About the artist
The Florentine artist Paolo di Dono, more famously known as Uccello (c1397 -1475), had a deep passion for birds, hence his nickname. He cut his teeth in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti from 1404 to 1407 and by 1415, Uccello started his journey as an independent master. Around 1430, he embarked on one of two fresco cycles for Santa Maria Novella's Chiostro Verde. His work, such as the famed fresco of Sir John Hawkwood in Florence's Duomo, reveals his keen interest in perspective and geometric representation of nature, dating back to 1436. Over the decades from the 1440s to 1460s, Uccello's style fused late Gothic with the cutting-edge Florentine Renaissance. His work at San Miniato al Monte shows clear influences from Donatello's sculpture and Alberti's spatial theories. His creative influence touched great artists like Piero della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci. In 1475, Uccello died in Florence and was laid to rest in Santo Spirito.
