Painter of the Bible
Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono)
Paolo Uccello — born Paolo di Dono in Florence in 1397 — was a leading Florentine painter of the early Quattrocento and one of the principal Florentine experimenters with the new Renaissance science of linear perspective.
.jpg%3Fwidth%3D600&w=2048&q=75)
Their faith
Why Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono) painted Christ
Paolo Uccello, born Paolo di Dono in Florence in 1397, was not only a master of perspective but also a deeply devoted Christian whose faith permeated his artistic endeavors. Trained in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti, Uccello's early exposure to the beauty of sacred art undoubtedly influenced his spiritual journey. His works often reflect the late-Gothic decorative refinement combined with a profound reverence for biblical narratives. Uccello's dedication to his craft was so intense that he would often lose track of time, working late into the night, as recounted by the biographer Giorgio Vasari. This obsessive pursuit of perfection in his art can be seen as a manifestation of his devotion to God, as he sought to glorify Him through his creations. His burial in the church of Santo Spirito further emphasizes his commitment to his faith and the Christian community of Florence.
Uccello's faith is vividly expressed in several of his religious works, particularly in the fresco cycles and altarpieces he created. The Genesis frescoes in the Green Cloister of Santa Maria Novella showcase his ability to convey profound biblical themes, such as the Creation of Adam and Eve and the Sacrifice of Noah. These scenes not only illustrate his technical mastery of linear perspective but also invite viewers to reflect on the divine narratives they depict. Additionally, his Crucifixion in the Tornabuoni Chapel serves as a poignant reminder of Christ's sacrifice, encapsulating the essence of Christian belief. Uccello’s artistic legacy continues to inspire viewers today, as his devotion to Christ and the beauty of scripture resonate through his remarkable works.
Life & work
Paolo Uccello — born Paolo di Dono in Florence in 1397 — was a leading Florentine painter of the early Quattrocento and one of the principal Florentine experimenters with the new Renaissance science of linear perspective. Trained in his youth in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti (alongside Donatello and others of the founding Florentine Renaissance generation), and active in Florence and Venice for his entire career, he died in Florence in 1475 at age seventy-eight. The nickname Uccello (bird) was attached to him by his contemporaries — the early biographies attribute it variously to his fondness for painting birds and to his fondness for keeping them as pets in his Florentine studio.
His Christian religious work is concentrated in fresco cycles and altarpieces in his characteristic combination of late-Gothic decorative refinement and the new Quattrocento interest in linear perspective. The Genesis frescoes in the Green Cloister of Santa Maria Novella in Florence (the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Drunkenness of Noah, the Sacrifice of Noah — painted in monochrome green-ochre across the cloister walls between 1440 and 1450, the cycle that gave the cloister its modern name), the Crucifixion in the Tornabuoni Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence, the Saint George and the Dragon paintings (London and Paris versions), and the small predella panels of the Miracle of the Profaned Host (Urbino) anchor the painted corpus.
His most ambitious surviving works are the three great Battle of San Romano paintings (Uffizi, Louvre, and London — originally a connected three-canvas program commissioned by the Florentine wealthy patron Lionardo Bartolini Salimbeni for his palace in the late 1430s, depicting a 1432 Florentine military victory over the Sienese), which combine the new Renaissance interest in linear perspective with a particularly Uccellian decorative pattern of broken lances, fallen horses, and brilliantly colored Quattrocento heraldic costume. The paintings are widely held to be the supreme Florentine Quattrocento secular battle pieces and were directly studied by every subsequent Florentine Renaissance painter who absorbed Uccello's perspective experiments.
He worked obsessively at perspective construction; the early biographer Vasari tells the story of Uccello staying up all night to work out the correct foreshortening of a particular polyhedron, and his wife calling out to ask him to come to bed. He was buried in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence.
Notable works in detail
met-438028
The Crucifixion, painted by Paolo Uccello around 1453 in tempera and gold on panel and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, depicts the moment of Christ's death on the cross with the conventional Florentine Quattrocento attendant figures of the swooning Virgin and the mourning John the Evangelist. Uccello stages the scene with characteristic mid-Quattrocento Florentine compositional discipline: the cross at the upper center against a darkening sky, the swooning Virgin in the arms of the holy women on the left, John on the right in postures of restrained sorrow, the small angels in the upper register catching the falling blood from the wounds in chalices. The chromatic palette of saturated crimson, ultramarine, and tooled gold is characteristic of Uccello's mature workshop manner, and the careful linear perspective of the small landscape under the cross demonstrates his lifelong fascination with the new Renaissance science of pictorial space.