'The battle of San Romano (advance of the Florentine troops)'

PAOLO UCCELLO

1451
oil on table, 182- 323 cm. - Florence, Uffizzi

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“Oh che dolce cosa è questa prospettiva!”
Paolo Uccello

“Solitary, eccentric, melancholic and poor”. Giorgio Vasari described with these four words one of the most audacious geniuses of the early Florentine Renaissance. Paolo Uccello is really the solitary lover of the perspective, and this late work - painted when the artist was almost sixty years old- proves his fascination to the new sciences of perspective, as well as his personal interest for the figure of the horse. Indeed, a raging white horse is the centerpiece of this composition, which is organized by the vertical and horizontal lances.

Paolo Uccello painted three versions of this scene, which would have constituted an impressive 'tryptich' for the Medici Palace in Florence. The panel shown here was the central piece.

Text: G. Fernández, www.theartwolf.com

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