Piero della Francesca, original name Piero di Benedetto dei Franceschi, (born c. 1416/17, Sansepolcro, Republic of Florence, Italy - died October 12, 1492, Sansepolcro), painter whose serene, disciplined exploration of perspective had little influence on his contemporaries but came to be recognized in the 20th century as a major contribution to the Italian Renaissance.
The fresco cycle The Legend of the True Cross (1452-66) and the diptych portrait of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, and his consort (1465) are among his best-known works.