The Battle of San Romano

Uccello was obsessed with perspective at a moment when nobody yet was. The broken lances on the ground, the fallen soldier, even the horses' bodies are aligned along the orthogonals of a single vanishing point. He arranged a battle as a geometric demonstration. Vasari said Uccello stayed up all night drawing perspective and called out to his wife, "What a sweet thing this perspective is!" His wife reportedly was not enthusiastic. Now in three panels at the National Gallery (London), the Uffizi (Florence), and the Louvre (Paris).