paolo uccello // biography (1397-1475) / gallery / prints

PAOLO UCCELLO

Known as: Italian Early Renaissance Painter

Born: 1397, Florence, Italy

Birthname: Paolo di Dono

Date of death: 1475, Florence

Buried: Santo Spirito Church, Florence

Like so many of the Renaissance artists, what we know of Paolo Uccello mainly comes from sources written years after his death. For example, the most famous source of all, Giorgio Vasari’s biography, Lives of the Artist, was written 75 years after his death. So what I'm trying to say is the facts we know for sure are few and far in-between.

He was born Paolo di Dono. The nickname 'Uccello' came from his passion for painting birds. He was the son of a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio, near Arezzo. At the age of 10, he began his apprenticeship at the then most famous workshop in Florence, that of the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. It was there where his lifelong friendship with Donatello began.

By the time he was 18, Uccello had been admitted to the painters' guild Compagnia di San Lucca. When he was around 30, as well as painting Creation and Expulsion in the church Santa Maria Novella in Florence, he was taught geometry by Manetti.

He painted frescoes in Bologna and Prata and travelled to Venice in 1425 to work on the mosaics for the façade of San Marco. But by 1432 he was back working in Florence and remained there for most of the rest of his life.

Uccello married Tomassa Malifici sometime before 1453, and had a child Donato that year. In 1456 they had a daughter, Antonia.

By his final years, he was a forgotten man, and though not destitute, had hit hard times.

He died in 1475 and was buried in his father’s tomb. He was 78.

Works Include:

Creation and Fall, c.1424-5, lunette and lower section (Chiostro Verde, Sta Maria Novella, Florence)
Quarate Predella, c.1433 (Museo Arcivescovile di Castello, Florence)
Frescoes in the Capella dell' Assunta, c.1434-5 (Duomo, Prato)
Nun-Saint with Two Children, c.1434-5 (Contini-Bonacosi Collection, Florence)
Equestrian Monument to John Hawkwood, c.1436 (Duomo, Florence)
Battle of San Romano: Niccolò da Tolentino, c.1450-6 (National Gallery, London)
Battle of San Romano: Bernadino della Ciarda unhorsed, c. 1450-6 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)
Battle of San Romano: Micheletto da Cotignola, c.1450 (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
St George and the Dragon, c.1439-40 (Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris)
Clock Face with Four Prophets/Evangelists, 1443 (Duomo, Florence)
Resurrection, 1443/44, stained glass window (Duomo, Florence)
Nativity, 1443/44, stained glass window (Duomo, Florence)
Story of Noah, c.1447, lunette and lower section (Chiostro Verde, Sta Maria Novella, Florence)
Scenes of Monastic Life, c.1447-54 (S. Miniato al Monte, Florence)
St George and the Dragon, c.1455-60 (National Gallery, London)
Crucifixion, c.1457-8 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid)
Life of the Holy Fathers, c.1460-5 (Accademia, Florence)
Miracle of the Profaned Host, 1467-8, predella (Galleria Nazionale della Marche, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino)
The Hunt, c.1470 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)