Uccello (born Paolo di Dono) (Florence, 1397 - d.1475) was a Florentine
painter who was a notable exponent of visual perspective in art. His best
known works are three paintings representing the Battle of San Romano (for
a long time this was wrongly entitled the "Battle of Sant' Egidio of
1416"). Paolo worked in the Late Gothic tradition, and emphasized
colour and pageantry rather than the Classical realism that other artists
were pioneering. His style is best described as idiosyncratic, and he left
no school of followers. He had some influence on twentieth century art and
literary criticism.
Life
The sources for Paolo Uccello’s life are few: Giorgio Vasari’s
biography, written 75 years after Paolo’s death, and a few contemporary
official documents.
Uccello was born Paolo di Dono in Florence in 1397. His nickname 'Uccello'
came from his fondness for painting birds. His father, Dono di Paolo, was
a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio near Arezzo, his mother’s name was
Antonia. From 1407 was apprenticed to Lorenzo Ghiberti’s workshop, the
premier centre for Florentine art at the time, where he began a lifelong
friendship with Donatello. By 1424 he was earning his own living as a
painter. Around this time he was taught geometry by Manetti.
In 1425 Uccello travelled to Venice, where he worked on the mosaics for
the façade of San Marco. Some suggest he visited Rome with Donatello
before returning to Florence in 1431. In 1432 the Office of Works asked
the Florentine ambassador in Venice to enquire after Uccello’s
reputation as an artist. Uccello remained in Florence for most of the rest
of his life, executing works for various churches and patrons, most
notably the Duomo. If, as is widely thought, he is the author of the
frescoes in the Capella dell' Assunta, then he would have visited nearby
Prato sometime between 1435 and 1440. In 1445 he travelled to Padua at
Donatello’s invitation. In 1465 Uccello was in Urbino with his son
Donato, where he was engaged until 1469.
Uccello was married by 1453, because in that year Donato (named after
Donatello) was born, and in 1456 his wife gave birth to Antonia. In his
Florentine tax return of August 1469 he declared, “I find myself old and
ailing, my wife is ill, and I can no longer work.” He died at the age of
78 in 1475 and was buried in his father’s tomb in the Florentine church
of Santo Spirito.
His daughter Antonia Uccello (1446-1491) was a Carmelite nun, whom Giorgio
Vasari called "a daughter who knew how to draw". She was even
noted as a "pittoressa", a paintress, on her death certificate.
Her style and her skill remains as mystery as none of her work is extant.
Works
Pope-Hennessy is far more conservative than the Italian authors: he
attributes some of the works below to a "Prato Master" and a
"Karlsruhe Master". Most of the dates in the list (taken from
Borsi and Borsi) are derived from stylistic comparison rather than
documentation.
Creation and Fall, c.1424-5, lunette and lower section (Chiostro Verde,
Sta Maria Novella, Florence)
Quarate Predella, c.1433 (Museo Arcivescovile di Castello, Florence)
Frescoes in the Capella dell' Assunta, c.1434-5 (Duomo, Prato)
Nun-Saint with Two Children, c.1434-5 (Contini-Bonacosi Collection,
Florence)
Equestrian Monument to John Hawkwood, c.1436 (Duomo, Florence)
Battle of San Romano: Niccolò da Tolentino, c.1435-6 (National Gallery,
London)
Battle of San Romano: Bernadino della Ciarda unhorsed, c. 1435-6 (Galleria
degli Uffizi, Florence)
Battle of San Romano: Micheletto da Cotignola, c.1440 (Musée du Louvre,
Paris)
St George and the Dragon, c.1439-40 (Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris)
Clock Face with Four Prophets/Evangelists, 1443 (Duomo, Florence)
Resurrection, 1443/44, stained glass window (Duomo, Florence)
Nativity, 1443/44, stained glass window (Duomo, Florence)
Story of Noah, c.1447, lunette and lower section (Chiostro Verde, Sta
Maria Novella, Florence)
Scenes of Monastic Life, c.1447-54 (S. Miniato al Monte, Florence)
St George and the Dragon, c.1455-60 (National Gallery, London)
Crucifixion, c.1457-8 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid)
Life of the Holy Fathers, c.1460-5 (Accademia, Florence)
Miracle of the Profaned Host, 1467-8, predella (Galleria Nazionale della
Marche, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino)
The Hunt, c.1470 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Possible works:
Annunciation, c.1420-5 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Adoration of the Magi, c.1431-2 (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe)
St George and the Dragon, c.1431 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne)
Further reading
Giorgio Vasari's life of Paolo Uccello translated by George Bull in Lives
of the Artists, Part 1. Penguin Classics, 1965.
d'Ancona, Paola. Paolo Uccello. New York: McGraw Hill, 1961.
Barolsky, Paul. "The Painter Who Almost Became a Cheese"
Virginia Quarterly Review, 70/1 (Winter 1994).
Borsi, Franco & Stefano. Paolo Uccello. London: Thames & Hudson,
1994. (a massive monograph)
Borsi, Stefano. Paolo Uccello. Art Dossier. Florence: Giunti, nd.
Carli, Enzo. All the Paintings of Paolo Uccello. The Complete Library of
World Art. London: Oldbourne, 1963. (originally published in Italian in
the 1950s)
Paolieri, Annarita. Paolo Uccello, Domenico Veneziano, Andrea del Castagno.
Library of Great Masters. New York: SCALA/Riverside, 1991.
Pope-Hennessy, John. Paolo Uccello: Complete Edition. 2nd ed. London:
Phaidon, 1969. (the other important English-language monograph)
External links
Excerpts from Vasari's Life of Paolo Uccello
Web Gallery of Art: Paolo Uccello
Florence Art Guide: Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello Homepage (in Italian)
Paolo Uccello's Polyhedra
Ron Schuler's Parlour Tricks: Getting Some Perspective
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It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Italian Renaissance".