DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0156
122
PAOLO UCCELLO
[1397-
great and original master. The representation of the
Flood is a striking and dramatic composition, remark-
able not only for the knowledge of anatomy and
foreshortening displayed in the nude figures, but for
the vivid realisation of the scene and of the different
emotions which it arouses. The desperate struggles
of the drowning men and women in the water, the
youth with his soaked garments and wind-blown hair,
clinging to the side of the ark, and the man trying to
keep himself up by the help of a tub, are all wonder-
fully represented ; while the dove flying home across
the waters with the olive-leaf in her beak, brings an
element of peace and hope into the scene of desola-
tion. Equally impressive in its way is the patriarchal
group of Noah’s sons and daughters, kneeling round
the altar, in flowing draperies that recall Masaccio’s
designs, and the foreshortened figure of God the Father
brooding like a cloud over the scene, with a mystic
grandeur not unworthy of Michel Angelo himself.
These works of Paolo Uccello made the Chiostro
Verde a school of drawing little inferior in fame to
the Brancacci Chapel, and there can be no doubt
that both Signorelli and Buonarroti were among the
artists who came to study in the cloisters of Santa
Maria Novella during the next fifty years.
Another admirable work by this artist which has
fortunately been preserved, is the Miracle of the
Host, which Paolo painted for the Confraternity of
Corpus Domini at Urbino, in 1468. He was seventy-
two years of age, but the picture shows no sign of
failing powers. The dramatic tale of the wealthy
Jew’s wife who threw the Host into the fire, and the
swift vengeance that overtook the family which had
PAOLO UCCELLO
[1397-
great and original master. The representation of the
Flood is a striking and dramatic composition, remark-
able not only for the knowledge of anatomy and
foreshortening displayed in the nude figures, but for
the vivid realisation of the scene and of the different
emotions which it arouses. The desperate struggles
of the drowning men and women in the water, the
youth with his soaked garments and wind-blown hair,
clinging to the side of the ark, and the man trying to
keep himself up by the help of a tub, are all wonder-
fully represented ; while the dove flying home across
the waters with the olive-leaf in her beak, brings an
element of peace and hope into the scene of desola-
tion. Equally impressive in its way is the patriarchal
group of Noah’s sons and daughters, kneeling round
the altar, in flowing draperies that recall Masaccio’s
designs, and the foreshortened figure of God the Father
brooding like a cloud over the scene, with a mystic
grandeur not unworthy of Michel Angelo himself.
These works of Paolo Uccello made the Chiostro
Verde a school of drawing little inferior in fame to
the Brancacci Chapel, and there can be no doubt
that both Signorelli and Buonarroti were among the
artists who came to study in the cloisters of Santa
Maria Novella during the next fifty years.
Another admirable work by this artist which has
fortunately been preserved, is the Miracle of the
Host, which Paolo painted for the Confraternity of
Corpus Domini at Urbino, in 1468. He was seventy-
two years of age, but the picture shows no sign of
failing powers. The dramatic tale of the wealthy
Jew’s wife who threw the Host into the fire, and the
swift vengeance that overtook the family which had