Not an Ostrich Egg?

Abstract

In a persuasive article in The Art Bulletin, LIII, 1971, 435ff., Dr. Isa Ragusa offered, among other things, new evidence for the identification of the famous ovoid object in the Brera Altarpiece by Piero della Francesca as the egg of an ostrich. In the June, 1974, number of The Art Bulletin Professor C. Gilbert undertook “a criticism of just one aspect of her article.” At the end of more than five pages of objections he reasserted once again his conviction that the egg in the altarpiece is probably Leda's.