The perspectical cloud: A critical reconsideration of Paolo Uccello's St. George and the dragon

In this paper, I will examine how Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello's two versions of St. George and the Dragon demonstrate a radical conception of spatial perspective, one that drastically differed from traditional models of linear perspective advanced by Fillippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. I argue that Uccello's sophisticated weaving of character drama and spatial reality in the second work promotes a new type of humanist painting by allowing an innovative viewer participation without promoting viewer preeminence. It therefore represents a perspectival manifesto for the artist which engages with the narrative as a way of situating the painting in both space and time. Although a legitimate alternative to linear perspective, the latter's historical and cultural significance has obscured our understanding of perspectivally nontraditional works made during the Renaissance.