\paperw5100 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Italian painter.\par
In 1407, Paolo Uccello was one of Lorenzo GhibertiÆs assistants in the casting of the door of Florence Baptistery. La
ter, in 1425, we know that he made a visit to Venice, where he worked on the mosaics in St MarkÆs Basilica. None of the works from this period that are mentioned in the sources have survived, but after his return to Tuscany, in 1431, he painted a picture
of the \i Creation\i0 in a lunette of the Chiostro Verde in FlorenceÆs Santa Maria Novella. In 1436 he produced his first great masterpiece, the frescoed imitation of an equestrian monument to \i Sir John Hawkwood\i0 in the cityÆs cathedral. In this w
ork he made some attempt to use perspective, although it is likely that his knowledge was based more on medieval optical science than on contemporary theories. His typical handling of perspective was used to achieve fabulous effects in the \i Saint Georg
e and the Dragon\i0 (London, National Gallery). The \i Scenes from the Story of Noah\i0 in Santa Maria Novella date from around 1450. The large lunette with the \i Deluge\i0 , in particular, is an intense and tragic image characterized by a powerful us
e of perspective. However, the most significant examples of Paolo UccelloÆs painting are the three large panels he executed for a room in Palazzo Vecchio celebrating the \i Battle of San Romano\i0 (now divided among Florence, London, and Paris). In 1469
he painted an altarpiece for a confraternity in Urbino, of which only the predella representing the \i Miracle of the Host\i0 has been preserved (Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche). Its charming little scenes of interiors reveal a marked interest
in the anecdotal. In his closing years Paolo is believed to have painted the \i Hunt by Night\i0 (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum), whose framework of perspective is enlivened by numerous figures of animals and huntsmen, in a courtly vision that is reminiscen
t of the work of Pisanello. Over the course fo his career Paolo Uccello painted with extremely varied results. His effects were highly dramatic and yet abstract; some of his pictures were monumental and others more fairy tale-like in their atmosphere.
