Portrait d'une princesse de la Maison d'Este

August – October 1427

Sudden death of his mentor Gentile da Fabriano

Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello's teacher and friend, died suddenly in Rome, leaving his frescoes in the Basilica of St. John Lateran unfinished. It fell to his pupil to complete them.

1431–1432

Completes Gentile's frescoes at the Lateran

Pisanello completed the frescoes his master had begun in the Basilica of St. John Lateran; they were destroyed when Francesco Borromini rebuilt the basilica in the 17th century, and a faint sketch of them by Borromini is kept in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin. In Rome he saw the monuments of antiquity, made many drawings after ancient works and came increasingly under the influence of the classical style.

1439

Besieges Verona with the Gonzaga troops

In the war against the Republic of Venice, Pisanello joined the troops of Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga besieging Verona. Other accounts place the decision, taken together with Gonzaga, in 1438, when war broke out between Milan and Venice.

1441–1444

At the court of Leonello d'Este in Ferrara

Barred from Venetian lands, Pisanello worked at the court of Leonello d'Este in Ferrara after a stay in Milan in 1440–1441. There he grew close to the humanist Guarino da Verona, giving him a “Saint Jerome”; Guarino answered with an enthusiastic Latin poem in his honor.

1442

Venice sentences him in absentia to lose his tongue

Soon after Verona was relieved, the Venetian authorities banned the artist from their territory and then sentenced him in absentia to the confiscation of his property and the loss of his tongue “for slandering the republic and uttering words defaming the government”. Only highly placed friends saved him from the punishment.

1448

Moves to Naples, to the court of Alfonso of Aragon

Invited by King Alfonso of Aragon, Pisanello lived in Naples from December 1448 until the end of his life, enjoying great repute at the Aragonese court; the poet Porcellio wrote an ode in his honor.