Uccello, Paolo

Florentine painter. He was one of the first to experiment with perspective, though his love of detail, decorative colour, and graceful line remains traditional. His works include St George and the Dragon (c. 1460, National Gallery, London) and A Hunt (c. 1460, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

Uccello used perspective, though he used it imaginatively rather than with scientific accuracy or consistency. His works in fresco include his painting (in imitation of an equestrian statue) of the English condottiere Sir John Hawkwood (1436) in Florence Cathedral, and a series in the Chiostro Verde (Green Cloister) of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, the principal composition being the Deluge of about 1445. He is, however, more celebrated for his panel pictures, notably the Battle of San Romano (c. 1455), three pictures of the battle between the Florentines and the Sienese in 1432 painted for the Medici (Uffizi, Florence; Louvre, Paris; and National Gallery, London). They were intended to be framed together, but each gives an effect of completeness and is wonderfully rich in design.