Pisanello

Known for his resplendent frescoes in murals, portraits, easel pictures, and a number of drawings such as those in the Codex Vallardi (Louvre). He is the most important commemorative portrait medallist in the first half of the 15th century, and he can claim to have originated this important genre. He was employed by the Doge of Venice, the Pope in the Vatican and the courts of Verona, Ferrara, Mantua, Milan, Rimini, and by the King of Naples. He stood in high esteem in the Gonzaga and Este families. Pisanello had a number of his works wrongly ascribed to other artists such as Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci, to name a few. While most of his paintings have perished, a number of his drawings and medals have survived.

Pisanello's life is somewhat shrouded in mystery. He was born between 1380 and 1395 and died between 1450 and 1455 (probably between 14 July and 8 October 1455). He was a native of Pisa but spent his early years in San Vigilio sul Lago in the territory of Verona. He was probably given his early training by a Veronese painter (perhaps Altichiero or Stefano da Verona) as his early style is in the tradition of Veronese painting.

Between 1415 and 1420, Pisanello was the assistant of the renowned painter and illuminator Gentile da Fabriano from whom he acquired his refined, delicate, detailed style. Pisanello also acquired from him a taste for precious materials and beautiful fabrics that can be found in his later paintings. The frescoes in the Doge's Palace at Venice, on which they worked together, have perished as well as the frescoes in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the palaces of Mantua and Pavia. In 1422, Pisanello was reported to be in Mantua in the service of young Ludovico Gonzaga, son of the Marchese of Mantua Gianfrancesco Gonzaga. He continued to work for the Gonzaga family till the 1440s. Giorgio Vasari, an artist and biographer of the Italian Renaissance, states that Pisanello also worked in the workshop of Andrea del Castagno, author of the painted equestrian monument of Niccolò da Tolentino (1456) in the Cathedral in Florence. He must also have known Paolo Uccello, the painter of the Battle of San Romano with its multiple horses. Pisanello's love of drawing horses probably finds its origin in this relationship; but as there is so much unknown of his life, this attribution by Vasari is not reliable and may only be a legend. Pisanello's Madonna of the Quail, now in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona, is signed by "Antonius Pisanus". It is tentatively dated at c. 1420. The style is a blend of the styles of Gentile da Fabriano and Stefano da Verona. This might show that Pisanello was also a pupil of the latter in Verona. Pisanello stayed again in Verona in 1424. However, according to some scholars, he painted frescoes about hunting and fishing and jousts in Pavia the same year. These were commissioned by the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti. There is no trace of these frescoes left. Back in Mantua with the Gonzagas between 1424 and 1426, Pisanello painted one of his important surviving works: the fresco Annunciation in San Fermo, Verona. It was used to embellish the funeral monument of Nicolò di Brenzoni by the Florentine sculptor Nanni di Bartolo. When Gentile da Fabriano died in Rome between August and October 1427, his work at the Basilica of St. John Lateran was unfinished. Pisanello completed the frescoes of his former master between 1431 and 1432. All these frescoes were destroyed when the basilica was rebuilt in the 17th century by Francesco Borromini. The Kupferstichkabinet in Berlin has a pale sketch of this fresco, drawn by Borromini. While in Rome, he became more and more influenced by the classical style of Renaissance art.

Pisanello's drawings are generally prized as jewels of the quattrocento, and provide evidence of the elegant garb of the time, including spectacular hats. In contrast with his contemporaries, his drawings are not drafts for future paintings but are autonomous works of art. He compiled several books of drawings, detailed and accurate studies of fauna and flora drawn with poetic naturalism, and elegant costumes.

Pisanello travelled to several Italian cities and was introduced to a number of courts. He stayed for a while in Florence. In this period he painted two important portraits: Emperor Sigismund, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (but the attribution is still contested) and Portrait of a Man (now in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa). Pisanello returned to Verona between 1433 and 1438. His fresco masterpiece from this period is Saint George and the Princess of Trebizond (c. 1433–1438) at the Pellegrini Chapel, church of Sant'Anastasia, Verona. It had to be restored after water seepage damaged the fresco at the end of the 19th century. He prepared for this painting with a number of drawings, some of which are on display in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

In 1438, a war broke out between the ruler of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti and the republic of Venice. Pisanello was in Mantua with Gianfrancesco Gonzaga. They decided to play a part in the capture of Verona. Consequently, the Venetian government called him a rebel and threatened him with a stiff sentence. Only an intercession by a powerful friend could preserve him. After a stay in Milan between 1440 and 1441, Pisanello went back to Ferrara in 1441. There he painted his acclaimed portrait of Lionello d'Este, now on display at the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. His Madonna and Child with Two Saints (National Gallery, London) probably dated from the same period. The impressive fresco cycle Scenes of War and Chivalry in the Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, Mantua probably dates from 1447.

From December 1448 until the end of his life he lived in Naples, where he enjoyed great repute at the Aragon court. The poet Porcellio even wrote an ode in his honour. He may have lived five or six years longer, but there is no more mention of him in the records.