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This blog is an art history experiment for our Italian Renaissance travel course. We hope that you, our visitors, will not only take some time to read about what we are studying, but will ALSO feel free to make comments or ask us questions...especially after we see (most of) these things in person. As we travel, we will offer personal reflections on our experiences. After we fly out on the 17th, follow us as we visit Rome (May 18-20), Florence (20-24), and Venice (24-25). We return on Thursday, May 26...just in time for the holiday weekend.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Battle of San Romano, Paolo Uccello

The Artist

  • Paul "Bird" (c.1397-1475) 
  • No Major alterpieces or fresco cycles
  • Criticized as being unconventional 
  • "What a sweet mistress is this perspective"; perspective is the major hallmark of his work
The Work



  • 3 Panels (1435-1460)
  • Removed from palace of original commissioner to Medici Palace at command of Lorenzo il Magnifico
  • Depicts Florence's victory over Siena in 1432 (propaganda?)
  • Originally fit arched vault, tops cut off removing horizon line and sky
  • Foreground stage separated from landscape background by fruit trees
  • Original armor would have been silver - now tarnished
  • Geometrical forms and emphasis on ornament
    • Reduced intensity and reality (compared to his "Deluge" for example)
    • "wooden" feeling horses 
  • Everything is under the "spell" of perspective
    • Weapons and horses emphasize orthogonals 
    • People fall down in perspective
    • Profiles and foreshortening at right angles to orthogonals
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