UCCELLO, Paolo
(b. 1397, Firenze, d. 1475, Firenze)

Clock with Heads of Prophets

1443
Fresco, 470 x 470 cm
Duomo, Florence

Not long after the Monument to Sir John Hawkwood, the Opera del Duomo commissioned from Paolo the designs for three stained-glass windows for the oculi of the drum of the dome, as well as the decoration for the clockface on the inner façade of the Cathedral.

Uccello designed the four male heads, usually called prophets, looking out from four roundels designed in perfect perspective. The four Prophets were finished on 22 February 1443 and in them, as in the cartoons for the stained-glass windows, we find quite clearly the influence of Ghiberti and Donatello.