Federico da montefeltro biography of william

Federico da Montefeltro was born in 1422 to a small-time noble family that ruled over an insignificant square of the chess-board that was then central Italy. Yet within sixty years he had become "the light of Italy" and the paradigm of Renaissance man, as skilled in letters as in arms.

His portrait, together with his young son, Guidobaldo, by the Spanish painter Pedro Berruguete in Urbino's Ducal Palace neatly portrays this duality of scholar and warrior - studiously reading a weighty manuscript, he keeps his helmet by his side.

As in all portraits of the Duke, including Piero della Francesca's famous painting in the Uffizi (below), we only see his left profile; a swordblow earlier in his life had cost him his right eye and the bridge of his nose.

He made his money as one of the most successful condottiere, or hired generals, of his time.

Always fighting on short-term contracts and strictly for cash on the nail, he displayed the timeless Italian ability of n