Kneeling before St. Sigismund, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta looks proud and dignified, reflecting his fame as a skilled and daring condottiero: thus Piero della Francesca portrayed him in the fresco he was asked to produce for the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, a landmark monument of this seaside city in Emilia-Romagna and the symbol of the power of the Malatesta, the dynasty that ruled over Rimini and parts of Romagna from 1295 until 1500.

As one of the most famous seaside resorts in Europe, Rimini is mostly associated with beaches and nightlife; few would think of it as a small capital of Renaissance Humanism, a status it achieved thanks to Sigismondo Pandolfo, not only a skilled military leader fighting against the papacy and his rival Federico da Montefeltro over territorial claims, but also a poet and a patron of the arts.