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Paolo Uccello, whose real name was Paolo Di Dono, was born on June 15th, 1397 in Pratovecchio, Italy. He was was a painter and mathematician who studied as a member of the workshop of the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. While most of his early work had been in the Gothic style, following naturalistic, curved lines, his experience with sculpture under Ghiberti allowed him to think in three-dimensional forms while working on two-dimensional paintings. Uccello used his experience in mathematics and applied it to art in order to champion the use of perspective in Renaissance art.
Uccello’s compositions utilize perspective to give his paintings depth and give more weight to each scene. The objects in his paintings each have their own space that they occupy rather than simply laying flat in front of a background. This weight makes the interactions of the different subjects feel more dynamic. The Hunt in the Forest, for example, uses the hunting dogs to show the depth of the forest, and the size of these dogs deepens the forest, giving it a more vast look. The fallen logs point deeper into the forest, and guide the viewer’s eyes towards the center of the painting, and towards their common vanishing point. In The Battle of San Romano, the fallen knights show the depth of the battlefield, and gives each cavalry a space to occupy.
Sources:
- Gombrich, E H. The Story of Art. New York: Phaidon Publishers; distributed by Oxford University Press, 1966. Print
- http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/13825/paolo-uccello-italian-about-1397-1475/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paolo-Uccello