Paolo Uccello

Paolo di Dono, better known as Paolo Uccello, (* 1397 in Florence, † December 10, 1475 in Florence) was an Italian painter and mosaic artist. He had in the mighty Florentine family of the Medici its patrons.

Uccello is considered the father of perspective painting. In works such as The Battle at San Romano (c. 1456 ) his use of perspective and the vanishing point creates new paths of spatial representation. Similarly, in The Hunt ( 1460 ), where he is trying to let the dogs in three dimensions, just knowing that the spatial aspect is crucial to the impression on the viewer.

Life

1407 he joined the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti's workshop as an assistant, where he learned the art of sculpture; he left Ghiberti in 1415 to join the rich guild of physicians and pharmacists (Arte dei Medici e specialized ) to connect ( artists were in Florence at that time do not form their own guild ) and turn to painting. From 1427 to Uccello worked for two years in Venice, where he created mosaics for the church of San Marco, in 1431 and returned back to Florence. Because of the many birds and other animals in his paintings he received from his contemporaries called " Uccello " - bird. His house was full of painted birds, cats, dogs and all sorts of strange animals from which he could obtain pictures.

Paolo Uccello is known for his scientific studies. If interested him difficult, seemingly intractable problems of perspective, he used for weeks or months to include in his house and not come out. His friends included the mathematician Manetti, with whom he gladly discussed Euclid. The also befriended with him Donatello claimed that Uccello was wasting his time with drawing Mazzocchi - the peculiarly shaped headgear of the men in the Quattrocento - and with the projecting points and balls with 72 facets, seen it all in perspective and at different angles. " The crazy Paolo ," as he was called by his contemporaries, was obsessed with the geometry that is hidden in the shapes. According to Vasari, " ... solitary, eccentric, melancholy and poor, he was always attracted by the most difficult things in the arts. " Reality was for him in the geometric form, not in color. To express this, he painted to Vasari horror " the blue fields, the cities red, buildings in various appropriate shades of his imagination. "

At the age Uccello was so strange that he did not receive more orders, was completely helpless and finally had to ask the state for tax rebate.