Pisanello (c. 1395–c. 1455)
Italian painter and medallist. He painted religious works and portraits in a style untouched by recent Florentine innovations, as in Madonna and Child with St George and St Anthony Abbot (c. 1445; National Gallery, London). He was also an outstanding portrait medallist. His frescoes in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua were rediscovered after World War II.
Life
His early life was spent at Verona, where he was trained and worked with Gentile da Fabriano, completing frescoes (now destroyed) by Gentile, in Venice and Rome. As a painter and producer of portrait medallions moved from one Italian court to another, working for the Gonzagas in Mantua, the Visconti in Pavia, Sigismondo Malatesta in Rimini, Leonello d'Este in Ferrara, and from 1448, for Alfonso of Aragon in Naples.
Work Of the few examples of his frescoes that remain, the Annunciation in the church of S Fermo, Verona, 1423–24, and the St George at Sta Anastasia, Verona, 1437–38, show his ornate manner, and on a small scale The Legend of St Eustace and Madonna and Child with St George and St Anthony Abbot (both National Gallery) are leading examples. He excelled in relief portraiture, and his drawings from nature, especially his beautiful animal studies, show an observation surpassing the conventions of the belated Gothic style. |
| The most important collection of his drawings is that of the Codex Vallardi of the Louvre, Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a notable collection of the medals. |
