Skip to main content

Main image

Paolo Uccello:
Catalogue entry

Catalogue contents

About the catalogue

Entry details

Author
Dillian Gordon and Susanna Avery-Quash

Catalogue entry

Paolo di Dono, called Uccello 

,

Extracted from:
Dillian Gordon, The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2003).

Paolo Uccello, whose father came from Pratovecchio, was an assistant in Ghiberti’s workshop, probably 1412–16.1 In 1414 he was inscribed with the Compagnia di San Luca, and in 1415 he matriculated with the Arte dei Medici e Speziali. Uccello made his first will in 1425 before leaving for Venice, where he worked as a mosaicist in San Marco. The discovery in San Martino, Bologna, in 1978–80 of a fresco fragment showing the Adoration of the Child and dated 1431 or 1437(?) suggests that he is identifiable with the Master of the Karlsruhe Adoration.

After his return from Venice by 31 January 1431, Uccello worked almost exclusively in Florence, with only a few exceptions. Frescoes in the chiostro verde of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, are of uncertain date. Frescoes in the chapel of the Assunta in the Duomo in Prato of c. 1435–6 are probably by him. He signed the fresco of Giovanni Acuto (Sir John Hawkwood) in Florence Duomo, commissioned in 1436. He was inscribed with the Compagnia di San Girolamo in 1437–8. The series with the Battle of San Romano (NG 583) was probably begun around 1438. In 1443–4 he frescoed the clockface in the Duomo and designed cartoons for three windows. From 1445 to 1446 he was in Padua. In 1465 and 1467–9 he was in Urbino (with his son Donato), where he painted an altarpiece for the Confraternity of Corpus Domini. He returned to Florence from Urbino at the end of October/beginning of November 1468. Around 1468 he painted Saint George and the Dragon (NG 6294). He also painted a number of other small‐scale paintings, including the Hunt in the Forest (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum). 3 2 His daughter Antonia (1456–1491), a Carmelite nun, and son Donato (b. 1451/2) were also painters. In August 1468 he recorded in the Catasto: ‘Truovomi vechio et senza inviamento, et no me posso esercitare et la dona inferma’ (‘I am old and without means of livelihood, and I can no longer work and my wife is ill’). 2 3

Uccello made his second will on 11 November 1475 and died on 10 December 1475. He was buried in Santo Spirito.

Notes

Glossary

Arte dei Medici e Speziali
The guild of physicians and apothecaries to which Florentine painters belonged
Catasto
Records of Florentine tax returns
Confraternità di San Luca
The confraternity dedicated to Saint Luke to which Florentine painters belonged

List of references cited

Kanter 2000
KanterL., ‘The “cose piccole” of Paolo Uccello’, Apollo, 2000, 15246211–20
Padoa Rizzo 1991
Padoa RizzoA.Paolo Uccello. Catalogo completo dei dipintiFlorence 1991
Pope‐Hennessy 1950
Pope‐HennessyJ.The Complete Work of Paolo UccelloLondon 1950 (2nd edn, 1969)
Sindona 1957
SindonaE.Paolo UccelloMilan 1957

About this version

Version 1, generated from files DG_2003__16.xml dated 07/03/2025 and database__16.xml dated 09/03/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Structural mark-up applied to skeleton document in full; entry for NG583, biography for Uccello and associated front and back matter (marked up in pilot project) reintegrated into main document; document updated to use external database of archival and bibliographic references; entries for L2, NG215-NG216, NG1897, NG2862 & NG4062; L15, NG727, NG3162, NG3230, NG4428 & NG4868.1-NG4868.4; NG583; NG663.1-NG663.5; NG666-NG667; NG766-NG767 & NG1215; NG1436; NG2908; NG3046; NG4757-NG4763; NG5451-NG5454; NG5962-NG5963; and NG6579-NG6580 prepared for publication; entry for NG583 proofread and corrected.

Cite this entry

Permalink (this version)
https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9C-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version)
https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E6I-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style
Gordon, Dillian. “Paolo di Dono, called UccelloUccello, Paolo, c. circa (about) 1397–1475”. 2003, online version 1, March 9, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9C-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style
Gordon, Dillian (2003) Paolo di Dono, called UccelloUccello, Paolo, c. circa (about) 1397–1475. Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9C-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 19 March 2025).
MHRA style
Gordon, Dillian, Paolo di Dono, called UccelloUccello, Paolo, c. circa (about) 1397–1475 (National Gallery, 2003; online version 1, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0E9C-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 19 March 2025]