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Paolo Uccello

Intoxicated by the Vanishing Point

Battle of San Romano, in the Uffizi

No artist has ever been more obsessed with the possibilities of artificial perspective that Paolo Uccello (Florentine, 1397–1475). Like Piero della Francesca, he used the new technique to create a magic world of his own. Uccello’s provocative, visionary subjects (the Noah fresco in Santa Maria Novella, and the Battle of San Romano in the Uffizi) put him up with Piero della Francesca and Botticelli as the most intellectually stimulating of quattrocento artists.

What little we know of his life comes from Vasari. His name comes from his fondness for painting birds (uccelli). As a child he was apprenticed to Lorenzo Ghiberti who he always remained close to; he was also a good friend of Donatello, so much so that he named his son Donato after him.

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Renaissance Art & Architecture

Artists

Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls

Image by PD Art