BATTLE PLAN: Heraclius and Chosroes fight in one of 12 panels of The Legend of the True Cross (1452-59)
The history of art is strung together by the travel logs of the masters: Velásquez arriving in Rome, Gauguin going native in Tahiti, Picasso setting off for the lights of Paris. Inevitably, though, no matter how far they go or how long they stay away, every artist's body of work reflects the tension between all the expeditions and the home turf where the journey began.
That thought lands us in and around the Tuscan city of Arezzo, staring at the masterpieces of native son and inveterate traveler Piero della Francesca, who, after centuries of being overlooked,...
