Artists You Should Know: Paolo Uccello

A reader named Deborah C. has asked whether or not Vasari got it right, in his Lives of the Artists, when he wrote that Paolo Uccello "wasted his time" on the finer points of perspective. Thank you for asking, Deborah. I think "right" or "wrong" depends mostly on the century in which one has read Vasari. Most Art Historians seemed to agree with this assessment up until the 20th-century, and prevailing thought was that, if Uccello hadn't exactly wasted time, he certainly might've spent more of it on composition or output.

That's all changed now and we find Uccello's works appealing to the modern eye, as well as being grateful for the way he pioneered linear perspective in art. (Personally, I would love the Bird Man if only for the fact that he trained his daughter to be an artist.) I must add that we don't - any longer - automatically defer to Vasari's opinions. On anybody. God bless him, his words should always be taken with a grain of salt. A shaker full of salt. A 20 lb. salt-lick. An entire salt mine, even.