"Quadro cronologico degli artisti ferraresi non rammentati dal Baruffaldi, e poco cogniti per opere": v. 2, p. 584-596. / At end of v. 2: Pubblicato nel settembre 1848.

This thesis is a comprehensive assessment of the life and work of the Italian Renaissance artist Paolo Uccello (c. 1397- 1475). It employs an interdisciplinary methodology combining the examination of archival evidence of the artist’s personal, social and professional lives, the scientific examination of his artworks, the interpretation of his iconography based on the contexts his works were made for, and an approach to attributions based on documentary, stylistic and technical evidence rather than tradition. Unpublished documents presented here shed new light on Uccello’s family and early career, underlining the importance of his extended family as a point of contact between the artist and the networks of patronage in and around Florence. New scientific analyses of three works conducted for this study, including infrared reflectography, X-radiography and microsampling, reveal the sophistication of Uccello’s technique and help to clarify the chronology of his works. New interpretations of Uccello’s works proposed here, relating in particular to his use of perspective, address the significance of their contexts, highlighting the subtlety and specificity of Uccello’s imagery. / The catalogue raisonne is the most extensive survey of works attributed to Uccello to date, and presents unpublished documents for the provenances of two works attributed to Uccello. Contrary to the image of Uccello as an isolated and eccentric figure commonly encountered in the art historical literature since Vasari’s sixteenth-century biography of the artist, Uccello emerges from a detailed study of the documentary and physical evidence as an artist of his time, involved in Florentine society, religion and commerce, and an innovative artist, a creator of unforgettable images who was admired by his peers and subsequent generations of artists, ensuring his place as one of the protagonists in the field of early Renaissance art.

L’Italie, berceau de la sprezzata desinvoltura de Castiglione, est assurément le pays où l’ambiguïté des relations entre art, politique et images médiatiques est la plus forte. Le pavillon Italien des biennales de Venise de 2009 et 2011 illustre ce jeu complexe des apparences, qui « fait des mondes » ou « illumine des nations ». En relisant l’histoire de l’art à travers le prisme du concept de Castiglione, la thèse nous donne à voir que le monde (de l’art) est lui-même l’effet de l’ambivalence de cette désinvolture. Loin d’avoir assujetti l’art à leurs concepts, les grands hommes, qu’ils soient rois, philosophes ou hommes d’affaires seraient des effets de cette désinvolture de l’art. Comme Monsieur Jourdain, ils feraient de l’art sans le savoir. Exit Machiavel ! Il est aujourd’hui urgent de penser cette « ruse de l’art » qui mène le monde. Tel est l’enjeu fondamental de cette thèse qui, s’appuyant sur le schème nietzschéen de l’éternel retour, distingue plusieurs figures de la désinvolture, historiques, philosophiques et esthétiques. / Italy, the cradle of Castiglione’s sprezzata desinvoltura, is undoubtedly the country where the ambiguous relationship between art, politics and media is the strongest. The Italian pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2011 illustrates the complex game of appearances, which are “making worlds" or "lighting up nations." Reading again the history of art through the prism of Castiglione’s concept, the thesis shows us that the world (of art) is itself the effect of this “disinvoltura” ambivalence. Far from having subjugate art to their concepts, the great men, whether kings, philosophers or businessmen are the effects of this casualness (“desinvoltura”) of art. Like Monsieur Jourdain, they would make art without knowing it. Exit Machiavelli! It is now urgent to think this "ruse of art" that leads the world. These are the fundamental stakes of this thesis, that basing itself on the Nietzschean eternal return schema, distinguishes several casualness figures, historical, philosophical and aesthetic.