Vittore Pisano

Background

Vittore Pisanello was born between 1380 and 1395. He was a native of Pisa but spent his early years in San Vigilio sul Lago in the territory of Verona.

Education

He was probably given his early training by a Veronese painter (perhaps Altichiero or Stefano da Verona).

Career

Between 1415 and 1420, Pisanello was the assistant of the renowned painter and illuminator Gentile da Fabriano from whom he acquired his refined, delicate, detailed style. Pisanello also acquired from him a taste for precious materials and beautiful fabrics that can be found in his later paintings. The frescoes in the Doge's Palace at Venice, on which they worked together, have perished as well as the frescoes in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the palaces of Mantua and Pavia.

In 1422, Pisanello was reported to be in Mantua in the service of young Ludovico Gonzaga, son of the Marchese of Mantua Gianfrancesco Gonzaga. He continued to work for the Gonzaga family till the 1440s.

During the latter portion of his life he lived in Rome, where he enjoyed great repute.

Achievements

• He is the most important commemorative portrait medallist in the first half of the 15th century, and he can claim to have originated this important genre.
  
  Specimens of his work as a painter are still extant in Rome, Venice, Verona and Pistoia, and entitle him to a place of some distinction in the history of that art. The National Gallery in London possesses a very fine specimen of Pisanello's work - a panel painted with miniature-like delicacy.

References

• Pisanello
• Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court
• PISANELLO I Grandi Maestri Del Disegno