17 Facts About Paolo Uccello

Paolo Uccello, born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art.

Paolo Uccello's best known works are the three paintings representing the battle of San Romano, which were wrongly entitled the Battle of Sant'Egidio of 1416 for a long period of time.

Paolo Uccello worked in the Late Gothic tradition, emphasizing colour and pageantry rather than the classical realism that other artists were pioneering.

Paolo Uccello's style is best described as idiosyncratic, and he left no school of followers.

The sources for Paolo Uccello's life are few: Giorgio Vasari's biography, written 75 years after Paolo's death, and a few contemporary official documents.

Paolo Uccello's father, Dono di Paolo, was a barber-surgeon from Pratovecchio near Arezzo; his mother, Antonia, was a high-born Florentine.

In 1414, Paolo Uccello was admitted to the painters' guild, Compagnia di San Luca, and just one year later, in 1415, he joined the official painter's guild of Florence Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali.

Paolo Uccello painted the Lives of the Church Fathers in the cloisters of the church of San Miniato, which sat on a hill overlooking Florence.

Paolo Uccello was asked to paint a number of scenes of distempered animals for the house of the Medici.

Paolo Uccello loved to paint animals and he kept a wide variety of pictures of animals, especially birds, at home.

Paolo Uccello succeeded in painting trees in their natural colours.

Paolo Uccello followed this with Scenes from the Life of Noah, for the Green Cloister.

In 1425, Paolo Uccello travelled to Venice, where he worked on the mosaics for the facade of San Marco, which have all since been lost.

From 1465 to 1469, Paolo Uccello was in Urbino with his son Donato working for the Confraternity of Corpus Domini, a brotherhood of laymen.

Paolo Uccello's predella is composed of six meticulous, naturalistic scenes related to the antisemitic myth of host desecration, which was based upon an event that supposedly occurred in Paris in 1290.

Paolo Uccello's last known work is The Hunt, c 1470.

Paolo Uccello was buried in his father's tomb in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito.