For us today the Montefeltro Altarpiece, preserved in the Brera Art Gallery in Milan, is the “Altarpiece by Piero” par excellence. It is surprising to learn however, that until the late 1800s no one would ever have dreamed of attributing this impressive masterpiece to the hand of Piero della Francesca. For long centuries it was a deeply-rooted belief that the painter of the work was a certain Bartolomeo Corradini, a friar-painter known by the funny nickname of Fra Carnevale. It is in this guise that the Montefeltro Altarpiece came to Brera in 1811 and all the catalogues of the Milan Art Gallery repeated Fra Carnevale’s name until the end of that century. Piero della Francesca was simply forgotten... His name and his works ended up literally in the dust of oblivion until they disappeared from the horizon of history... His critical resurrection happened however, in the early 1900s, the century in which the Master painter wielded a powerful influence on the art of the first decades…