Antonio
Pisanello

Born in the family clothier Bucco di Giovanni da Caretta. The first teacher of the future artist was Stefano da Verona. With da Fabriano Pisanello in 1409 - 1415 years in Venice worked on the decoration of the Hall of the Great Council at the Palace of the Doges. In 1420 years worked on the frescoes in the castle of the Visconti in Pavia - this fresco cycle died during the war with France in 1527.

In December 1439, the troops of Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga besieged Verona. In 1441-1444 years the artist, who was not allowed to live at the Venice land, worked at the court of the Duke of Ferrara Lionello d'este. In 1448 Pisanello was invited to Naples by king Alfonso of Aragon. After 1450 information about Pisanello not.

Italian painter, draftsman and medallist. Assistant and successor Gentile Fabriano.

Antonio di Pucco di Cerreto, born in Pisa and called Pisanello, was one of the main representatives of art of the late Gothic style in Northern Italy, and the unsurpassed master of portrait medals.

Was formed under the influence of Verona and Lombard painting at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries Pisanello studied in Northern Italy and were influenced by Stefano da Zevio, Altichiero and Gentile da Fabriano.

In the early XV century, he settled in Verona, where he was invited to work at various Italian courts of the Dukes. Worked in the courts of many important persons in Italy, where its fine and decorative international Gothic style of painting reflects the tastes of its patrons.

Worked in the courts Gonzaga, d'este, the Visconti and Sforza - from Milan to Naples. Receive orders from the Roman Curia and the Neapolitan king Alfonso V. unfortunately, all of them made a painting halls and chapels in the palaces of its customers were killed.

In paintings Pisanello (fresco "SV. George and the Princess" in the Church of Saint Anastasia in Verona, about 1435-38; "Vision of St. Eustathius, about 1420-25, national gallery, London) Gothic tradition gradually replaced by new Renaissance quest.

With the highest brightness this process is reflected in the drawings (sketches of animals, costumes and studies of figures, including naked, mainly pen, ink)that detect its persistent aspiration to cognition of nature.

Fresco "SV. George and the Princess" (1435-1438, Verona, the Church of Santa Anastazia) is a perfect example of the style Pisanello. The scene is interpreted rather as lush procession of court, and not as dramatic episode. Characters are dressed in richly embroidered costumes and placed in a landscape with animals, a city with beautiful palaces, majestic procession mounted knights, gallows and the sea. Every detail is written out as carefully as in the full-scale sketches Pisanello with images of animals, birds, heads and figures. Unlike such Tuscan artists as Masaccio and Andrea del Castagno, Pisanello little interest in newly developed techniques of perspective constructions, appreciating the accuracy of the transfer of parts more than their consistency within a single composition. His painting is close to images with Gothic tapestries.

Pisanello is one of the first Italian portrait. Surviving portraits Pisanello profile, made with light cut-off modeling, for example, the portraits of Ginevra d'este (1436-1438, Louvre) and Lionello d'este (1441, Bergamo). In the composition of the portrait is included details such as butterflies and flowers; it produces a purely decorative image, not complicated psychological nuances.

Especially famous Pisanello, as the first and most original medallist of the Renaissance. A characteristic feature of his bronze medals to commemorate and diplomatic use aristocratic patrons-humanists is embossed on the profile and heraldic or symbolic logo on the reverse. They usually there is the inscription and often the name Pisanello.

His medals are of great value primarily due to exact portraiture representing people - famous contemporaries of the artist. In the basis of these portraits are the works of Roman medal art. Usually on one side of the coin (obverse) were placed profile image of the head of the customer surrounded by the motto, and on the other (on reverse) scene glorifying a virtue or demonstrating one of his famous deeds. After Pisanello no other master of the art in Russia have not reached such a skill in composing and so brilliant brevity and clarity (for example, the medal in honor Lionello d"este, 1444, bronze, casting).

Pisanello truly diverse wrote frescoes, was an excellent painter, perhaps the first of the artists made from nature drawings of animals, and also proved himself a great painter. In his works he combined an understanding of the sculptural form of the Italian Renaissance with love vigilance to all kinds of things, typical of Northern masters Gothic.

Until now remained only some frescos and decorative panels, Pisanello known for six or seven surviving compositions, but the collections of his sketches, full of exquisite detailed drawings of animals, birds, costumes and fabrics acknowledge exceptional skill as a draughtsman.

The artist constantly moved from place to place, his work is difficult to consider in the context of a single geographical or cultural region. But, of course, it was one of the most famous Italian artists of the beginning of the XV century.

Pisanello died in Rome in 1455.