Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Paolo Uccello

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE PAINTER PAOLO UCCELLO.

[born 1396-7 —died 1479?]

Paolo Uccello would have proved himself the most original and inventive genius ever devoted to the art of painting, from the time of Giotti downwards, had he bestowed but half the labour on the delineation of men and animals that he lost and threw away over the minutiae of perspective. For, although these studies are meritorious and good in their way, yet he who is addicted to them beyond measure, wastes his time, exhausts his intellect, and weakens the force of his conceptions, insomuch that he frequently diminishes the fertility and readiness

of his resources, which he renders ineffectual and sterile. Nay, whoever bestows his attention on these points, rather than on the delineation of the living figure, will frequently derive from his efforts a dry and angular hardness of manner, which is a very common result of too close a consideration of minute points. There is, moreover, the highest probability that one so disposed will become unsocial, melancholy, and poor, as did Paolo Uccello, who, being endowed by nature with a subtle and inquiring spirit, knew no greater pleasure than that of undertaking over-difficult, or, rather, impossible problems of perspective; which, although, doubtless curious,, and perhaps beautiful, yet so effectually impeded his progress in the more essential study of the figure, that his works became worse and worse, in that respect, the older he grew. It is by no means to be denied that the man who subjects himself to studies too severe, does violence to his nature; and, although he may sharpen his intellect on one point, yet, whatever he does, wants the grace and facility natural to those who, proceeding temperately, preserve the calmness of their intelligence, and the force of their judgment, keeping all things in their proper place, and avoiding those subtletieswhich rarely produce any better effect than that of imparting a laboured, dry, and ungraceful character to the production, whatever it may be, which is better calculated to move the spectator to pity, than awaken his admiration. It is only when the spirit of inspiration is roused, when the intellect demands to be in action, that effectual labour is secured; then only are thoughts worthy of expression conceived, and things great, excellent, and sublime accomplished. Paolo Uccello employed himself perpetually, and without any intermission whatever, in the consideration of the most difficult questions connected with art, insomuch that ho brought the method of preparing the plans and elevations of buildings, by the study of linear perspective, to perfection. From the ground plan to the cornices, and summit of the roof, he reduced all to strict rules, by the convergence of intersecting lines, which he diminished towards the centre, after having fixed the point of view higher or lower, as seemed good to him: he laboured, in short, so earnestly in these difficult matters, that he found means, and fixed rules, for making his figures really to seem standing on the plane whereon they were placed; not only showing how, in order manifestly to draw back or retire, they must gradually be diminished, but also giving the precise manner and degree required for this, which had previously been done by chance, or effected at the discretion of the artist, as he best could. He also discovered the method of turning the arches and cross-vaulting of ceilings; taught how floors are to be foreshortened by the convergence of the beams; showed how the artist must proceed, to represent columns bending around the sharp corners of a building, so that, when drawn in perspective, they efface the angle, and cause it to seem level. To pore over all these matters, Paolo would remain alone, seeing scarcely any one, and remaining almost like a hermit for weeks and months in his house, without suffering himself to be approached. But, however difficult and beautiful these things may be, yet, if he had expended the time given to them in the study of figures, he would have done much better; for, although his drawing of the latter is tolerably good, yet it wants much of the perfection which he might have given it by a more discreetly regulated attention; but by thus consuming his hours in pondering these devices, he found himself steeped in poverty all the days of his life, instead of attaining to the celebrity which he might otherwise have acquired. When, therefore, Paolo would sometimes exhibit his “mazzocchi,”^[1] some pointed, others square, and all drawn in perspective under various aspects, his spheres having seventytwo facettes, like diamond points, with a morsel of chip bent upwards on each plane, and all the other strange whimsies over which he exhausted his strength, and wasted his time, to the sculptor Donatello (who was his intimate friend), the latter would say to him, “Ah, Paolo, with this perspective of thine, thou art leaving the substance for the shadow. These things are serviceable to those only who work at inlaying of wood (tarsia), seeing that it is their trade to use chips and shavings, with circles and spirals, and squares, and such-like matters.”

The first works of Paolo were fresco paintings for the hospital of Lelmo,^[2] where he depicted St. Anthony the abbot, in an oblong niche, painted in perspective, with St. Cosimo on one side of St. Anthony, and St. Damiano on the other.

In Annalena,^[3] a convent of nuns, he executed two figures, and in Santa Trinita, on the inside of the church, and over the north door, he painted stories in fresco, from the life of St. Francis,^[4] one showing the saint when he receives the stigmata, a second where he restores the church, which he is supporting on his shoulders, and the third representing his interview with San Domenico. In the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in a chapel near the side door which opens on the road to San Giovanni, and wherein are certain works by Masaccio, Paolo painted an Annunciation,^[5] also in fresco.

In this picture he represented a building, which is highly worthy of attention: it was then a new, and was considered to be a difficult thing, since it was the first edifice depicted in a good manner, and with true and graceful proportions; by this work artists were taught that, by due arrangement, the level space, which is in reality small, and closely bounded, may be made to appear extensive, and acquire the semblance of distance; and he who, after securing this, shall be capable of judiciously distributing his lights and shadows to their proper places, and of duly managing the colours, will doubtless produce the effect of a more complete illusion to the eye, cause his pictures to exhibit higher relief, and give them a more exact resemblance to life and reality. Not satisfied with this, Paolo desired to prove his power of conquering a still greater difficulty; and drew a line of columns retiring in perspective, which he caused to bend round an angle, so as to efface the sharp angles of the ceiling on which the four Evangelists are painted: this also was considered a beautiful and difficult thing; nor can it be denied that Paolo was an able and ingenious artist in this department of his profession.

In San Miniato, without the city of Florence, this master painted the lives of the Holy Fathers}}^[6] in one of the cloisters. This work was principally in terra verde, but was partly coloured; and here Paolo did not pay sufficient regard to the harmony, which the artist should study to preserve in stories that are represented with one colour only, seeing that he made his fields blue, his cities red, and the buildings varied, as best pleased his fancy, wherein he committed an error, for whatever we feign to make of stone, cannot and ought not to be tinted with other colours. It is said that when Paolo was occupied with this work, the abbot, who then ruled at San Miniato, gave him scarcely anything to eat but cheese, of which our painter, who was shy and timid, becoming tired, resolved to go no more to work at the cloister. The abbot sent to inquire the cause of his absence; but when Paolo heard the monks asking for him, he would never be at home, and if he chanced to meet any of the brothers of that Order in the streets of Florence, he hurried away with all speed, flying from them as fast as he was able. One day, two of the friars, more curious than the rest, and younger than Paolo, ran after and overtook him. They then inquired why he did not come to finish the work he had commenced, and wherefore he fled at the sight of one of their body? “You have so murdered me,” replied Paolo, “that I not only run away from you, but dare not stop near the house of any joiner, or even pass by one, and all that is owing to the bad management of your abbot, for what with his cheese-pies and cheese-soup, he has made me swallow such a mountain of cheese, that I am all turned into cheese myself, and tremble lest the carpenters should take me to make their glue with; of a surety, if I stayed with you any longer, I should be no more Paolo, but cheese.” The monks, departing from him with peals of laughter, told the story to their abbot, who prevailed on him to return to his work, with the promise that he would order him dishes not made of cheese. In the church of the Carmine, Paolo painted the altar of SS. Cosimo and Damiano,^[7] for the Pugliesi family, in the chapel of San Girolamo; and in the house of the Medici, he painted several pictures on canvas and in distemper,^[8] representing various animals, which he greatly delighted in, and to the delineation of which he gave his most unwearied attention. He had numbers of painted birds, cats, and dogs, in his house, with every other animal of which he could get the portrait, being too poor to keep the living creatures; and as he preferred birds to all other animals, he received the name of Paul of the Birds (Paolo Uccelli).^[9] Among other representations of animals painted for the Medici, was a combat of lions, to which he imparted so much force, and gave the expression of such fierce rage to the movements of the creatures, that they seem to be alive. But the most extraordinary part ot all, was a serpent fighting with a lion; the strength and fierceness of the reptile are finely obvious in his furious contortions, the venom darts from his eyes and mouth. Near to this group is a peasant girl with an ox, the foreshortening of which is admirable. In my collection of drawings, is a sketch of this scene by the hand of Paolo; the girl, full of terror, is in the act of escaping from those beasts by a rapid flight. The same picture exhibits certain herdsmen very naturally pourtrayed, with a landscape, which was considered an exceedingly beautiful thing at the time. In other parts of this work, are representations of armed men on horseback, many of whom are portraits from the life.

Paolo was afterwards commissioned to paint some historical pictures in the cloister of Santa Maria Novella, the first of which are those seen on entering the cloister from the church. In these he depicted the creation of animals, exhibiting infinite numbers and varieties of every kind, whether belonging to earth, air, or water. Paolo Uccello was exceedingly fanciful, and delighted, as we have said, in representing his animals to perfection. We have here an instance of this in some lions which are about to fall on one another with open jaws, and whose fierce rage is expressed with the utmost truth, as is the timidity and velocity of the stags and deer, which also make part of the picture; the birds and fish are, in like manner, depicted with extraordinary exactitude in every feather and scale. In the same place this master pourtrayed the creation of our first parents, with their fall. This is in a very good manner: it is well and carefully executed; and in these pictures, Paolo took pains to vary the colouring of the trees, a thing which it was not yet usual for the masters to accomplish very successfully. With respect to the landscapes, in like manner, Paolo was the first among the old painters who acquired a name for his labours in this branch of art, which he conducted to a higher degree of perfection than had been attained in it by the artists who preceded him. It is true that those who came after him, succeeded much better than he had done; since, with all his pains, he could never impart to his landscapes that softness and harmony which have been given to works of this class in our times, by painting them in oil. It was quite enough for Paolo if he drew according to the rules of perspective, representing things as they stood, and giving all that he saw: fields, that is to say, with their ditches, their furrows, the ploughs on them, and every other minutia of the kind, in his own dry and hard manner; whereas if he had selected the most effective characteristics of things, and represented such parts only as redound to the good general effect of the picture, he wrould have approached much more nearly to perfection. When he had completed these paintings, he executed others, in the same cloister, beneath two pictures, which are from the hand of a different master;^[10] and lower down^[11] in the cloister, he painted the deluge, with the ark of Noah. In that wrork, Paolo pourtrayed the dead bodies, the face of the tempest raging around, the fury of the winds, the flashes of the lightning, the torrents of rain, the destruction of the trees, and the terror of men, with so much art and ability, that no words could sufficiently express the merits of this work. In the background is a dead body, of which a raven is tearing out the eyes;^[12] the foreshortening of this is very good: there is also a boy, whose drowned corpse is represented as greatly swollen by the water. He has, moreover, given many eloquent expressions of human passion and feeling, showing the disregard of their common danger from the rising waters, of two men who are fighting on horseback; and, on the other hand, the excessive terror of death experienced by a woman and man. who are both mounted on a butfalo, but who find that the hinder parts of the animal are gradually sinking beneath the water, insomuch that they lose all hope of being able to save themselves,—a work which displayed so much excellence, that the master acquired the highest reputation from it: the whole is carefully executed according to the laws of perspective, and many of the accessories are very beautiful. Beneath this story, Paolo likewise depicted the inebriation of Noah, with the contemptuous proceeding of his son Ham (in whom he pourtrayed the Florentine painter and sculptor Dello, who was his friend), with Shem and Japhet, the other sons, who throw a vestment over their father’s prostrate form. In the same picture, is a cask in perspective, the curved lines of which, drawn in different directions, were considered very fine; there is also a long line of trellis-work, covered with bunches of grapes, the rods of which being square on the plane, diminish as they approach the point of view; but the master committed an error in this matter, since the floor on which the figures stand, diminishes according to the lines of the trelliswork, but the cask does not follow those receding lines, and I am surprised that an artist so careful and exact should have committed so manifest an error. Paolo further represented the Sacrifice of Noah; and here he painted the open ark in perspective, with ranges of perches in the upper part, divided into regular rows, for the birds, of which various kinds are seen to fly out in flocks. In the air above is the figure of God the Father, who appears over the sacrifice which Noah and his sons are in the act of offering. This figure is the most difficult of any that Paolo Uccello executed, since it is represented with the head foreshortened, flying towards the wall, and has such force and relief, that it seems to press through and divide it. There is, besides, a large number of different animals about the patriarch Noah, all most beautifully done. The whole work is, in short, so full of harmony and grace, that it is, without doubt, the best of his labours, nay, beyond comparison, superior to them all, insomuch that it has secured the highest commendations for the master, not from his own times only, but from ours also. In the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, Paolo Uccello painted a horse in “terra-verde”; this was executed to the memory of Giovanni Acuto, an Englishman, and Leader of the Florentines, who died in 1393. This horse is of extraordinary magnitude, and is considered extremely beautiful; on its back is the figure of the English commander, painted from nature, in chiaro-scuro. The picture is ten braccia in height, and is in the centre of one of the walls of the church,^[13] where Paolo also drew, in perspective, a large sarcophagus, supposed to contain the corpse of the captain: on this he placed the figure of Acuto in armour, and on horseback.^[14] This work was then thought, and continues to be considered, one of great beauty of its kind;^[15] and if Paolo had not made the horse move his legs on one side only, which horses do not naturally do, since they would fall if they did (which happened, perhaps, because the artist was not accustomed to ride, or to see so much of horses as of other animals), the work would indeed have been perfect. The proportions of the horse, which, as has been observed, is of immense size, are extremely beautiful. On the basement are inscribed the following letters:—

pauli uccelli opus.

At the same time, and in the same church, he painted, in varied colours, the dial-plate which is over the principal door on the inside of the church, with the four heads, in fresco, which decorate the angles.^[16] By the same master, the western cloister, above the garden of the Monastery degli Angeli, is also painted, in “terra-verde,” with a story from the life of St. Benedict the abbot, beneath every arch, representing all his most remarkable actions, to his death. There are many beautiful pictures in this work, and among them is one representing a monastery which is suddenly destroyed by the power of Satan, and under the ruins of which there is the body of a monk who has been killed by the fall of the building. Nor less remarkable is the expression of terror in another monk, whose vestments gracefully waving as he flies, display the form beneath most beautifully. From this painting the artists of the period received a new idea, which they afterwards frequently reproduced. The figure of St. Benedict is also very fine, as, with combined dignity and humility, he performs a miracle in the presence of his monks, by restoring their dead brother, before mentioned, to life. There are, in brief, many peculiarities throughout the whole work, most amply worthy of consideration, more especially as regards the perspective, the master’s knowledge of which has been frequently displayed throughout, even in his treatment of the slates and tiles of the roof. At the death of St. Benedict, moreover, while the monks are performing his obsequies, and bewailing their loss, certain aged and decrepit persons come to look on the dead body of the saint; these figures are admirably fine. There is also an old monk supported on two crutches, in whose face there is the evidence of infinite affection, with a lingering hope that he may possibly recover his health. In this work there are no landscapes, and not many buildings, neither is there so much as usual sacrificed to the conquest of difficulties in perspective, but, on the other hand, there is much good drawing, and numerous excellencies.^[17]

Many houses in Florence possess small pictures by the hand of this master, which were painted to adorn couches, beds, and other articles of household use. In Gualfonda, i more especially, on a terrace of the garden which formerly I belonged to the Bartolini family, are four battle pieces, in wood, by his hand; the horses and armed men in splendid vestments of the fashion of that clay, are very beautiful; and among the figures are portraits of Paolo Orsino, Ottobuono da Parma, Luca da Canale, and Carlo Malatesti, lord of Rimini, all great captains of those times.^[18] These pictures had suffered injury in certain parts, and have been restored, in our own day, by Giuliano Bugiardini, from whom they have received injury rather than benefit.

Paolo Uccello was induced by Donato to visit Padua, when the last-named artist was working in that city; he then painted certain gigantic figures in “terra-'verde”, for the entrance to the house of the Vitali family; and these, as I find in a Latin letter written by Girolamo Campagnolo to the philosopher Leonico Tomeo, are so admirably done, that Andrea Montegna is said to have held them in the highest estimation. Paolo also decorated the arch of the Peruzzi with triangles in fresco, painting rectangular sections, moreover, in the corners, within each of which he placed one of the four elements, accompanied by an appropriate animal. To the earth, for example, he gave a mole, to the water a fish, to the fire a salamander, and to the air a chameleon, which lives on the air, and can take every colour. But as he had never seen a chameleon, he painted a camel, which he has made with wide open mouth, swallowing the air, wherewith he fills his belly.^[19] And herein was his simplicity certainly very great: taking the mere resemblance of the camel’s name as a sufficient representation of, or allusion to, an animal which is like a little dry lizard, while the camel is a great ungainly beast. The labours of Paolo, in painting, must have been very heavy, since he made so many drawings, that he left whole chests full of them to his relations, as I have learned from themselves. But, although it is a great thing to produce many sketches, it is a still greater to execute the works themselves in an effectual manner; for the finished picture possesses a more decided vitality than the mere sketch. In our collection of drawings we have many figures, studies in perspective, birds, and other animals, beautiful to a marvel, but the best of all is a kind of head-dress, (“mazzocchio”^[20]) drawn in outline only, but so admirably done, that nothing short of the patience of Paolo could have accomplished the task. This master was a person of eccentric character, and peculiar habits; but he was a great lover of ability in those of his own art; and, to the end that their memory should remain to posterity, he drew, with his own hand, on an oblong picture, the portraits of five distinguished men, which he kept in his house as a memorial of them. The first of these portraits was that of the painter Giotto, as one who had given light and new life to the art; the second was Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, for architecture; the third was Donatello, for sculpture; the fourth was himself, for perspective and animals; the fifth was his friend Giovanni Manetti, for the mathematics. With this philosopher Paolo conferred very frequently, and held continual discourse with him concerning the problems of Euclid.^[21]

It is related of this master that being commissioned to paint St. Thomas seeking the wound in the side of Christ, above the door of the church dedicated to that saint, in the Mercato Vccchio, he declared that he would make known in that work the extent of what he had acquired and was capable of producing, to which end he bestowed upon it the utmost care and consideration: he also caused an enclosure of planks to be constructed around it, that none might see the work until it should be entirely completed. One day Donato met him all alone, and asked him “what kind of a work is this of thine that thou art shutting up so closely?” To whom Paolo, answering, replied—“Thou shalt see it some day, let that suffice thee.” Donato would not press him to say more, thinking that when the time came he should, as usual, behold some miracle. It chanced that Donato was in the Mercato Vecchio buying fruit one morning, when he saw Paolo Uccello, who was uncovering his picture.^[22] Saluting him courteously, therefore, his opinion was instantly demanded by Paolo, who was anxiously curious to know what he would say of the work. But when Donato had examined the painting very minutely, he turned to Paolo and said, “Why, Paolo! thou art uncovering thy picture just at the very time when thou shouldst be shutting it up from the sight of all!” These words so grievously afflicted the painter, that perceiving himself likely to incur derision instead of the glory that he had hoped for from this, his last labour, and not having the courage to show himself fallen, as he felt himself to be, he would no more leave his house, but shut himself up, devoting himself wholly to the study of perspective, which kept him in poverty and depression to the day of his death. He lived to become very old, but had secured little enjoyment for his old age, and died in the year 1432,^[23]in his eighty-third year, when he was buried in the church of Santa Maria Novella.^[24]

Paolo Uccello left a daughter, who had some ability in design, and a wife, who was wont to relate that Paolo would stand the whole night through, beside his writing-table, seeking new terms for the expression of his rules in perspective; and when entreated by herself to take rest and sleep, he would reply, “Oh, what a delightful thing is this perspective!”^[25] And it is doubtless true, that as this study was delightful to him, no less valuable and useful has it been rendered, by his means, to those who have occupied themselves with similar studies in after times.

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1. Orlandi—Abecedario pittorico—mistaking the import of this word, supposed it to be a family name, and makes Paolo a member of the Mazzocchi famil}-. The word mazzocchi is interpreted to mean “circlets armed with points or spikes, and placed on the escutcheons of families”; and “caps of a peculiar form, such, for example, as we see in the portraits of Taddeo and Agnolo Gaddi”; or, according to other authorities, it may mean the heraldic “cap of maintenance.”
2. Afterwards of San Matteo, which stood on the site now occupied by the Academy of the Fine Arts in Florence. The works of Paolo Uccello are no longer to be seen.— Ed. Flor. 1832.
3. This should be, “where the convent of Annalena afterwards stood”, since it was not founded until twenty-three years afterwards—in 1455, namely. These paintings have also perished.— Ibid.
4. No trace of these frescoes remains. —Ibid.
5. This Annunciation has disappeared, as has also the picture of Masaccio. —Ibid.
6. These paintings were afterwards whitened over.— Ed. Flor. 1832.
7. This work was destroyed in the fire of 1771.
8. Nothing is now known of these paintings.
9. His name was Paolo di Dono, or Uccelli, as he is called by himself in a return made to the fiscal authorities in the year 1446. See Gaye, i. 146.— Ed. Flor. 1846 -9.
10. That is to say, after the stories—really by another hand—which follow the first described; those, that is, of the fourth arcade. — Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
11. Or rather the contrary, since the story of the Deluge is in the upper part. —Ibid.
12. The minutise here described by Vasari are not now to be distinguished, the paintings on that side being precisely those,, among- the works of this cloister, which have suffered most injury. —Ibid.
13. This picture was transferred to canvas in the year 1842, and placed within the church.—Ed. Flor. 1849.
14. Gaye, i, 536, cites a decree of the 22nd August 1393, by which the wardens of Santa Reparata are permitted to construct, within one year from that date, a monument, decorated with marble figures and stones of price, for the sepulchre of Giovanni Hawkwood or Acuto; but this decree does not appear to have been carried into effect. A second proposal, of similar kind, referred to by Baldinucci, seems also to have fallen to the ground; but there are other documents, from which we learn, that “the horse and figure of Messer Giovanni Aguto. made by Paolo Uccello, were to be effaced, because the horse is not painted as it should be, and that the said Paolo shall paint anew the said Giovanni Aguto and the horse.” (Baldinucci.) See also Ammirato, lib. xvi, p. 844. Whether the picture now seen be the first or a second, is not certainly known.
15. The same may be said even now.—Ed. Flor. 1832-8, and 1849.
16. The heads alone now remain, and these have been restored.— Schorn.
17. These works are not now in existence.
18. Of these four pictures, one only was known to exist—that, namely, which is preserved in the Royal Gallery of the Uffizj (Florence), and which is authenticated by the name of the painter written below, in the right hand corner, PAOLI VCCELI. OPUS. The fate of the remaining three was unknown until the year 1848, when it was our good fortune to discover two of them, one of which is in admirable preservation, and to point them out to the Signors Francesco Lombardi and Ugo Baldi, who have enriched their precious collection, before mentioned, with this discovery. It is suspected that the fourth has been taken to England. —Ed. Flor. 1849.
19. These works have totally perished.—Ed. Flor. 1832.
20. Varchi, in his Storia, iib. ix, describes the mazzocc.hio in the following words:—“The mazzocchio is a circlet of wood covered with cloth, which surrounds and binds the upper part of the head; it has a lining within it, and this being brought down in front and thrown back, then covers the whole head.”
21. In the first edition of Vasari, this picture was attributed to Masaccio; it was then in the house of Giuliano da San Gallo; at the present day, all trace of it is lost.—Ed. Flor. 1849.
22. This painting of St. Thomas has disappeared.
23. This is most probably an error of the press, and should be 1472 according to some of the authorities, according to others, 1497. See Gaye, Carteggio inedito, etc. i, 146-7.
24. “On the death of this master,” says Vasari, in his first edition, “many epigrams (sic), both in the Latin and vulgar tongue, were made for him, but it shall suffice me to recite the following:—”

    Zeusi et Parrasio ceda et Polignoto
    Ch’ io fei l’arte una tacita natura,
    Diei affetto et forza ad ogni mia figura,
    Volo agli uccelli, a’ pesci il Corso e’l noto.

25. Let us then hope that this good labourer had not so dark a close to his life as Vasari would have us believe. Surely that “delightful thing,” his beloved perspective, must have thrown some light over the gloom which Vasari describes. — Trans.