Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court

Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court is the first comprehensive survey in English for almost a century of the life and work of Pisanello (c.1394-1455), the most celebrated Italian artist of the early Renaissance.

A painter in fresco and on panel, Pisanello was also a prolific and innovative draftsman, prized especially for minutely observed studies of animals and birds, and he became the first modern specialist of the portrait medal. Inspired equally by Arthurian romance, Gothic manuscript illuminations, classical antiquity and contemporary court fashions, Pisanello's work provides a vivid record of the interests and ideals of his patrons, notably the Gonzaga, Este and Visconti rulers of northern Italian city states.

To a modern viewer, Pisanello reveals an enchanted world, at once elegant, imaginative and intensely naturalistic.

Taking as their starting point Pisanello's two exquisite panel pictures in the National Gallery, the authors of Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court give a detailed account of his imagery, his techniques and working methods, of his probable teachers and influences, his collaborators and followers. The lavish illustrations include Pisanello's four surviving panel paintings, plus frescoes, portrait medals and exquisite drawings of animals and birds.

Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court was published to accompany the Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court Exhibition at the National Gallery in 2002.