31 Facts About Pisanello

Pisanello was acclaimed by poets such as Guarino da Verona and praised by humanists of his time, who compared him to such illustrious names as Cimabue, Phidias and Praxiteles.

Pisanello is known for his resplendent frescoes in murals, portraits, easel pictures, and a number of drawings such as those in the Codex Vallardi.

Pisanello is the most important commemorative portrait medallist in the first half of the 15th century, and he can claim to have originated this important genre.

Pisanello was employed by the Doge of Venice, the Pope in the Vatican and the courts of Verona, Ferrara, Mantua, Milan, Rimini, and by the King of Naples.

Pisanello stood in high esteem in the Gonzaga and Este families.

Pisanello had a number of his works wrongly ascribed to other artists such as Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Durer and Leonardo da Vinci, to name a few.

Pisanello was born between 1380 and 1395 and died between 1450 and 1455.

Pisanello was a native of Pisa but spent his early years in San Vigilio sul Lago in the territory of Verona.

Pisanello was probably given his early training by a Veronese painter as his early style is in the tradition of Veronese painting.

Between 1415 and 1420, Pisanello was the assistant of the renowned painter and illuminator Gentile da Fabriano from whom he acquired his refined, delicate, detailed style.

Pisanello acquired from him a taste for precious materials and beautiful fabrics that can be found in his later paintings.

Pisanello continued to work for the Gonzaga family till the 1440s.

Giorgio Vasari, an artist and biographer of the Italian Renaissance, states that Pisanello worked in the workshop of Andrea del Castagno, author of the painted equestrian monument of Niccolo da Tolentino in the Cathedral in Florence.

Pisanello must have known Paolo Uccello, the painter of the Battle of San Romano with its multiple horses.

Back in Mantua with the Gonzagas between 1424 and 1426, Pisanello painted one of his important surviving works: the fresco Annunciation in San Fermo, Verona.

Pisanello completed the frescoes of his former master between 1431 and 1432.

Pisanello's drawings are generally prized as jewels of the quattrocento, and provide evidence of the elegant garb of the time, including spectacular hats.

Pisanello compiled several books of drawings, detailed and accurate studies of fauna and flora drawn with poetic naturalism, and elegant costumes.

Pisanello travelled to several Italian cities and was introduced to a number of courts.

Pisanello prepared for this painting with a number of drawings, some of which are on display in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

From 1435, Pisanello became more and more interested in portraiture and medal making.

Pisanello was one of the greatest medalists of all time, perhaps the greatest ever, as evidenced by art historians such as Federico Zeri.

Pisanello was the first to reinvent the genre as we still understand it today: a portrait on the front and a symbolic feat on the reverse.

On this occasion, Pisanello struck a commemorative medal of the emperor, the earliest portrait medal of post-classical times.

Pisanello made some drawings with portraits of the emperor and his retinue, suggesting he had a commission for a painting or fresco for the Este residence.

Pisanello thus became the inventor of the fields of portrait medals and related medallic art.

Pisanello even signed his medals with Opus Pisani pictoris.

Pisanello even adds allegories at the reverse of his medals, such as the unicorn in the Cecilia Gonzaga medal, underlying the noble character of the princess.

Pisanello influenced a number of his contemporaries, but he did not create his own school.

Pisanello's genius shone briefly and after his death, he was quickly forgotten in the rise of the humanistic and classical culture of the Renaissance.

Pisanello is considered the last and most magnificent artist of the courtly style of the Gothic art in the 15th century, called the International Gothic style.