Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:
Early Renaissance, Florentine School

Date and Place of Birth:
ca. 1397, Florence

Life:
Uccello (the word means "bird" in Italian) was such a precocious talent that he was apprenticed to the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti by the age of 10, and was a full-fledged painter in the Arte dei Medici e Speziali by 1415. Though he traveled to Venice (where he worked as a mosaicist) and Padua (by invitation of Donatello), most of his years were spent in Florence. His many acquaintances and experiences combined for a style that blended the old Gothic with the new science of linear perspective.

He is best known for being an early master of perspective - a pursuit that became something of an obsession with him, to the bafflement of most of his contemporaries. Uccello got so engrossed with painting perspective his wife often had to remind him to go to bed, and he'd turn down paying jobs in favor of his explorations. Now, of course (centuries after he died broke), we rhapsodize over his naturalism, marvel at his achievements and salute his efforts.

Important Works:
Chiostro Verde frescoes, first cycle early 1430s; second cycle late 1440s-early 1450s
The Battle of San Romano, ca. 1455
St. George and the Dragon, ca. 1465
Profanation of the Host, predella panels, ca. 1465-68
Hunt in the Forest, ca. 1470

Date and Place of Death:
December 10, 1475, Florence