Pisanello (ca. 1395–1455)

Italian artist of the early Renaissance, known for portraits, frescoes, and for medals he designed to commemorate important people and events. Born as Antonio Pisano in Pisa, he was the son of Pucio di Giovanni and Isabetta Giovanni, who raised him in Verona after the death of his father. He was trained as an artist in Verona in the studio of Stefano di Verona, an artist whose strong influence can be seen in an early work of Pisanello's called Madonna of the Quails. By 1415 he was working as an assistant to Gentile da Fabriano, who had a strong influence on his style. The two artists completed frescoes for the Grand Council Hall in the palace of the Doge in Venice. According to the Renaissance historian Giorgio Vasari, Pisanello also made a close study of the work of Paolo Uccello, and learned from him the art of drawing and painting horses. While employed by the Gonzaga family, the rulers of Mantua, Pisanello completed the Annunciation, a fresco for the Church of San Fermo. In the Pellegrini Chapel of the Church of Sant' Anastasia he painted Saint George and the Princess of Trebizond ; in the ducal palace of Mantua he painted Scenes of War and Chivalry. These are the only frescoes Pisanello completed that have survived to the present day.

Pisanello moved to Rome in later years and completed frescoes in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran that had been left unfinished by Gentile da Fabriano on his death. He returned to Verona in 1432 and spent the rest of his life traveling from one aristocratic court to the next, seeking patronage and enjoying a reputation as one of the most skilled painters in Italy. In Florence, he completed portraits of the emperor Sigismund and a Portrait of a Man. In the city of Ferrara he painted two famous works, Portrait of Lionello d'Este and Madonna with Saints Anthony and George.

Pisanello is known for his skillful drawings and his rendering of clothes, hats, fabric, and elegant costumes. He was also skilled at drawing animals, birds, and from nature, a talent he shared with Paolo Uccello. In 1439, he designed a medal for the Byzantine emperor John VII Paleologus, who was in Italy to attend the Council of Ferrara. He was renowned for his skill at designing and casting medals. Rather than stamping the medals with a press, which was the traditional method, he cast them from bronze and created the designs and portraits in relief, in which the design emerges from the flat surface of the surrounding material. He cast other commemorative medals for Filippo Visconti, Francesco Sforza, King Alfonso V of Naples, Sigismondo Malatesta, the ruler of Rimini, and for the wedding of Lionello d'Este and Maria of Aragon.

See Also: Uccello, Paolo