Niccolo Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino della Ciarda at the Battle of San Romano Paolo Uccello Buy Art Prints Now
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Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
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The Battle of San Romano is one of many famous works by Paolo Uccello (1397-1475). The piece, like most of Uccello's work, dates back to the Renaissance period.

He also used the International Gothic style in this work, adding his own unique twist to it to create a different artistic style completely. Also, his pioneering use of perspective and the representation of objects in difficult and almost impossible perspectives, along with his mathematical background, can be seen. Niccolo Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino Della Ciarda at the Battle of San Romano is a pure composition of perspective. It is currently shared by three museums; Uffizi in Italy, The National Gallery of London and The Louvre Museum in Paris. Its dimensions are 1.82m by 3.17m. It dates back to around 1455.

The material used for this composition is tempera. Its planning is according to perspectiva naturalis, a style with various vanishing points pioneered by Paolo Uccello. Thanks to this perspective, Paolo places the battle at the foreground where many elements are depicted foreshortened from the background. There are hunting scenes which contain characters that have unreal proportions. He paid attention to details on the armor and horses and a fairy-tale atmospheric effect which is part of the late Gothic-style of work. He put a lot of details to the composition, a reminder of the tapestry style. The battle depicted in the composition is very important and memorable, dating back to 1432. In this battle, the Florentines fought against the Sienese, who were allied with Milan and Lucca. The Florentines, won the battle thanks to the timely reinforcements.

Niccolo Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino Della Ciarda at the Battle of San Romano was commissioned in 1438, by Lionardo Bartolini Salimbeni, who was then a rich man during the campaign. In around 1484, Lorenzo the Magnificent fell in love with the panel on sight, he then bought the piece with other panels and displayed it at the Medici palace. However, the family sold the building to the Riccardi family. The piece was to end up in the Uffizi gallery in Italy, later on. The panel was produced with two others, making them a total of three. They were considered too similar to one another. The other two were sold to The National Gallery of London and The Louvre museum in Paris. The best is one is however still preserved in Uffizi.

Niccolo Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino della Ciarda at the Battle of San Romano Paolo Uccello