Antonio Pisano, known as Pisanello, painter and medallion maker, moved from Pisa to Verona as a child, in about 1395. Very little is known about his training and none of his earlier works survived.
He worked with the major artists ofhis time, especially with Gentile da Fabriano, with whom he painted some frescos in the Hall of the Major Council in Palazzo Ducale in Venice (none survived) and some frescos in the basilica of St John in the Lateran in Rome.
Only minor works or fragmented works have survived. Among them is the cycle of frescos in the Pellegrini Chapel in Sant'Anastasia, in Verona, depicting Stories of St George and St Eustace. In the scene showing St George and the Princess, his story-like, refined and beautiful style can be admired. The style is coherent with international gothic style and is close to the renewal process Tuscanpainting was going through.
Madonna with a quail (Civic Museum of Art, Verona) and four small paintings of the Stories of St Benedict are among his early works.
Pisanello was greatly appreciated as a painter of portraits: one of his most famous portraits is that of Lionello d'Este (Accademia of Carrara, Bergamo).
The artist was also very talented in the art of medallions; some of his most famous medallions, with delicate bass-reliefs, are the ones with the Emperor Giovanni Paleologo, Filippo Maria Visconti, Lionello d'Este and with Cecilia Gonzaga (considered his masterpiece).
The artist probably died in Naples between 1450 and 1455.