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

Noah's Sacrifice and Noah's Drunkenness

1447-48
Fresco, 277 x 540 cm
Green Cloister, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The scenes below the Flood and Waters Subsiding, depicting Noah's Sacrifice and his Drunkenness, are today in extremely bad condition, but they must have been equally beautiful. Here, too, Uccello displayed his mastery of the art of perspective, and Vasari praised primarily his portrayal of "God the Father, who appears above the sacrifice being offered by Noah and his sons; and of all the human figures Paolo painted, this one must have been the most difficult, for it is flying towards the wall with his head foreshortened, and it is so forceful that it appears to be in relief and to be bursting through it."