Uccello, Paolo ( Paolo di Dono) (b Florence, c.1397; d Florence, 10 Dec. 1475). Florentine painter, one of the most distinctive artists of the early Renaissance. Vasari says he was called Uccello (which means ‘bird’) because he loved animals, and birds in particular, and he seems to have been regarded as something of an eccentric. He is first documented c.1412 as one of Ghiberti's apprentices, but he is not known to have worked as a sculptor. From 1425 to 1427 he is recorded in Venice, where he worked as a mosaicist at St Mark's, but nothing survives there that can be certainly associated with him. By 1431 he was back in Florence, where he spent most of the rest of his life (he worked in Padua, 1444–5, and in Urbino, 1465–8).

In 1436 he painted his first dated surviving work—a huge fresco in Florence Cathedral depicting an equestrian statue, a monument to the English condottiere Sir John Hawkwood (d 1394). It demonstrated the fascination with perspective that was central to his style. His two other surviving large-scale works are a series of poorly preserved frescos on Old Testament themes (probably 1430s and 1440s) in the ‘Green Cloister’ of S. Maria Novella, Florence, and a series of three large panels (c.1455) depicting the Battle of San Romano, a minor Florentine victory against the Sienese in 1432. The panels formed part of a decorative scheme in the Palazzo Medici but they are now separated, with one each in the National Gallery, London, the Louvre, Paris, and the Uffizi, Florence. Uccello's other works include the decoration of the clock-face and designs for stained-glass windows in Florence Cathedral, and two enchanting paintings that are generally considered to date from late in his career—St George and the Dragon (NG, London), one of the earliest known Italian paintings on canvas, and The Hunt in the Forest (Ashmolean Mus., Oxford). In spite of his major commissions in Florence Cathedral, his career was not particularly successful in worldly terms; Vasari says that ‘he came to live a hermit's life’, and in his tax return of 1469 Uccello described himself as ‘old without means of livelihood…and unable to work’.

Uccello was long regarded more as a curiosity than a serious artist (in 1896 Berenson dismissed him as a mathematician rather than a painter and said that artistically he ‘accomplished nothing’); however, he is now one of the best-loved painters of his time, admired for the power and vigour of his forms, the beauty of his colouring, and his lively and witty imagination. His work presents a striking—and often captivating—combination of two seemingly opposing stylistic currents: the decorative tradition of International Gothic and the scientific involvement with perspective of the early Renaissance. Vasari maintained that Uccello wasted his time ‘on the finer points of perspective’ and presents him as an amiable fanatic who worked into the night and when told to come to bed by his wife would reply: ‘What a sweet mistress is this perspective!’ He undoubtedly took his enthusiasm to extraordinary lengths (in the Battle of San Romano the broken weapons and even the corpses recede neatly in accordance with the perspective scheme), but his effects were appropriate to his subjects and to the decorative charm of his pictures rather than mere technical exercises. In The Hunt in the Forest, for example, he creates not only an atmosphere of fairy-tale romance, but also, through the way in which the horses and dogs move swiftly back into space, an exhilarating sense of darting energy. Uccello's name became so identified with the subject of perspective that he was often said to have invented it. Ruskin, for example, wrote in a letter to Kate Greenaway: ‘I believe the perfection of perspective is only recent. It was first applied in Italian art by Paul Uccello. He went off his head with love of perspective.’

Uccello, Paolo ( Paolo di Dono) (c.1397–1475). Florentine painter, one of the most distinctive artists of the early Renaissance. Vasari says he was called ‘Uccello’ (which means ‘bird’) because he loved animals, and birds in particular, and he seems to have been regarded as something of an eccentric. He is first documented c.1412 as one of Ghiberti's apprentices, but he is not known to have worked as a sculptor. From 1425 to 1427 he is recorded in Venice, where he worked as a mosaicist at St Mark's, but nothing survives there that can be certainly associated with him. By 1431 he was back in Florence, where he spent most of the rest of his life (he worked in Padua, 1444–5, and in Urbino, 1465–8). In 1436 he painted his first dated surviving work—a huge fresco in Florence Cathedral depicting an equestrian statue, a monument to the English condottiere Sir John Hawkwood (d. 1394). It demonstrated the fascination with perspective that was central to his style. His two other surviving large-scale works are a series of poorly preserved frescos on Old Testament themes (probably 1430s and 1440s) in the ‘Green Cloister’ of S. Maria Novella, Florence, and the Battle of San Romano (c.1455), a series of three panels depicting a minor Florentine victory against the Sienese in 1432. The panels formed part of a decorative scheme in the Palazzo Medici but they are now separated, with one each in the National Gallery, London; the Louvre, Paris; and the Uffizi, Florence. Uccello's other works include the decoration of the clock-face and designs for stained-glass windows in Florence Cathedral, and two enchanting paintings that are generally considered to date from late in his career—St George and the Dragon (NG, London), one of the earliest known Italian paintings on canvas, and The Hunt in the Forest (Ashmolean Mus., Oxford). In spite of his major commissions in Florence Cathedral, his career was not particularly successful in worldly terms; Vasari says that ‘he came to live a hermit's life’, and in his tax return of 1469 Uccello described himself as ‘old without means of livelihood …and unable to work’.

Uccello was long regarded more as a curiosity than a serious artist (in 1896 Berenson dismissed him as a mathematician rather than a painter and said that artistically he ‘accomplished nothing’); however, he is now one of the best-loved painters of his time, admired for the power and vigour of his forms, the beauty of his colouring, and his lively and witty imagination. His work presents a striking—and often captivating—combination of two seemingly opposing stylistic currents: the decorative tradition of International Gothic and the scientific involvement with perspective of the early Renaissance. Vasari maintained that Uccello wasted his time ‘on the finer points of perspective’ and presents him as an amiable fanatic who worked into the night and when told to come to bed by his wife would reply: ‘What a sweet mistress is this perspective!’ He undoubtedly took his enthusiasm to extraordinary lengths (in the Battle of San Romano the broken weapons and even the corpses recede neatly in accordance with the perspective scheme), but his effects were appropriate to his subjects and to the decorative charm of his pictures rather than mere technical exercises. In The Hunt in the Forest, for example, he creates not only an atmosphere of fairy-tale romance, but also, through the way in which the horses and dogs move swiftly back into space, an exhilarating sense of darting energy. Uccello's name became so identified with the subject of perspective that he was often said to have invented it: Ruskin, for example, wrote in a letter to Kate Greenaway, ‘I believe the perfection of perspective is only recent. It was first applied in Italian art by Paul Uccello. He went off his head with love of perspective.’

Paolo Uccello

The Italian painter Paolo Uccello (1397-1475) was a leading figure in establishing the Renaissance in Florence.

Abarber's son, Paolo Uccello was born in Florence. In 1407 he was apprenticed to the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. After Uccello joined the painters' guild in 1415, there are 10 blank years. From 1425 to 1431 he executed mosaics for the facade of St. Mark's, Venice.

Uccello's earliest known paintings, representing the creation of the animals and the creation of man, are part of a large outdoor fresco series in monochrome of Old Testament scenes in the Green Cloister of S. Maria Novella, Florence. The figures have a curvilinear rhythm and sculptural strength, and they are set in a decorative yet naturalistic environment of foliage with animals, reflecting Ghiberti's influence and very like his Creationpanel in the Gates of Paradise of the Florentine Baptistery. As the gates were designed in 1425 or later, Uccello's frescoes are usually thought to have been executed after his return from Venice, but they may date from just before he went there and reflect other designs by Ghiberti, since a small copy of Uccello's lost St. Peter mosaic in Venice (1425) already seems to show his more mature Renaissance style. It is clear in his frescoed equestrian monument of Sir John Hawkwood (1436) in the Cathedral of Florence. On a base seen from below, illustrating the new rules of perspective, Uccello sets the horse and rider; there is a greater concern with body modeling and its evocation of power and motion.

The influence of Masaccio is seen in Uccello's scenes from the life of Noah in the Green Cloister of S. Maria Novella. Probably painted about 1450, the cycle is Uccello's most complex work. Poorly preserved, today the scenes show the intricate perspective network more plainly than they do the organic and dramatic people, clinging, twisting, and staring.

After 1447 Uccello executed the frescoes of legends of hermits at S. Miniato, Florence (now much damaged). Until the recent discovery of records they were considered early works. Here the emphasis seems to be less on the modeling of the figures, and they become points in a stylized geometric system of lines and cubes. The three panels depicting the Battle of San Romano (ca. 1455) reveal the same approach. They were made as a continuous 30-foot frieze for a room in the new Medici Palace, Florence. The same abstract patterns of perspective and surface design govern the spears, flagpoles, and soldiers. Even more doll-like and colorful stylization appears in his small-scale late works: the Profanation of the Host (1469) and Night Hunt. Uccello died in Florence on Dec. 10, 1475.

Further Reading

Two works on Uccello are John Pope-Hennessy, The Complete Work of Paolo Uccello (1950; rev. ed. 1969), and Enzo Carli, All the Paintings of Paolo Uccello (1963). □

Uccello, Paolo (1397–1475)

Italian painter born as Paolo di Dono, noted for the original use of perspective in his works. Born in Florence, the son of a barber, he earned the nickname “uccello” (Italian for bird) for his skill at painting birds. In 1407 he became an apprentice to the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, the artist who had won the commission to cast bronze panels for the doors of the Baptistery in Florence. Ghiberti's workshop was a busy, vital artistic center of Florence at a time when the city's painters were leading the way in the new science of perspective. In Uccello's works, perspective became an integral part of a unified picture, used in order to give the scene depth and not to simply separate different elements or stories within the paintings.

In 1414, Uccello became a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, a painters guild, and in the next year he was admitted to the official painters guild of Florence. His early works include commissions to paint frescoes for the churches of Santa Trinita and Santa Maria Maggiore. He was also engaged to paint frescoes on the outdoor walls of the Green Cloister of the Church of Santa Maria Novella. For this work he created scenes of the Creation, the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the Flood. The paintings, which earned widespread admiration among the artists of Florence, showed the influence of Ghiberti and his Baptistry panels, although Uccello developed even greater skill at depicting nature and animals.

Uccello lived and worked in Florence, but he also completed works in Venice, where he created mosaics for the facade of the Basilica of San Marco, Bologna, Prato, and Urbino. In the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence, he painted scenes on a large interior clock and a fresco of the English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood, completed in 1436 and famous for its unusual perspective, which gives the illusion of viewing a three-dimensional sculpture from below.

See Also: Florence; Ghiberti, Lorenzo

Paolo Uccello , c.1396-1475, Florentine painter. Uccello was little appreciated in his own time, and much of his work has been destroyed or is in poor condition. Although first apprenticed to Ghiberti, he later shows the influence of Masaccio. In 1425 he went to Venice and worked on mosaics for St. Mark's. After about five years he returned to Florence and painted Creation scenes in the cloister of Santa Maria Novella. In 1436 he was commissioned to paint an equestrian figure of Sir John Hawkwood in monochrome for the cathedral. He also depicted four prophets for the clockface of the cathedral. Uccello's most significant contribution is his cycle of Noah for Santa Maria Novella. According to Vasari, he represented the dead, the tempest, the fury of the winds, and the terror of men. Indeed, in the Deluge he combined a rigorous system of perspective with details of unsparing realism. Uccello's most famous scenes are from the Battle of San Romano (Uffizi; Louvre; and National Gall., London), notable for their rich, decorative panoply, for their solid, wooden toylike figures and for the experiments he made in foreshortening.

Bibliography: See his complete works ed. by J. Pope-Hennessy (2d ed. 1969).

Uccello, Paolo (1397–1475) Florentine painter. Celebrated as an early master of perspective, his works include The Flood (c.1450) and The Rout of San Romano (1454–57).

http://uffizi.firenze.it; http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk; http://www.louvre.fr