Pisanello

Pisanello , c.1395-1455?, Italian medalist, painter, and draftsman of the early Renaissance. He was also called Vittore Pisano, but his real name was Antonio Pisano. His art shows the influence of Gentile da Fabriano, whom he assisted in the ducal palace in Venice. Nothing remains of the Venetian frescoes or of those that he executed in the Lateran, Rome, or in Castello, Pavia. The only frescoes that have survived are those in Verona, the Annunciation in San Fermo, and St. George and the Princess in Sant' Anastasia. Pisanello was in great demand by the leading patrons of the time. He stayed at the courts of Mantua, Ferrara, Milan, Urbino, and Naples, working mainly on portraits. He is the first important Renaissance artist to use the medal form and to revive the antique style of portraiture. His medals are greatly valued for their historic as well as their artistic merit. Among them are portraits of Filippo Visconti, Lionello d'Este, Francesco Sforza, Alfonso V, and Sigismondo Malatesta (all: Victoria and Albert Mus., London). Pisanello was also a superb draftsman. The Vallardi Codex (Louvre) contains his studies for paintings, antique motifs, costumes, and animals, all depicted with keen perception. Among the rare panel paintings that have survived are the Vision of St. Eustache and Saints Anthony and George (National Gall., London); portraits of Lionello d'Este (Bergamo), Ginevra d'Este (Louvre), and the Emperor Sigismondo (Vienna).

Bibliography: See studies by E. Sindona (1964) and G. Paccagnini (1973).

Pisanello (c.1395–c.1455) ( Antonio Pisano) Italian painter and medallist. Working in the international gothic style, Pisanello drew detailed studies of birds, people, and costumes. His medals of important people of his time are of historic value.

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Pisanello ( Antonio Pisano) (c.1395–1455?). Italian painter, draughtsman, and medallist. He presumably came from Pisa (hence his nickname—‘the little Pisan’), but he spent his early years in Verona, a city with which he kept up his association for most of his life. His successful career also took him to Rome, Naples, and several courts of northern Italy, particularly those of the Este (Ferrara) and Gonzaga (Mantua). With Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello is regarded as the foremost exponent of the International Gothic style in Italian painting, but most of his major works have perished, including frescos in the Doges' Palace, Venice (in which he collaborated with Gentile), and in St John Lateran, Rome (in which he completed work left unfinished by Gentile at his death). His surviving documented frescos are the Annunciation (c.1426, S. Fermo, Verona) and St George and the Princess of Trebizond (c.1433–8, S. Anastasia, Verona), and attributed to him are some fragments of murals showing scenes of war and chivalry in the Ducal Palace in Mantua, uncovered in 1968 and one of the most spectacular art discoveries of recent years. A handful of panel paintings is also given to him, including two in the National Gallery, London. On the other hand, a good many of his drawings survive, those of animals being particularly memorable. They show his keen eye for detail and his ability to convey an animal's personality. Pisanello was also the inventor of the portrait medal and arguably the greatest of all exponents of this art form, his work having an extraordinary dignity and strength considering the small size of the objects. His first medal commemorated a visit to Italy by the Byzantine emperor John VIII in 1438, and he subsequently made about twenty others, mainly for the ruling families of the courts at which he worked.