| Paolo Uccello would have been the cleverest and most original
genius since the time of Giotto if he would have studied figures
and animals as much as he studied and wasted his time over perspective,
for although it is an ingenious and fine science, yet he who pursues
it out of measure throws away his time, makes his manner dry,
and often himself becomes solitary and strange, melancholy and
poor, as Paolo Uccello did. Donatello, his great friend, many
times said to him when Paolo showed him his circles and his squares
and his balls with seventy two faces, all drawn in perspective,
and all the other fancies in which he wasted his time, "Eh,
Paolo, this perspective of yours makes you leave what is certain
for the uncertain; these are things which are no use except for
men who make inlaid work." In S. Miniato, outside Florence,
he painted the lives of the Fathers, in which pictures he made
the fields azure, the cities red, and the buildings varied, according
to his own pleasure; and in this he did wrong, for things that
we suppose to be of stone ought not to be painted of any other
colour. It is said that while Paolo was engaged on this work,
the abbot of the place gave him scarcely anything but cheese to
eat; and this thing becoming an annoyance, Paolo, who was timid,
determined not to go there any more to work. And when the abbot
sent for him, and he heard himself asked for by the friars, he
always sent word that he was not at home; and if by chance he
met a couple of that order in Florence he would set off running
as hard as he could to escape them. But one day two of the youngest
and more curious of them overtook him, and asked him why he did
not come to finish the work he had begun, and why he took to flight
whenever he met any of the friars. Paolo replied, "You have
ruined me altogether, so that not only do I flee from you, but
I dare not pass by any place where there are carpenters; for your
abbot, with his tarts and soup all made of cheese, has so filled
me with it that I am afraid of being boiled down for glue, and
if I had gone on any longer I should have left off being Paolo
and become cheese." The friars returned home in fits of laughter
and told the abbot about it; whereupon he persuaded him to return
to his work, promising that other food besides cheese should be
supplied him.
He painted many pictures of animals, of which he was very fond.
He made a great study of them, and had always in his house paintings
of birds, cats, and dogs, and any kind of strange animal that
he could get a drawing of, not being able to keep live animals
because he was poor; and because he delighted most in birds (uccelli)
he was surnamed Paolo Uccello. Among other pictures of animals
he made some lions fighting together, which by their motions and
terrible fierceness seem to be alive. But the most strange was
a serpent fighting with a lion, exhibiting his fury in fierce
contortions, with the poison issuing from his eyes and mouth,
while a peasant woman who is present taking care of an ox, most
beautifully foreshortened, is running away in terror.
In the cloister of S. Maria Novella also he painted the creation
of the animals and the deluge. He was the first who gained a name
for landscapes, carrying them to more perfection than any other
painter before him. In S. Maria del Fiore he also made a monument
to Sir John Hawkwood, the English captain of the Florentines,
who died in the year 1393, a horse of extraordinary size, with
the captain upon it. The work was considered and really is very
fine for pictures of that sort, and if Paolo had not made the
horse moving his legs on one side only, which horses do not naturally
do or they would fall, the work would be perfect. Perhaps he made
the mistake because he was not used to ride or study horses as
he did other animals; but the foreshortening of the horse is very
fine. Paolo was taken by Donatello to Padua where he was working,
and there he painted some giants, which were so fine that Andrea
Mantegna held them in the highest esteem. He also painted in fresco
the loggia of the Peruzzi, introducing in the corners the four
elements accompanied by an appropriate animal; for the earth there
was a mole, for water a fish, for fire a salamander, and for air
the chameleon, which lives upon it and takes every colour. And
because he had never seen a chameleon, in his great simplicity
he made in its stead a camel opening its mouth and swallowing
the air to fill its stomach
Such great pains did Paolo take in his works that he left behind
him chests full of drawings, as I have heard from his relatives
themselves. In his house he had a picture of five men who had
distinguished themselves in art: Giotto the painter, as the beginning
and light of art, Filippo di Ser Brunellesco for architecture,
Donatello for sculpture, himself for perspective and animals,
and for mathematics Giovanni Manetti, his friend.
It is said that being entrusted with the painting of S. Thomas
over the gate of the church dedicated to that saint in the Old
Market, he resolved to put into the work all he knew, and to show
how much he was capable of; and so he made a screen round him
that none might be able to see his work until it was finished.
And one day Donatello, meeting him all alone, asked him, "What
is this work of yours which you keep shut up so close?" To
which Paolo replied, "You will see in time." Donatello
would not urge him any more, expecting to see something marvellous.
But one morning, going into the old market to buy fruit, he saw
Paolo uncovering his work, and saluting him courteously, Paolo
called upon him to say what he thought of his picture, eagerly
desiring to know his opinion. Donatello, looking at the work carefillly,
replied, "Ah, Paolo, now that it is time to cover it up you
are uncovering it." Paolo was greatly afflicted, that by
this his last effort he had earned much more blame than he hoped
to have earned praise; and he shut himself up in his house as
if he had disgraced himself, not having courage to walk abroad
any longer, giving himself up to perspective, and remained poor
and obscure until his death. His wife used to say that Paolo would
sit studying perspective all night, and when she called him to
come to bed he would answer, " Oh, what a sweet thing this
perspective is!" And if it was sweet to him, his work has
made it valuable and useful indeed to those who have studied it
after him.
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