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Uccelli, at some period of his life was in that city; for the Anonimo (Morelli) notes that the frescos of the Palace of the Vitaliani were by him. 1 About 1436 Uccelli com pleted a portrait of the English Condottiere, Hawkwood, in S. M. del Fiore at Florence. It did not meet with ap proval from the council of the works; and a record of that year “orders the capo maestro to take down the equestrian figure which is not properly painted by P. Uccelli, and requires the artist to repaint it in terra verde,” 2 or dead colour. Whether the order was obeyed, or whether the figure now in S. Maria del Fiore be the one which was disapproved, is immaterial. It was not unlikely that the critics of the time should have been struck by a peculiarity which has since been stigmatized by Vasari, 3 and which has given rise to long comments from more modern critics. This peculiarity lies in the action given to the horse on which Hawkwood rides, un natural, according to Vasari, because the steed only rests on one fore and one hind leg, unnatural perhaps, according to the judgment of the council of S. M. del Fiore, but masterly and true to nature in fact, being indeed but a. counterpart in drawing of the action given by Donatello to the horse of Gattamellata at Padua. Uccelli’s purpose was, in obedience to instructions, to represent Hawkwood in full panoply as he might have appeared in marble, had the provision, made in 1393 for the erection of a monument to his memory, 4 been canned out. Being painted in green earth it would naturally preserve the appearance of stone; being drawn by Ucccelli with the same attention to the laws of optics which had dictated to Donatello the proportions of his S. Mark in does not appear in any of these records. See: La Basilica di S. Antonio di Padova. 4°. Pad. by Padre Bernardo Gonzati. Vol. I. Caps. IV. and VI., and the proofs in the “Documenti” appended. 1 Anonimo, ub. sup. p. 23. Uccelli here painted figures of giants for a ducat a piece. 2 The original provision for a monument to Hawkwood was made in 1393. (Gaye, ub. sup. Vol. I. p. 536.) 3 Vas. Vol. III. p.p. 94—5. 4 See note antea.
