Battle of San Romano

Alex Nguyen

Title: Battle of San RomanoArtist: Paolo UccelloDate: ca. 1455

What is mathematical perspective?

A formula for projecting an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional space using linear perspective, which allows artists to determine the relative size of objects to correlate them with the visual recession into space

Utilizes: Horizontal line Vanishing point Orthogonals

Put broken spears, lances, and a fallen soldier on orthogonals to make a systematic “checkerboard”

c

Broken lances all have a common vanishing point

Broken spears are also foreshoretened

c

#2: Paolo Ucclello’s The Battle of San Romano

By Rachel SmithDiscuss how this painting reflects the artist’s understanding of the new theory of mathematical perspective.

• In the painting, Uccello made broken spears, lances, and a fallen soldier and keenly positioned them to intersect each other

• By making the different figures perpendicular to one another, it created a plane resembling a checker board.

• By making the plane resemble a checker board, it presents war (the subject of the painting) seem more like a game or a tournament rather than a battle.

• The lances in the painting appear to look like cones, the horses a 3-dementional, and the men on the horses appear to be solids taken out in space; this all contributes to Uccello’s linear perspective that overwhelms this painting.

• Uccello also created a vanishing point where all of the lines recede to; this creates an illusion of depth, and forces the viewer to focus on the heroic figure, Niccolo da Tolentino

#2Paolo Uccello, Battle of San

Romano, ca. 1455

By: Justin Jones

1

• Uccello’s obsession with perspective appealed to Lorenzo. Perspective represented the rationalization of vision.

2

• Uccello created a composition that recalls the processional splendor of Gentile’s Adoration of the Magi, but in contrast Uccello constructed his world of immobilized solid forms.

3

• Broken spears, lances, and a fallen soldier were foreshortened and placed along the converging orthogonals of the perspective to create a base plane like a checkerboard, on which he then placed the larger volumes in measured intervals.

4

• The diligently created space recedes to a landscape that resembles the low cultivated hillsides between Florence and Lucca

5

• The use of three-dimensional form by other painters for representational or expressive purposes became a preoccupation for Uccello. For him, it had a magic of its own, which he used to satisfy his inventive and original imagination. (that was pretty much straight out of the book and not necessarily helpful to the prompt but I was running out of information, sorry)

Discuss how this painting reflects the artist’s understanding of the new

theory of mathematical perspective.

Ansaf Chagani

Identification and Introduction and First point

• This is Battle of San Romano was made during Early Renaissance Period by Paolo Uccello on Tempera on Wood

• The development of perspective intrigued the humanist, because perspective represented the rationalization of vision.

• In Battle of San Romano, Uccello created a composition that is made of immobilized solid forms. He foreshortened broken spears, lances and a fallen soldier and placed them along the orthogonals in a converging manner (meaning: Come together from different directions so as eventually to meet) to create base plane and then he placed larger volumes in measured intervals.

2nd point

• The vanishing point, located by the horse's head, creates an illusion of depth; along with Niccolo's red and gold headdress and rearing white horse, they compel the viewer to focus on the pivotal and heroic figure

3rd point

• Uccello designed these works to be hung above eye level, or approximately 7 feet from the ground. In person, it is apparent that Niccolo's arm and horse were intended to be viewed from below rather than at eye level, making him all the more imposing. This creates space to a landscape that resembles the low cultivated hillsides between Florence and Lucca. Uccello used three-dimensional form to satisfy his inventive and original imagination.

Paolo Uccello, The Battle of San Romano

Discuss how this painting reflects the artist’s understanding of the new theory of mathematical perspective.

By: Tommy Keene

Paolo Uccello, The Battle of San Romano, ca. 1455

• Uccello foreshortened broken spears, lances, and a dead soldier and put them along the crossing orthogonals of the perspective to make a base plane.

• Using this plane, he was able to recede this space to a landscape that appears to be the hillsides between Lucca and Florence. This created a three dimensional perspective.

• Also, all of the spears on the ground are arranged in conformity with the new mathematical depiction of space. The spears that are on the ground all face the vanishing point.

• He would use the perspective he created to add depth to his paintings, and in order to do this he had to put a vanishing point in place.