WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome back to the Deep Dive, the place where 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:04.440 we cut through the noise to understand the foundational 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:07.660 figures in history, science, and art. And today, 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:09.900 we're putting a spotlight on someone pretty unique, 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:12.919 a figure who stands, well, quite literally at 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.080 the exact intersection of art and mathematics. 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.660 Paolo Uccello. That's him. Born Paolo di Dono, 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:24.039 around 1397. Uccello was, hmm, more than just 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:26.100 a painter of the early Renaissance. He was really 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:28.440 an artistic mathematician, you could say, a surveyor 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:31.500 of space. He really captures that moment, doesn't 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.159 he? That electrifying time in 15th century Florence 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:36.920 when art shifted. Right. From, you know, primarily 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.420 religious feeling and the Gothic way of doing 00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:41.840 things towards empirical science, observation, 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:44.020 things you could actually measure. So our mission 00:00:44.020 --> 00:00:46.259 today is to really get into the skin of this. 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:50.679 wildly idiosyncratic figure. He's fascinating, 00:00:50.899 --> 00:00:53.640 a man who still had one foot firmly planted in 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.299 that lavish storytelling world of the late gothic, 00:00:56.299 --> 00:00:58.700 all pageantry and color. But his mind was racing 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.060 ahead, obsessed apparently with conquering the 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:02.939 vanishing point. Exactly, and we have a pretty 00:01:02.939 --> 00:01:04.920 interesting mix of sources to piece his life 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.060 together. What are we working with? Well, there 00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:09.819 are biographical bits, most famously from Giorgio 00:01:09.819 --> 00:01:12.519 Vasari's big work, Lives of the Artists. Now, 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:14.700 that was written about 75 years after Uccello 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:17.099 died, so you have to factor that in. Okay, so 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:20.719 not exactly contemporary, but still hugely influential. 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:24.000 Hugely. And alongside Vasari, we've got official 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:28.599 records. Things like detailed tax returns, commission 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:31.540 documents. Real nuts and bolts stuff. Yeah, and 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:33.719 they consistently point to an artist defined 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:37.099 by one, well... all -consuming fixation. That 00:01:37.099 --> 00:01:40.739 fixation, the absolute core of Uccello's identity, 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:44.560 his fame, really, is visual perspective. That 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:46.719 thing that allowed Renaissance artists to create 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:49.150 that powerful illusion, right. Three dimensions 00:01:49.150 --> 00:01:51.890 on a totally flat panel. Zaria paints quite a 00:01:51.890 --> 00:01:53.629 picture of this obsession, doesn't he? Oh, absolutely. 00:01:53.829 --> 00:01:56.109 He gives us the definitive image. He wrote that 00:01:56.109 --> 00:01:58.569 Uccello was so fixated on understanding perspective, 00:01:58.849 --> 00:02:00.489 the principles behind it, that he'd forget to 00:02:00.489 --> 00:02:03.370 eat, forget to sleep. Apparently so. Would stay 00:02:03.370 --> 00:02:05.129 up all night in his study, just, you know, trying 00:02:05.129 --> 00:02:07.769 to grasp the exact vanishing point. The precise 00:02:07.769 --> 00:02:10.370 geometry needed to map the world onto a canvas. 00:02:10.939 --> 00:02:12.759 Okay, let's unpack that for a moment. Because 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:15.400 he wasn't just using perspective like, say, putting 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.240 a road disappearing in the background. No, no, 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:18.860 it was much more fundamental for him. He was 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:21.819 using geometry to actually structure the entire 00:02:21.819 --> 00:02:24.319 painting, wasn't he? Creating this deep feeling 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:27.759 of like mathematically controlled space. That's 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.139 the critical distinction, yes. Even if it made 00:02:30.139 --> 00:02:33.979 things look a bit odd. Less realistic sometimes. 00:02:34.139 --> 00:02:37.680 Precisely. For Uccello, perspective wasn't just 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.979 a tool in the background. It was often the primary 00:02:39.979 --> 00:02:42.960 subject itself. It was the foundation, the grid, 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:45.360 you know, upon which the whole scene was built. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:47.560 So what does this all mean for his legacy? If 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:49.680 we had to give the key takeaway right up front. 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:52.960 I'd say this. Uccello was a profound pioneer. 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:56.280 A man who used mathematics to create measurable 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:59.800 depth in a way few had before. But. There's always 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:03.669 a but. But. His unique blend, that mix of geometric 00:03:03.669 --> 00:03:06.250 precision, the new Renaissance thing, combined 00:03:06.250 --> 00:03:09.270 with this older decorative fervor from the Gothic 00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:12.449 tradition. It meant his style was so singular, 00:03:12.509 --> 00:03:15.229 so specific to his own rigorous mind. That he 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:17.189 didn't really have followers copying him directly. 00:03:17.569 --> 00:03:20.810 Exactly. He actually left no direct school of 00:03:20.810 --> 00:03:23.870 followers. He remains this brilliant, absolutely 00:03:23.870 --> 00:03:26.389 fascinating outlier. Okay, so unique figure. 00:03:26.490 --> 00:03:29.520 Let's dive into where he came from. To really 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:32.719 appreciate that singular approach, we need to 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:34.860 trace his origins. Right. He was born around 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:38.400 1397, probably in Pradovescio, which is near 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:41.300 Arezzo. But his family really established themselves 00:03:41.300 --> 00:03:43.500 in Florence. And his background was a bit mixed. 00:03:43.870 --> 00:03:47.629 Yeah, somewhat. His father, Dono di Paolo, was 00:03:47.629 --> 00:03:50.550 a barber -surgeon. A respected trade, practical. 00:03:50.830 --> 00:03:53.310 But his mother, Antonia, she came from a high 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:55.590 -born Florentine family. So, a bit of social 00:03:55.590 --> 00:03:58.110 contrast there. And we absolutely have to talk 00:03:58.110 --> 00:04:00.530 about the name. He wasn't born Uccello. No, Paolo 00:04:00.530 --> 00:04:02.949 di Dono. Uccello means little bird in Italian. 00:04:03.250 --> 00:04:06.090 And it stuck. Why? Well, our sources, Vasari 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:08.789 included, suggest it came directly from his passion 00:04:08.789 --> 00:04:11.780 for painting birds. Apparently, he also kept 00:04:11.780 --> 00:04:14.039 a huge collection of animal pictures at home, 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:16.800 almost like a personal reference library, a menagerie 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.339 on paper. That's a wonderful detail, almost whimsical, 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:21.560 isn't it? Especially when you think about the 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:23.800 rigorous mathematical mind we're about to discuss. 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:27.220 It is a nice contrast. But that whimsical early 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:30.000 interest quickly led to some very serious training. 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:33.040 His crucial apprenticeship, which ran from about 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.740 1412 to 1416, maybe a bit longer. Where was that? 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:39.759 It was under the direction of the great sculptor 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:43.040 Lorenzo Ghiberti. Ah, Ghiberti. Creator of the 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.100 Florence Baptistery doors. A huge name. Absolutely 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:48.620 huge. Yeah. And his workshop was, well, arguably 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:50.879 the premier training center for Florentine art 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.160 at that time. The place to be. So that apprenticeship 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.490 is really vital to understanding Uccello. Gibbery's 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:01.290 style was fundamentally late Gothic, right? Yes, 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:04.389 very much so. Highly narrative, focused on elegant 00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:07.410 lines, flowing composition, very sculptural thinking. 00:05:07.689 --> 00:05:09.790 And Uccello absorbed that. You can see it later, 00:05:09.910 --> 00:05:11.889 can't you? That sense of pageantry, the detailed 00:05:11.889 --> 00:05:13.790 storytelling. Definitely. He carried it through 00:05:13.790 --> 00:05:15.730 his whole career, even when he started imposing 00:05:15.730 --> 00:05:18.389 that rigid mathematical structure onto everything. 00:05:18.689 --> 00:05:21.329 It explains why even his most geometric paintings 00:05:21.329 --> 00:05:24.230 still feel visually rich, almost theatrical. 00:05:24.589 --> 00:05:27.029 It's that blend again. It is. And we can even 00:05:27.029 --> 00:05:29.910 speculate a bit. Ghiberti designed these incredible 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:32.410 battle scenes for the second set of baptistry 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:34.569 doors, the ones Michelangelo famously called 00:05:34.569 --> 00:05:37.230 the Gates of Paradise. Right. It's possible those 00:05:37.230 --> 00:05:39.589 scenes directly influenced Uccello. Maybe planted 00:05:39.589 --> 00:05:42.170 the seeds for his own famous Battle of San Romano 00:05:42.170 --> 00:05:44.709 panels much later on. He learned how to handle 00:05:44.709 --> 00:05:47.810 a big sweeping narrative from the master sculptor. 00:05:47.850 --> 00:05:49.509 And this was also when he started climbing the 00:05:49.509 --> 00:05:51.889 professional ladder. Yes. Things moved quite 00:05:51.889 --> 00:05:55.560 quickly. By 1414, Uccello was admitted to the 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.139 Painter's Guild, the Compagna di San Luca. But 00:05:58.139 --> 00:06:01.740 just a year later, 1415, he got into the official, 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:05.240 much more influential Florentine guild, the Arte 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.959 dei Medici e degli Speciali. Can you clarify 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:10.139 the difference for us? Why two guilds? Sure. 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:12.839 The Compagnia di San Luca was more like an artistic 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:15.980 fraternity, a brotherhood focused on the painters 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:18.240 themselves. Religious connections, too. Really? 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:21.339 The Arte di Medici e degli Speziali, the Guild 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:23.720 of Doctors and Apothecaries, was the main professional 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:26.040 trade guild. Painters were in it because they 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:28.300 bought their pigments, their raw materials, from 00:06:28.300 --> 00:06:30.959 the apothecaries. Ah, the practical side of things. 00:06:31.139 --> 00:06:33.399 Exactly. Joining that second guild meant he was 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:36.519 recognized as a legitimate professional tradesman. 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:39.079 in Florence. He could take on commissions, run 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.860 a business. It was a big step. And that signals 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:45.500 his growing reputation. Also around this time, 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.259 crucially. He formed a lifelong friendship with 00:06:48.259 --> 00:06:50.680 Donatello. Yes, Donatello, the great pioneer 00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:53.000 of Renaissance sculpture. Being connected to 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.279 a major figure like that, someone really pushing 00:06:56.279 --> 00:06:58.480 the boundaries. Must have been hugely important, 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:01.379 especially as Uccello started exploring the more, 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:03.959 let's say, scientific side of art himself. Absolutely. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.980 And by 1424, Uccello is established. He's working 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:09.279 entirely independently. He's launched. Okay, 00:07:09.339 --> 00:07:11.699 so he's set up. Now let's get into the heart 00:07:11.699 --> 00:07:14.759 of his contribution. This pioneering work on 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:17.959 creating controlled... mathematical space. This 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:20.839 really was his obsession. His quest for depth 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:24.079 wasn't hidden, it was explicit. He aimed to use 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:27.600 lines, geometry, mathematics to depict objects 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.579 in three -dimensional space. Providing a disciplined 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:33.620 visual structure, something that felt well engineered, 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:36.009 not just casually observed. That's a good way 00:07:36.009 --> 00:07:38.910 to put it. It was revolutionary because before 00:07:38.910 --> 00:07:41.449 Uccello and others like Brunelleschi, artists 00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:44.149 mostly relied on, you know, empirical tricks, 00:07:44.310 --> 00:07:46.970 overlapping figures, making things smaller in 00:07:46.970 --> 00:07:49.449 the distance. Intuitive methods. Intuitive, exactly. 00:07:50.110 --> 00:07:52.449 Uccello, caught up in the burgeoning scientific 00:07:52.449 --> 00:07:55.470 thinking of his time, wanted a consistent mathematical 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:58.949 rule set. He wanted it predictable. And Vasori 00:07:58.949 --> 00:08:02.160 points to an early breakthrough. Yes, he documents 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.379 what seems to be the initial triumph of this 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:07.279 approach, Uccello's fresco of the Annunciation 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.779 for the Santa Maria Maggiore Church. What was 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.439 special about that one? Well, in that early Annunciation, 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:14.899 Uccello painted this magnificent architectural 00:08:14.899 --> 00:08:18.720 setting. A large building, columns, all rendered 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:20.839 using the principles of perspective, apparently 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:23.300 very expertly for the time. And people noticed. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.160 According to the Vasari, yes. The art world saw 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:28.920 it as a beautiful and major achievement because 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.199 it was maybe the first really clear example of 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:34.279 how technical, measured lines could be used to 00:08:34.279 --> 00:08:36.539 demonstrate perspective and scale rigorously. 00:08:36.659 --> 00:08:39.320 So not just inting it depth, but actually constructing 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:42.240 it. Constructing space. That was the key. That 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:44.779 realization that space could be built on the 00:08:44.779 --> 00:08:48.200 canvas using math must have been, well, electrifying. 00:08:48.509 --> 00:08:51.230 You'd imagine so. And we see his interest in 00:08:51.230 --> 00:08:54.309 manipulating perspective, especially forced perspective, 00:08:54.669 --> 00:08:58.169 appear really powerfully in 1436. Which work 00:08:58.169 --> 00:09:01.090 is that? The Monochromatic Fresco, the funerary 00:09:01.090 --> 00:09:03.389 monument to Sir John Hawkwood, which you can 00:09:03.389 --> 00:09:05.549 still see in the Duomo, the Florence Cathedral. 00:09:05.830 --> 00:09:08.690 Ah, the equestrian monument, yes. That's a prime 00:09:08.690 --> 00:09:10.809 example of this perspective focus. It really 00:09:10.809 --> 00:09:13.649 is. The subject is a condottiere, Sir John Hawkwood, 00:09:13.789 --> 00:09:16.250 an English mercenary captain who fought for Florence. 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:19.190 These condottieri were basically hired military 00:09:19.190 --> 00:09:21.990 leaders. Yeah. Big figures in Renaissance Italy. 00:09:22.129 --> 00:09:25.070 Very big figures. And Uccello painted Hawkwood 00:09:25.070 --> 00:09:28.259 and his horse. But here's the thing. He painted 00:09:28.259 --> 00:09:31.120 them as if the flat two -dimensional fresco were 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.480 actually a massive three -dimensional sculpture. 00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:35.899 And not just any sculpture. No, a sculpture being 00:09:35.899 --> 00:09:38.539 viewed dramatically from below. The entire composition 00:09:38.539 --> 00:09:41.299 is built around that specific low viewpoint. 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:43.460 So he's deliberately playing with how we see 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:46.320 it. Absolutely. He's manipulating the viewing 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.240 plane. If you stood right level with the painting, 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:51.460 the horse and rider would actually look distorted, 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:54.200 kind of stretched out. But it's hung high up 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:57.080 on the wall. Exactly. So from the floor of the 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.679 Duomo, looking up, the forced lines of perspective 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:02.519 kick in. They make the horse and rider appear 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:06.720 massive, solid, monumental. It creates this intense 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:09.279 illusion of physical presence, almost like a 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:11.710 real statue on a plinth. So his mathematical 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:13.990 rigor wasn't just for big public commissions. 00:10:14.090 --> 00:10:16.950 His mind was constantly working on these problems. 00:10:17.149 --> 00:10:20.610 Constantly analyzing geometry. We know this because 00:10:20.610 --> 00:10:23.669 specific, highly technical studies he made of 00:10:23.669 --> 00:10:25.889 perspective foreshortening have actually survived. 00:10:26.169 --> 00:10:28.190 Really? Drawings? Yes, drawings and studies. 00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:30.669 This moves beyond just painting technique and 00:10:30.669 --> 00:10:33.309 really enters the realm of pure scientific exploration. 00:10:33.870 --> 00:10:37.149 He tackled complex geometric puzzles, seemingly 00:10:37.149 --> 00:10:39.250 just for the sake of understanding how their 00:10:39.250 --> 00:10:41.120 tricky forms could be... accurately represented 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:43.740 on a flat plane. Okay, let's focus on the two 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:45.879 most complex objects he studied because they 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.220 really show his dedication to pure geometry. 00:10:48.379 --> 00:10:50.779 Good idea. The torus and the mother goat. The 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:53.820 torus first. What is that exactly? A torus is 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:57.620 a basic geometric shape. Think of a donut or 00:10:57.620 --> 00:11:00.929 an inner tube, a ring shape. Now, drawing that 00:11:00.929 --> 00:11:03.070 shape in perfect foreshortening, making it look 00:11:03.070 --> 00:11:05.850 round and solid when you're viewing it at a sharp 00:11:05.850 --> 00:11:08.429 angle is actually highly challenging. You have 00:11:08.429 --> 00:11:11.710 to mathematically map every single curve precisely. 00:11:11.870 --> 00:11:14.370 Right. You can't just guess the curve. No guesswork 00:11:14.370 --> 00:11:16.929 allowed for Uccello. But the real showstopper, 00:11:16.950 --> 00:11:19.009 the one that makes art historians really sit 00:11:19.009 --> 00:11:22.049 up and take notice. is the matsukyo the matsukyo 00:11:22.049 --> 00:11:24.230 what was that okay the matsukyo was a type of 00:11:24.230 --> 00:11:27.509 fashionable florentine hat worn by men in the 00:11:27.509 --> 00:11:30.909 15th century it was essentially a padded ring 00:11:30.909 --> 00:11:34.470 -shaped turban often covered in rich fabric sometimes 00:11:34.470 --> 00:11:37.649 faceted or ribbed sounds visually striking very 00:11:37.649 --> 00:11:41.929 but geometrically it's a nightmare It is effectively 00:11:41.929 --> 00:11:45.990 a complex, often multifaceted, woven torus. So 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:48.330 like the donut shape, but way more complicated. 00:11:48.549 --> 00:11:50.750 Way more complicated. Now imagine trying to accurately 00:11:50.750 --> 00:11:52.970 draw Matsukyo from multiple different angles, 00:11:53.149 --> 00:11:55.730 especially for shortened angles. Say, looking 00:11:55.730 --> 00:11:57.769 directly down onto the top of it or looking up 00:11:57.769 --> 00:12:00.230 at the inside ring. Okay, I can see the difficulty. 00:12:00.529 --> 00:12:03.230 To do that accurately, you need an absolute mastery 00:12:03.230 --> 00:12:06.629 of linear perspective, the kind that very few 00:12:06.629 --> 00:12:09.610 people in his time possessed. He made drawings 00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:12.220 of just... the mazzocchio, like geometrical exercises. 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:14.659 It sounds like he wasn't just drawing a portrait 00:12:14.659 --> 00:12:16.820 of a guy wearing a fancy hat. He was setting 00:12:16.820 --> 00:12:19.389 himself a mathematical problem. That's it exactly. 00:12:19.649 --> 00:12:22.470 The hat became the variable in his spatial equation. 00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:25.610 He was proving he could perfectly map its complex 00:12:25.610 --> 00:12:28.509 structure onto a two -dimensional glid, no matter 00:12:28.509 --> 00:12:30.909 the viewpoint. Showing off his skill, maybe, 00:12:31.049 --> 00:12:33.610 but also just figuring it out. So this wasn't 00:12:33.610 --> 00:12:36.830 guesswork. This was applied, verifiable geometry. 00:12:37.370 --> 00:12:39.710 Precisely. Which brings us back to his unique, 00:12:39.809 --> 00:12:42.809 his idiosyncratic style. Because he didn't just 00:12:42.809 --> 00:12:45.309 throw out the older, colorful, gothic traditions 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:48.399 he learned from Ghiberti. No, he sort of... Mash 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:50.080 them together. Violently mash them together, 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.200 you could say, with the hard structural lines 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:54.340 of the new Renaissance thinking. There's a famous 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:56.320 quote about this, isn't there? From the art historian 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:00.320 G .C. Argin. Yes, a very insightful one. Argin 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.080 noted that Uccello constructs space through perspective. 00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:06.159 If the resulting image is unnatural and unrealistic, 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:09.559 so much the worse for nature and history. Wow. 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:12.860 So much the worse for nature and history. That's 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:15.460 quite a statement. It is, but it's the essential 00:13:15.460 --> 00:13:18.179 key to understanding Uccello, I think. It implies 00:13:18.179 --> 00:13:21.139 he prioritized the mathematical truth, the structural 00:13:21.139 --> 00:13:24.360 integrity of his composition, over simply copying 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:27.220 what he saw, the visual or observational truth 00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:29.779 of reality. Which explains why his figures sometimes 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:33.240 look a bit stiff, almost wooden. Exactly. And 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:35.539 why the space can feel theatrical or staged. 00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:38.500 Because every element, every figure, every horse, 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:40.860 every object is ultimately subservient to the 00:13:40.860 --> 00:13:42.679 logic of the vanishing point and the perspective 00:13:42.679 --> 00:13:45.080 grid. And this focus on the underlying structure, 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:47.940 even at the cost of surface realism, is why some 00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:50.799 critics, like Argonne, compare Uccello's rigor 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:53.679 to much later art movements. Like 20th century 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:56.340 cubism or futurism, it's a compelling parallel. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:58.820 Well, while Uccello was certainly using mathematics 00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:01.870 to try and achieve a form of realism, His incredibly 00:14:01.870 --> 00:14:04.269 rigid application resulted in something that 00:14:04.269 --> 00:14:07.870 can feel profoundly abstract to our eyes. Like 00:14:07.870 --> 00:14:11.009 the cubists, centuries later, he broke objects 00:14:11.009 --> 00:14:13.210 down into their geometric components. You mean 00:14:13.210 --> 00:14:15.389 like the horses and fallen soldiers in his battle 00:14:15.389 --> 00:14:17.830 scenes? Yes. They're often reduced to simplified, 00:14:18.070 --> 00:14:21.210 blocky, measurable volumes. He was moving away 00:14:21.210 --> 00:14:23.789 from just mimicking reality towards a structural 00:14:23.789 --> 00:14:26.950 analysis of reality long before that became a 00:14:26.950 --> 00:14:31.200 declared artistic goal. In his mind, these mathematically 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:35.210 constructed images were maybe more true. Possibly. 00:14:35.250 --> 00:14:37.850 More true because they were mathematically verifiable, 00:14:38.090 --> 00:14:40.529 logically sound, even if they looked less true 00:14:40.529 --> 00:14:42.970 to life in the conventional sense. A fascinating 00:14:42.970 --> 00:14:45.590 tension. Definitely. Okay, so despite this intense 00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:48.450 focus on abstract geometry, Uccello was still 00:14:48.450 --> 00:14:51.190 a busy, successful working artist. He had major 00:14:51.190 --> 00:14:53.330 projects. Oh, absolutely. He wasn't just locked 00:14:53.330 --> 00:14:55.490 away with his drawings. His early themes were 00:14:55.490 --> 00:14:57.529 crucial for building his reputation in Florence. 00:14:57.710 --> 00:14:59.970 For instance, his work in the Green Cloister, 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:02.379 the Chiostro Verde of... Santa Maria novella. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.279 What did he paint there? Scenes like the creation 00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:07.659 and the fall and very significantly scenes from 00:15:07.659 --> 00:15:10.580 the life of Noah, including the great flood. 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.899 And these brought him fame. Immense fame in Florence, 00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:17.120 according to the sources. And those subjects, 00:15:17.220 --> 00:15:20.159 especially Noah's Ark and the creation. Well, 00:15:20.259 --> 00:15:22.899 they gave him the perfect excuse to indulge his 00:15:22.899 --> 00:15:25.940 nickname and his passion. Ah, painting animals. 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:29.039 Exactly. A large, lively number of animals and 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:32.179 birds fill those frescoes. He also earned a reputation 00:15:32.179 --> 00:15:34.179 for mastering things that previous artists struggled 00:15:34.179 --> 00:15:37.500 with, particularly landscapes. How so? The sources 00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:39.759 specifically note his skill in painting trees 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:42.100 and their natural colors, making them look convincing. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:45.179 This further cemented his reputation for painting 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:47.919 nature, effectively. And we know he kept up his 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:49.429 personal collection of animal paintings. pictures 00:15:49.429 --> 00:15:51.950 at home, constantly feeding his visual library. 00:15:52.289 --> 00:15:54.269 But this busy professional life full of these 00:15:54.269 --> 00:15:56.730 deep intellectual challenges, it wasn't always 00:15:56.730 --> 00:15:59.289 smooth sailing. There's a great story. Ah, yes. 00:15:59.529 --> 00:16:02.169 We have to recount the famous anecdote from Vasari 00:16:02.169 --> 00:16:04.129 about his time painting the lives of the church 00:16:04.129 --> 00:16:06.769 fathers in the cloisters of San Mignato Almonte 00:16:06.769 --> 00:16:09.649 overlooking Florence. The story of the cheese 00:16:09.649 --> 00:16:13.629 pie. The very same. According to Vasari, Uccella 00:16:13.629 --> 00:16:16.750 became so incredibly agitated by the monotonous 00:16:16.750 --> 00:16:18.970 diet the abbot was feeding him. What was it? 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:21.750 Apparently just cheese pies and cheese soup morning, 00:16:21.909 --> 00:16:23.769 noon, and night. Just cheese, cheese, cheese. 00:16:24.029 --> 00:16:27.210 Oh dear. So Uccella literally downed tools and 00:16:27.210 --> 00:16:29.809 ran away from the monastery. Just fled. He abandoned 00:16:29.809 --> 00:16:31.590 the commission over cheese. According to the 00:16:31.590 --> 00:16:34.889 story, yes. He only agreed to come back and finish 00:16:34.889 --> 00:16:37.750 the frescoes when the abbot solemnly promised 00:16:37.750 --> 00:16:40.700 him a better, more varied diet. That is just 00:16:40.700 --> 00:16:42.659 wonderful. It really grounds him, doesn't it? 00:16:42.700 --> 00:16:45.899 This high -minded genius, obsessed with the abstract 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:48.220 perfection of the vanishing point. Gets derailed 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:50.519 by culinary boredom. He reminds you he was still 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:52.820 a human being, living in a time when artists 00:16:52.820 --> 00:16:55.679 often depended entirely on their patrons for 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:58.259 room and board. Practical needs matter. It certainly 00:16:58.259 --> 00:17:00.700 makes him more relatable. Beyond monasteries, 00:17:00.700 --> 00:17:02.620 he also got work from the most powerful family 00:17:02.620 --> 00:17:05.420 in Florence. The Medici. The Medici, yes. He 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:08.460 painted scenes of distempered animals, meaning 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:11.500 dramatic, perhaps slightly stylized animal scenes 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:14.099 for their house, the Palazzo Medici. And Vasari 00:17:14.099 --> 00:17:16.759 liked those. Vasari was particularly impressed 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:20.319 by one depiction, a fierce lion fighting a venom 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:23.420 -spouting snake. Which suggests Uccello's skills 00:17:23.420 --> 00:17:26.220 in dynamic composition went far beyond just perspective 00:17:26.220 --> 00:17:28.480 grids. And his reputation kept him in demand, 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.579 even with his unique style. It seems so. He traveled 00:17:31.579 --> 00:17:34.400 for work, too. He was in Venice in 1425 working 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:36.759 on mosaics for the Basilica di San Marco, though 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:40.259 sadly those works are lost now. He also did frescoes 00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:44.259 in Preto, probably between 1435 and 1440. And 00:17:44.259 --> 00:17:46.579 he was invited to Padua by his friend Donatello 00:17:46.579 --> 00:17:50.099 in 1444 and again in 1445. So he was known and 00:17:50.099 --> 00:17:52.640 sought after outside Florence. But his most consistent 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:56.349 major patron remained the Florence Duomo. Yes, 00:17:56.509 --> 00:17:58.650 that connection stayed strong, confirming his 00:17:58.650 --> 00:18:00.410 enduring importance right in the heart of the 00:18:00.410 --> 00:18:03.009 city. His later Duomo work included painting 00:18:03.009 --> 00:18:05.390 the figures on the huge clock face inside the 00:18:05.390 --> 00:18:08.630 cathedral in 1443. Using perspective again, presumably. 00:18:08.910 --> 00:18:10.710 Oh yes, adjusting the figures so they looked 00:18:10.710 --> 00:18:13.210 correct when viewed from far below. And he also 00:18:13.210 --> 00:18:15.470 designed stained glass windows for the Duomo's 00:18:15.470 --> 00:18:18.049 oculi, the round windows, specifically the resurrection 00:18:18.049 --> 00:18:21.869 and the nativity between 1443 and 1444. So a 00:18:21.869 --> 00:18:25.269 tremendously busy and influential career, despite... 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:27.799 or maybe partly because of his very specific 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:30.519 visual approach. Absolutely. Which brings us 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.359 inevitably to his masterpiece, the work that 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:36.059 universally defines Uccello's name and his perspective 00:18:36.059 --> 00:18:39.660 obsession. A Battle of San Romano? Exactly. These 00:18:39.660 --> 00:18:41.680 three incredible panels were painted around the 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.859 mid -1450s. They commemorate the Florentine victory 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:48.000 over the Sienese army in 1432. And there was 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.240 some confusion about the date for a while. Yes, 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.920 a quick note on that. The sources confirm that 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:56.019 for a long, long time, these paintings were incorrectly 00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:59.359 identified, often called the Battle of Sant 'Egidio 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.119 of 1416. It just shows how history can get muddled, 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:05.740 even with really famous artworks. Good point. 00:19:05.859 --> 00:19:07.640 Now, the fact that this was a commission for 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:10.200 a massive triptych, three separate panels meant 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:12.279 to be seen together, that's crucial, right? Absolutely. 00:19:12.299 --> 00:19:14.400 It shows the sheer scale and importance of the 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:17.180 commission, likely from the Medici, and the kind 00:19:17.180 --> 00:19:19.759 of theatrical grandeur Uccello was expected to 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:21.960 deliver for their palette. And these three panels, 00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:25.059 sadly, aren't together anymore. No, they're spread 00:19:25.059 --> 00:19:28.180 across Europe now. They depict different moments 00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:30.900 of the battle, creating this unfolding visual 00:19:30.900 --> 00:19:33.279 narrative that would have originally lined a 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.390 room in the Palazzo Medici. Can you remind us 00:19:36.390 --> 00:19:39.210 which panels are where? Sure. First, there's 00:19:39.210 --> 00:19:41.390 Niccolo Maruzzi da Tolentino at the Battle of 00:19:41.390 --> 00:19:43.589 San Romano. That one's in the National Gallery 00:19:43.589 --> 00:19:45.549 in London. It shows the Florentine commander 00:19:45.549 --> 00:19:47.950 leading the charge. Okay. Then there's the panel 00:19:47.950 --> 00:19:50.829 showing the decisive moment. Niccolo Maruzzi 00:19:50.829 --> 00:19:54.170 da Tolentino unseats Bernardino della Carda. 00:19:54.170 --> 00:19:56.470 That's in the Galleria degli Uffizi right here 00:19:56.470 --> 00:19:59.230 in Florence. The home turf. And the third panel 00:19:59.230 --> 00:20:02.710 depicts the counterattack of Michelotto da Cotignola, 00:20:02.829 --> 00:20:05.589 who was another Florentine commander. That one's 00:20:05.589 --> 00:20:08.630 in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. So London, Florence, 00:20:08.950 --> 00:20:12.089 Paris. What's truly revolutionary about these 00:20:12.089 --> 00:20:13.710 paintings? How does he use perspective here? 00:20:13.970 --> 00:20:16.190 Well, this is where Uccello takes the inherently 00:20:16.190 --> 00:20:19.589 messy, kinetic, chaotic subject of a medieval 00:20:19.589 --> 00:20:21.750 battle. Which must have been pure pandemonium. 00:20:21.869 --> 00:20:25.609 Pure pandemonium. And he imposes absolute... 00:20:26.009 --> 00:20:29.529 cold, calculating geometry upon it. The visual 00:20:29.529 --> 00:20:32.609 impact comes from these incredibly foreshortened 00:20:32.609 --> 00:20:35.789 forms, not just little details, but major elements 00:20:35.789 --> 00:20:38.690 like fallen soldiers, horses, weapons. All rendered 00:20:38.690 --> 00:20:41.109 with that extreme perspective. Yes, like mathematical 00:20:41.109 --> 00:20:43.329 vectors shooting dramatically into the pictorial 00:20:43.329 --> 00:20:45.710 space or lying flat on the constructed ground 00:20:45.710 --> 00:20:47.990 plane. It's almost as if he paused the battle 00:20:47.990 --> 00:20:51.170 mid -chaos and then neatly arranged all the debris 00:20:51.170 --> 00:20:53.970 for a geometry lesson. That's a perfect description. 00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:56.460 Look closely at the ground plane in the London 00:20:56.460 --> 00:20:59.220 panel especially. You see broken lances, discarded 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:02.160 shields, even a fallen soldier. But they aren't 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:04.880 just scattered randomly. They are meticulously 00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:07.980 arranged along the orthogonal lines, those invisible 00:21:07.980 --> 00:21:10.759 diagonal lines that converge towards the vanishing 00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:13.819 point. They form a literal grid on the battlefield. 00:21:14.380 --> 00:21:17.200 A spatial lattice that organizes the chaos. So 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:19.460 the lances become rulers, basically. Essentially, 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:21.579 yes. They define the space. It turns the brutal 00:21:21.579 --> 00:21:24.000 violence into something staged, frozen, almost 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.500 like a tableau. And the figures. The horses. 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:28.839 They look quite rigid, don't they? Almost like 00:21:28.839 --> 00:21:31.400 toy soldiers sometimes. They do. Critics often 00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:33.900 point that out as a flaw, a lack of naturalism. 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:36.119 But it makes perfect sense when you realize they 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:40.200 are... in a way, just props within his grand 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:42.960 demonstration of perspective. Secondary to the 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:45.819 spatial structure. Largely, yes. The figures 00:21:45.819 --> 00:21:47.900 themselves are quite sculptural, which links 00:21:47.900 --> 00:21:50.259 back to his training with Ghiberti, but they're 00:21:50.259 --> 00:21:52.640 also like anatomical models placed carefully 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:54.920 within a three -dimensional stage set. And the 00:21:54.920 --> 00:21:58.470 horses. They're very colorful. Very. Bright heraldic 00:21:58.470 --> 00:22:01.150 comparisons, the decorative coverings. That provides 00:22:01.150 --> 00:22:03.390 the late Gothic pageantry, the visual richness. 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:06.109 But their bodies underneath are often rendered 00:22:06.109 --> 00:22:09.630 as heavy, simplified geometric volumes. It's 00:22:09.630 --> 00:22:11.569 that marriage again. Decorative splendor and 00:22:11.569 --> 00:22:14.650 geometric rigor. Exactly. So in a way, you could 00:22:14.650 --> 00:22:16.990 argue the battle scene isn't really about the 00:22:16.990 --> 00:22:19.490 Florentine victory over Siena. It's about the 00:22:19.490 --> 00:22:22.440 victory of the vanishing point. Absolutely. The 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:24.960 perspective technique is what provides the controlled 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:28.480 visual structure to the chaos. He marries that 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.559 older love of pageantry, the bright colors, the 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:34.500 gleaming armor, the spectacle with pure Renaissance 00:22:34.500 --> 00:22:37.039 geometry. He doesn't hide the structure. He flaunts 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:39.740 it. He flaunts it. Those lines on the ground, 00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:42.160 the foreshortened forms, they demonstrate his 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:45.279 virtuosity as a draftsman, as a spatial architect. 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:49.099 The overall effect is theatrical, almost surreal, 00:22:49.259 --> 00:22:51.440 and completely unique. in the art of the Renaissance. 00:22:51.720 --> 00:22:53.640 Incredible. Okay, let's move into his later life. 00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:55.319 Give a little glimpse into Uccello's personal 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:58.500 world. A brief glimpse, yes. We know he was married 00:22:58.500 --> 00:23:01.839 to a woman named Tommaso Malefici by 1453. Okay. 00:23:01.900 --> 00:23:04.440 And their son, Donato, named very appropriately 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:07.460 after his great friend Donatello was born that 00:23:07.460 --> 00:23:09.660 same year. A fitting tribute. Any other children? 00:23:09.900 --> 00:23:12.740 Yes. A few years later, in 1456, his daughter 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:16.039 Antonio was born. And Antonio Cello's story is 00:23:16.039 --> 00:23:18.140 a compelling little footnote, hinting at artistic 00:23:18.140 --> 00:23:21.140 talent perhaps passed down. How so? Well, she 00:23:21.140 --> 00:23:24.039 became a Carmelite nun, but on her death certificate, 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:27.819 dated 1491, she was specifically noted as a pittoressa, 00:23:27.859 --> 00:23:30.720 a painter. A female painter in the 15th century. 00:23:31.180 --> 00:23:33.559 That's rare. Did Vasari mention her? He did. 00:23:33.619 --> 00:23:36.259 He called her a daughter who knew how to draw, 00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:40.240 confirming she had some recognized skill. Tragically, 00:23:40.259 --> 00:23:42.640 though, none of her work survives. We can only 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:45.059 speculate what the daughter of the great geometrician 00:23:45.059 --> 00:23:48.799 might have painted. A lost legacy. So while his 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:50.819 family life was established, his professional 00:23:50.819 --> 00:23:52.619 life took him away from Florence again later 00:23:52.619 --> 00:23:55.839 on. Yes, to Urbino, the sophisticated court city. 00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:00.539 He was there between 1465 and 1469, working with 00:24:00.539 --> 00:24:02.839 his son Donato for the confraternity of Corpus 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:05.259 Domini. And this Urbino commission involves a 00:24:05.259 --> 00:24:07.859 particularly complex piece. It does. We need 00:24:07.859 --> 00:24:09.539 to discuss this one carefully, paying attention 00:24:09.539 --> 00:24:12.599 to the historical context. He painted the predella. 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:15.200 That's the series of small narrative panels usually 00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:17.859 found at the base of a large altarpiece. And 00:24:17.859 --> 00:24:20.220 the subject matter. It's known as the miracle 00:24:20.220 --> 00:24:23.460 of the profaned host. And this is difficult subject 00:24:23.460 --> 00:24:26.440 matter. It's based on a recurring anti -Semitic 00:24:26.440 --> 00:24:29.200 myth known as host desecration, which was unfortunately 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:31.579 widespread in Europe from the 13th century onwards. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.660 Okay. So Uccello was commissioned to paint scenes 00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:38.680 based on this myth. Yes. Six meticulous, very 00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:42.019 naturalistic scenes. They supposedly depict events 00:24:42.019 --> 00:24:45.099 related to this myth, specifically linking back 00:24:45.099 --> 00:24:48.700 to an alleged incident in Paris in 1290. And 00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:51.140 the sources say he used his full technical skill 00:24:51.140 --> 00:24:54.220 on these? Absolutely. He employed the same precise 00:24:54.220 --> 00:24:56.759 perspective, the same detailed architectural 00:24:56.759 --> 00:24:59.799 settings, the same descriptive naturalism that 00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:01.880 you see in his other narrative works. Is there 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:05.059 one scene that's particularly noted? Yes, the 00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:07.559 accounts often focus on one scene set within 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.500 the home of a Jewish pawnbroker. Uccello depicts 00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:12.859 the moment where blood is shown emanating from 00:25:12.859 --> 00:25:15.000 the consecrated host, which, according to the 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:17.599 myth, the moneylender had tried to boil or cook. 00:25:17.819 --> 00:25:20.259 How is it shown? The blood is depicted seeping 00:25:20.259 --> 00:25:22.200 dramatically out from under the door of the house, 00:25:22.380 --> 00:25:25.019 revealing the supposed desecration to the outside 00:25:25.019 --> 00:25:27.839 world. Uccello's skill in rendering domestic 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:30.339 interiors and architectural detail would have 00:25:30.339 --> 00:25:32.480 given these disturbing narratives a very powerful 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:35.259 sense of realism, a kind of chilling immediacy 00:25:35.259 --> 00:25:37.740 for the contemporary audience viewing them. It's 00:25:37.740 --> 00:25:39.359 important, though, to understand the context 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:41.359 in Urbino at that time. It wasn't straightforward. 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:45.019 No, it's quite complex, even contradictory. While 00:25:45.019 --> 00:25:47.900 Uccello is painting this very harsh subject matter 00:25:47.900 --> 00:25:50.799 for the confraternity, the main patron associated 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:53.900 with the larger altarpiece project was Duke Frederick 00:25:53.900 --> 00:25:57.069 of Montefeltro. The famous Duke of Urbino. Exactly. 00:25:57.150 --> 00:25:59.970 And Duke Frederick, despite this commission happening 00:25:59.970 --> 00:26:03.130 under his rule, is actually on record as allowing 00:26:03.130 --> 00:26:06.230 a small Jewish community to live and operate 00:26:06.230 --> 00:26:09.329 within Urbino itself. There was even a synagogue. 00:26:09.710 --> 00:26:12.089 So there's a real tension there. A definite tension. 00:26:12.250 --> 00:26:14.849 It highlights the incredibly complex religious, 00:26:15.170 --> 00:26:17.710 political, and artistic currents that artists 00:26:17.710 --> 00:26:19.890 like Uccello had to navigate when working under 00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:22.309 commission in the Renaissance. They were executing 00:26:22.309 --> 00:26:25.539 the patron's wishes. Okay, so... After this demanding 00:26:25.539 --> 00:26:28.559 Urbino commission, the records show Uccello returning 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:31.420 to Florence for his final years. Yes. And his 00:26:31.420 --> 00:26:34.640 Florentine tax return from August 1469 gives 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:37.140 us this really quite poignant, very personal 00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:39.859 declaration. What did he write? He stated very 00:26:39.859 --> 00:26:42.740 plainly, I find myself old and ailing. My wife 00:26:42.740 --> 00:26:45.680 is ill and I can no longer work. Wow. Just lays 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.009 it out there. A heartbreaking admission, really. 00:26:48.150 --> 00:26:50.630 A moment of professional surrender from a man 00:26:50.630 --> 00:26:53.250 who had poured his entire life into achieving 00:26:53.250 --> 00:26:56.230 absolute technical precision, into conquering 00:26:56.230 --> 00:26:58.650 space on the canvas. Do we know what his last 00:26:58.650 --> 00:27:01.089 work was? His last known painting is generally 00:27:01.089 --> 00:27:03.289 considered to be The Hunt in the Forest, which 00:27:03.289 --> 00:27:05.650 is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Probably 00:27:05.650 --> 00:27:08.029 painted around 1470. The Hunt in the Forest. 00:27:08.230 --> 00:27:11.450 Yes, it's a beautiful, atmospheric night scene, 00:27:11.609 --> 00:27:14.089 and it feels like a final nod to his lifelong 00:27:14.089 --> 00:27:17.039 love of nature and animals. But even there, he 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:20.019 masterfully uses perspective, the receding lines 00:27:20.019 --> 00:27:22.779 of the trees to draw the viewer deep, deep into 00:27:22.779 --> 00:27:25.480 the dark woods, still playing with space right 00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:28.359 to the end. When did he die? Shortly after that, 00:27:28.460 --> 00:27:31.299 in December 1475, he was about 78 years old. 00:27:31.400 --> 00:27:33.819 He was buried in his father's tomb in the Church 00:27:33.819 --> 00:27:36.039 of Santo Spirito right here in Florence. And 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:39.180 how did Vasari frame his end? Vasari, while he 00:27:39.180 --> 00:27:41.500 clearly revered Uccello's groundbreaking work 00:27:41.500 --> 00:27:44.019 on perspective, he characterized his passing 00:27:44.019 --> 00:27:46.799 somewhat sadly. He called him a lonesome and 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:49.519 forgotten man. Forgotten? But his work was so 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:52.880 influential. Perhaps forgotten in the sense that 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:55.460 his specific style, that blend of Gothic and 00:27:55.460 --> 00:27:58.119 geometric, was already being overshadowed by 00:27:58.119 --> 00:28:00.440 the next wave of Renaissance artists. People 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:03.000 focusing more purely on anatomical perfection, 00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:06.259 grace, and a more naturalistic integration of 00:28:06.259 --> 00:28:09.480 figures in space like Leonardo. Bocello's moment 00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:11.940 had passed in a way. Okay, so let's try and synthesize 00:28:11.940 --> 00:28:15.180 Paolo Bocello's legacy. It's vast. It's singular. 00:28:15.420 --> 00:28:18.299 He really occupies this unique position in art 00:28:18.299 --> 00:28:20.690 history. He really does. He was absolutely instrumental 00:28:20.690 --> 00:28:22.910 in defining the early Renaissance, not just as 00:28:22.910 --> 00:28:25.569 a cultural rebirth, but as a scientific revolution 00:28:25.569 --> 00:28:27.829 in the practice of painting itself. He's that 00:28:27.829 --> 00:28:29.730 perfect blend, isn't he? The artistic and the 00:28:29.730 --> 00:28:31.410 scientific, the decorator and the structural 00:28:31.410 --> 00:28:34.470 engineer. Exactly. He wasn't forgotten in terms 00:28:34.470 --> 00:28:36.950 of his core ideas, though. He was a true pioneer 00:28:36.950 --> 00:28:40.390 who pushed past conventional realism to explore 00:28:40.390 --> 00:28:43.150 the very mechanics of sight, of illusion, of 00:28:43.150 --> 00:28:45.690 how we perceive space. And his impact on later 00:28:45.690 --> 00:28:48.089 artists who mastered perspective is undeniable. 00:28:48.170 --> 00:28:50.250 Absolutely undeniable. You look at figures like 00:28:50.250 --> 00:28:52.430 Piero della Francesca, who took Uccello's geometric 00:28:52.430 --> 00:28:55.089 foundations and refined them, made them maybe 00:28:55.089 --> 00:28:57.890 more harmonious. Right. And later still, people 00:28:57.890 --> 00:29:00.450 like Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer in Germany, 00:29:00.710 --> 00:29:03.450 artists who seriously studied and documented 00:29:03.450 --> 00:29:07.029 perspective systems, they all, in some way, built 00:29:07.029 --> 00:29:09.069 upon the groundwork Uccello laid down back in 00:29:09.069 --> 00:29:12.170 the 1430s and 40s. He really cemented the idea 00:29:12.170 --> 00:29:14.250 that the painter's brush could also be a drafting 00:29:14.250 --> 00:29:17.039 tool. A tool of measurements and precision. Yes. 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:19.980 He showed the art world that an image could be 00:29:19.980 --> 00:29:22.859 a deliberate intellectual construction, not just 00:29:22.859 --> 00:29:25.680 a fluid depiction of what you see. He used mathematics 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:28.720 to control chaos, most famously in those battle 00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:31.819 scenes, and to create illusions of sculptural 00:29:31.819 --> 00:29:33.740 weight and monumentality that must have been 00:29:33.740 --> 00:29:36.099 absolutely stunning for their time. He was key 00:29:36.099 --> 00:29:38.200 then in establishing that crucial Renaissance 00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:42.740 idea. That art isn't just a manual craft. Precisely. 00:29:42.740 --> 00:29:44.740 That it's a liberal art, an intellectual pursuit 00:29:44.740 --> 00:29:46.880 worthy of scholarly focus because it required 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.880 applying geometry, optics, mathematics. He helped 00:29:49.880 --> 00:29:51.819 elevate the status of the artist. Which brings 00:29:51.819 --> 00:29:54.559 us back full circle to where we started and leaves 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:57.339 us with one final, maybe provocative thought 00:29:57.339 --> 00:29:59.319 to consider, but the personality of this man. 00:29:59.660 --> 00:30:01.380 behind the vanishing point. Go on. Well, the 00:30:01.380 --> 00:30:04.039 cello was utterly obsessed with creating depth 00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:07.160 and mathematical accuracy in space. Right. Spending 00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:09.559 sleepless nights chasing this abstract perfection. 00:30:10.039 --> 00:30:12.599 Yes. Yet, he's also the guy known to literally 00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:14.660 run away from a major commission because the 00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:17.140 food was boring. Because of monotonous cheese 00:30:17.140 --> 00:30:20.339 pies. Huh. It creates a wonderful dichotomy, 00:30:20.420 --> 00:30:22.019 doesn't it? What does that tell us about the 00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:25.779 nature of genius, maybe? Exactly. He sought this 00:30:25.779 --> 00:30:29.809 abstract, universal perfection in his art. The 00:30:29.809 --> 00:30:32.349 perfect torus, the ideal vanishing point, the 00:30:32.349 --> 00:30:34.450 mathematically structured battlefield. But he 00:30:34.450 --> 00:30:36.690 was simultaneously governed by the most immediate, 00:30:36.849 --> 00:30:39.609 mundane realities of human life. Simple hunger, 00:30:39.769 --> 00:30:42.470 domestic needs, the desire for a bit of variety 00:30:42.470 --> 00:30:44.910 in his diet. So maybe we should consider how 00:30:44.910 --> 00:30:48.210 these eccentricities, these very human, non -artistic 00:30:48.210 --> 00:30:50.329 demands and limitations placed on an artist, 00:30:50.390 --> 00:30:53.029 like just needing a decent meal or being old 00:30:53.029 --> 00:30:55.410 and ill, how do those things ultimately shape 00:30:55.410 --> 00:30:57.650 the masterpieces that we study centuries later? 00:30:58.000 --> 00:30:59.779 It's a great point. The painter of the perfect 00:30:59.779 --> 00:31:02.660 line, the architect of painted space, was, after 00:31:02.660 --> 00:31:04.660 all, still just a man who got tired of cheese 00:31:04.660 --> 00:31:07.160 and maybe needed his dinner. Something for you 00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:07.799 to think about.