Uccello was a man of very eccentric character and peculiar habits; but
he was a great lover of art, and applauded those who excelled in any of
its branches. He painted the portraits of five distinguished men, in
one oblong picture, that he might preserve their memory and features to
posterity. He kept it in his own house, as a memorial of them, as long
as he lived. In the time of Vasari, it was in the possession of Giuliano
da Sangallo. At the present day, (Editor's Florentine edition of Vasari,
1846) all trace of this remarkable picture is lost. The first of these
portraits was that of the painter Giotto, as one who had given new light
and life to art; the second, Fillippo Brunelleschi, distinguished for
architecture; the third, Donatello, eminent for sculpture; the fourth,
Uccello himself, for perspective and animals; and the fifth was his
friend Giovanni Manetti, for the mathematics.