Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello was born in 1397 , the son of a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio in Casentino, Italy . His mother , Antonia di Giovanni del Beccuto , was from a wealthy Florentine family. There is no documentation extant dealing with the artist's youth , and his name first appears in records of 1407 as a helper for the artist Lorenzo Ghiberti. He was employed at a Florentine studio where he knew, among others,the artist Donatello. He served as Ghiberti's apprentice from 1412 to 1416
While working in Ghiberti's studio, became a member of the powerful Arte dei Medeci e Speziali (the Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries) , an organization that all the important Florentine painters form Giotto on, belonged to. Uccello left Ghiberti's studio in 1416, going to live in Florence in the parish of Santa Maria Nepticosia. During this time, Uccello made several trips for his artistic education , perhaps at the suggestion of Ghiberti. Little is known about this period of the artist's life, but he most likely studied the works of Ambrogio Lorenzetti at this time, whom Uccello greatly admired.
It is thought that in 1424, Uccello worked on the decoration of the first bay of the Chiostro Verde at Santa Maria Novella with "Stories from Genesis" . During this time, the Venetian state chose Uccello to complete the mosaics on the facade of San Marco. In 1425, he went to Venice , where he stayed until 1430.
Uccello returned to Florence in 1431, and sought an important commission from the Office Works of the Duomo,and also during this period, he completed the three Franciscan Stories on the interior of the facade at Santa Trinita.
Uccello's famous monument to soldier of fortune Sir John Hawkwood in the cathedral of Santa Maria in Florence was done in 1436, and in 1437 , the fresco of the Adoration in San Martino Maggiore at Bologna. During this period, he also completed his second painting of Saint George and the Dragon , the works being known for their inventive use of perspective.
In 1443, he completed the clock face for the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, whose numbers are are positioned in an anti-clockwise direction derived from the design of a sundial.
Uccello's most famous works, the series of panels depicting the Battle of San Romano, were ordered by Cosimo de Medici for the Palazzo Medici became famous for it's use of perspective and foreshortening.
Uccello had a daughter ,Antonia, born in 1456, who would later become a Carmelite nun, and by some accounts , an artist herself. His son , Donato , assisted the painter on some works.
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