Paolo Uccello.
The Battle of San Romano.

Paolo Uccello was born in Florence in 1397. He was appreniced to the sculptor and meatalworker Lorenzo Ghilberti and was admitted to the painters guild in 1414. Paolo was also a life long friend of Donatello.

He married Tomassa Malifici in 1453 and a son, Donato was born in the same year. By 1456 the couple had also produced a daughter, Antonia.

Uccello was facinated by the new science of perspective and spent nights and days drawing objects in foreshortening. when his wife called him to come to bed he would say:
"Oh what a lovely thing this perspective is!"

His most famous work is The Battle of San Romano .

The Battle of San Romano was fought in 1432 between the troops of Florence, commanded by Niccolò da Tolentino, and Siena, under Francesco Piccinino

There are three panels, one in the National Gallery in London, one in the Uffizi in Florence and the final panel is in the Louvre, Paris.

The Battle of San Romano
(probably about 1438-1440) Egg tempera with walnut oil and linseed oil on poplar, 181.6 x 320 cm National Gallery, London.(w)

This is propably Uccello's best preserved picture and it clearly shows his facination with perspective. The broken lances on the ground all point to a common vanishing point as does the fallen soldier who is forshortened in one of the earliest examples of this type of painting.

Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino della Ciarda at
The Battle of San Romano
(about 1435 to 1455), tempera on wood, 182 x 220 cm,(Galleria degli Uffizi) (w)

The Counterattack of Michelotto da Cotignola at
The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Ucello
Musée du Louvre, Paris.(about 1455), wood panel, 182 x 317 cm.

Personal Opinion:-

Going to be controversial here, I don't like this version. I have seen this and the one in the National Gallery in London and the difference in quality is staggering. The painting has suffered from some poor restoration and from the passage of time, it does just not seem as impressive as the London version. I feel it is important to say what you dislike in the world of art, everyone has their own opinion. If you feel that a heap of bricks on the floor of the Tate Modern does not do it for you say so.

St George and the Dragon
55.6 × 74.2 cm 1456 National gallery London. (w)

This work has quite a gothic feel with it's stylised pageantry taking president over the realism being pioneered by other artists of the period.

In his Florentine tax return of August 1469 Uccello declared:
“I find myself old and ailing, my wife is ill, and I can no longer work.”
He died on 10th December 1475 aged 78.

From Uccello to Ghiberti
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