sculptural folds that convey a marble-like solidity through strong chiaroscuro and light tones. Decorative details, including the crucifix set with pearls and precious stones and the patterned floor resembling an Oriental carpet, reflect the influence of contemporary Flemish painting circulating in Florence during the late 1460s–1470s.
History & Provenance
The painting Faith was commissioned by Florence's Tribunale della Mercanzia under a contract dated 18 August 1469 to create seven works depicting cardinal virtues for the audience hall on Piazza della Signoria. Although Piero del Pollaiuolo was the original recipient, the commission was temporarily transferred to Sandro Botticelli due to delays; Botticelli completed Fortitude before protests from Piero and his brother Antonio secured a second contract returning the remaining six works to the Pollaiuolo studio. The work is dated to 1470.
Following the suppression of the magistracy and its relocation to the Uffizi, the paintings were exhibited in the gallery starting in 1717. By the 19th century, the series was in such poor condition that Faith was not displayed until its restoration in 1999, which revealed the artist's technique of painting directly onto the wood panel without canvas or plaster preparation.
Faith is held in the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. The painting entered the gallery’s holdings after the Tribunale della Mercanzia was suppressed in 1717, when its seat-backs were transferred to the Uffizi and exhibited from that date. The work is inventoried as part of the cardinal-virtues cycle commissioned by the Tribunale della Mercanzia in a contract dated 18 August 1469.
Context
The Faith panel is part of a contested seven-work cycle of cardinal virtues commissioned in 1469 by Florence’s Tribunale della Mercanzia for its audience hall, with delivery staggered between 1469 and 1470. Scholarship has long debated whether Piero or his brother Antonio executed the paintings, with attributions shifting between the two based on stylistic analysis and documentary evidence. Nineteenth-century conservation failures left most panels in storage until the late twentieth century, when Faith underwent restoration in 1999.
This revealed Piero’s unorthodox technique, painting directly onto the dark wood panel without canvas or gesso ground, exploiting the panel’s tone for shadowed modeling. The work’s perspectival exaggerations, including an extremely foreshortened throne and a small, upward-tilted head, reflect its original high placement and anticipate later Renaissance experiments in viewer-addressing illusionism.
Overview
Created circa 1470 by Florentine painter Piero del Pollaiuolo, Faith is a tempera panel now displayed in the Uffizi Gallery. The composition shows a seated female figure on a throne, clothed in a white robe over a gold dress, with a blue cloak draped across her shoulders and a golden crown atop her head.
Artist & collection
Artist
Piero del Pollaiuolo (UK: POL-eye-WOH-loh, US: POHL-, Italian:; also spelled Pollaiolo; c.
