Clock at Florence Cathedral

Paolo Uccello's Clock at Florence Cathedral, painted around 1443, decorates the interior west wall of the Duomo with a monumental liturgical clock face. This practical commission allowed Uccello to demonstrate his mastery of trompe l'oeil and his understanding of geometric form in a public, highly visible context. Paolo Uccello was among the most theoretically ambitious painters of fifteenth-century Florence, whose fascination with perspective led him to develop extraordinarily complex spatial constructions that astonished his contemporaries.

The clock face features four prophet heads in the corners painted in grisaille, with the illusionistic circular frame demonstrating Uccello's command of perspective and his ability to create convincing three-dimensional effects on a flat surface.