Fuji Friday...Federico (Adaptability) Fuji

Federico da Montefeltro, aka the Duke of Urbino (1422-1482) arguably possessed the most intriguing profile ever painted. The Duke, a Soldier of Fortune, lost his right eye in a tournament. He had the bridge of his nose removed to increase his peripheral vision and he would eventually return to the battlefield. The operation also helped him to avoid assassination attempts... evidently the Duke involved himself in a fair amount of subterfuge.

I designed this week's Fuji basing my work on Piero della Francesco's famous portrait of the Duke, which is emblazoned on a refrigerator magnet I purchased at the Uffizi Gallery gift shop in Florence during an astonishing Italian holiday. One wonders what the scrappy Duke would make of his likeness being magnetized and displayed in a Gorham, Maine kitchen... or if he might have anticipated the invention of the icebox. Fuji, during the Duke's time, had a different sort of profile as well... significantly altered by an eruption in 1707.

Federico (Adaptability) Fuji  
 6 x 8" 
Graphite, Prismacolor and Ink on paper