DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0129
NORTH ITALIAN
103
costume and figure were attuned to a harmonious whole as has seldom
happened in the history of costume design. By plucking out the hair
from her forehead and eyebrows this young woman has created a
high-domed brow for herself and further emphasized the up-sweeping
lines by high-arched eyebrows applied with cosmetic. What a burden
that towering coiffure must have been and how uncomfortable the
high collar and the girdle drawn tight beneath the breast! Neverthe-
less she suffers these discomforts in the name of fashion with dignity
and equanimity.”
Pisanello (whose real name was Antonio Pisano), born about 1397
(some authorities say 1380 and some 1385), was a renowned painter
of portraits and religious pictures of highly decorative character as
well as a famous medallist. Pisanello was a follower of Altichiero and
was also greatly influenced by Gentile da Fabriano. Of his early life
little or nothing is known; but the rest of his days he spent wandering
throughout Italy, now in Mantua, now in Verona, now in Venice, now
in Rome, now in Naples, and now in Ferrara, cutting medals and paint-
ing portraits of distinguished personages. In 1439 he was in Mantua
as an intimate friend of the Marchese Francesco Gonzaga, whom he
followed at the capture of Verona. Therefore he had to come under
the Tribunal of the Council of Ten at Venice in 1442. Pisanello’s
career coincides almost precisely in date with Fra Angelico, Donatello,
Ghiberti, and Brunelleschi. As a medallist Pisanello was unexcelled.
In his paintings he shows the spirit jf a miniaturist rather than that
of a mural decorator. He shares with Gentile da Fabriano the charm-
ing quality of chivalric grace and attention to interesting detail.
Pisanello must have been especially fond of animals, as his rarely
beautiful drawings of them preserved in various galleries would seem
to prove; and, moreover, he was fond of introducing them into his
pictures. In the Vision of Saint Eustace, for instance (National
Gallery, London), in addition to the stag bearing the cross upon his
horns, there are various animals and birds as well as the fine horse
with its gay trappings, on which the handsome Eustace is mounted.
“Altichiero had scarcely ceased covering wall-spaces with pomp and
circumstance of Mediaeval life,” writes Berenson, “when the task was
103
costume and figure were attuned to a harmonious whole as has seldom
happened in the history of costume design. By plucking out the hair
from her forehead and eyebrows this young woman has created a
high-domed brow for herself and further emphasized the up-sweeping
lines by high-arched eyebrows applied with cosmetic. What a burden
that towering coiffure must have been and how uncomfortable the
high collar and the girdle drawn tight beneath the breast! Neverthe-
less she suffers these discomforts in the name of fashion with dignity
and equanimity.”
Pisanello (whose real name was Antonio Pisano), born about 1397
(some authorities say 1380 and some 1385), was a renowned painter
of portraits and religious pictures of highly decorative character as
well as a famous medallist. Pisanello was a follower of Altichiero and
was also greatly influenced by Gentile da Fabriano. Of his early life
little or nothing is known; but the rest of his days he spent wandering
throughout Italy, now in Mantua, now in Verona, now in Venice, now
in Rome, now in Naples, and now in Ferrara, cutting medals and paint-
ing portraits of distinguished personages. In 1439 he was in Mantua
as an intimate friend of the Marchese Francesco Gonzaga, whom he
followed at the capture of Verona. Therefore he had to come under
the Tribunal of the Council of Ten at Venice in 1442. Pisanello’s
career coincides almost precisely in date with Fra Angelico, Donatello,
Ghiberti, and Brunelleschi. As a medallist Pisanello was unexcelled.
In his paintings he shows the spirit jf a miniaturist rather than that
of a mural decorator. He shares with Gentile da Fabriano the charm-
ing quality of chivalric grace and attention to interesting detail.
Pisanello must have been especially fond of animals, as his rarely
beautiful drawings of them preserved in various galleries would seem
to prove; and, moreover, he was fond of introducing them into his
pictures. In the Vision of Saint Eustace, for instance (National
Gallery, London), in addition to the stag bearing the cross upon his
horns, there are various animals and birds as well as the fine horse
with its gay trappings, on which the handsome Eustace is mounted.
“Altichiero had scarcely ceased covering wall-spaces with pomp and
circumstance of Mediaeval life,” writes Berenson, “when the task was