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Uccello

 

Paolo Uccello (1397–1475) was a Florentine artist of the Renaissance, the time when artists were discovering perspective, and he was fascinated by it. He worked endlessly on perfecting the technique of foreshortening to add depth to his painting. In his best known work, The Battle of San Romano, we can see how he used these new techniques, although it seems crude compared to later Renaissance paintings.

 

 

The Battle of San Romano

 

 

Under the rump of the rearing white horse in the center lies the body of a soldier, his feet touching the bottom edge of the frame, his body stretched toward the back of the picture; this is foreshortening. The figure is very small in comparison to the others, but it is probably the earliest instance of this technique being used to represent a figure in depth. Furthermore, the lances lying on the ground all point toward the rear, what came to be known as the “vanishing point” of a painting, something that Renaissance artists perfected as part of the illusion of dimension.

 

Here are a few other examples of his painting.

The Hunt

The Magi

St. Francis