Description - The Hunt in the Forest by Paolo Uccello by Catherine Whistler
A masterpiece of the early Renaissance, Paolo Uccello's (1397-1475) 'Hunt in the Forest' is a magical and enigmatic picture. The painting clearly belongs to the last decade of Uccello's career, and stylistic comparisons with the narrative scenes that he painted in the late 1460s in Urbino suggest that 'The Hunt' must date from soon after that. Uccello's lifelong interest in geometry and perspective, together with his skill in depicting animals and landscape, combine in this swansong, a jewel-like painting designed to please a sophisticated audience. The Hunt in the Forest is a rare and tantalising survivor of a particular type of secular painting. A spalliera painting (from spalla, meaning shoulder), it would have been set into the panelling of a room at shoulder height. Scenes from ancient history and mythology, or from medieval romance, were common in spalliera paintings, and many have come down to us. However, the fact that a hunting scene with figures in contemporary dress is elaborately and playfully depicted by a major artist makes this panel virtually unique in Florentine domestic painting of the fifteenth century.
Clearly the patron who ordered this picture was a discerning one, familiar with Uccello's distinctive artistic talents. The painting has been in thc collection of the Ashrnolean Museum since 1850.
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