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Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Antonio del Pollaiuolo (UK: /ˌpɒlaɪˈwoʊloʊ/ POL-eye-WOH-loh, US: /ˌpoʊl-/ POHL-, Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo del pollaˈjwɔːlo]; 17 January 1429/1433 – 4 February 1498), also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo (also spelled Pollaiolo), was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, who made important works in all these media, as well as designing works in others, for example vestments, metal embroidery being a medium he worked in at the start of his career.
His most characteristic works in his main media show largely naked male figures in complicated poses of violent action, drawing from classical examples and often centred on a heroic Hercules. He, or possibly his brother, was also an innovative painter of wide landscape backgrounds, perhaps having learnt from Early Netherlandish painting. His two papal tombs were the only monuments to survive the demolition of Old St Peter's in the next century and be reconstructed in the present St Peter's Basilica.
He very often worked in collaboration with his younger brother Piero del Pollaiuolo (c. 1443–1496), and distinguishing their contributions to satisfy modern ideas of authorship has proved exceptionally difficult, so that many paintings are just described as by the Pollaiuolo brothers. Contemporaries, and Giorgio Vasari, saw Antonio as by far the more talented, and responsible for the design and main painting of most works, but in recent decades the reputation of Piero has strengthened somewhat, and he is now given sole authorship of, for example, the small Apollo and Daphne (1470–1480) by its owner, the National Gallery. At the same time, contemporary references in lists of leading artists, of which there are a number, mostly mention the brothers together, and Vasari's Lives of the Artists treats them in a single life.
According to Kenneth Clark, two factors have reduced his prominence in the modern view of Quattrocento art: the loss of his large paintings of the labours of Hercules (surviving only in miniature copies), and "a name which looks difficult to pronounce". In his own day, and for several decades later, his "true position" as "one of the originating forces in the history of European art" was recognised.
He was born in Florence. The brothers took the nickname pollaiuolo meaning "poulterer" in Italian from the trade of their father Jacopo, who sold poultry, pollaio. This was a luxury trade at the time, and Jacopo's four sons were unlikely all to find room for careers in it. According to Benedetto Dei, the contemporary "fanatical enumerator" of Florentine life, there were only 8 poultry suppliers in Florence in 1472, but 44 goldsmith's workshops.
Antonio was the eldest son; the two middle brothers respectively went into poultry (eventually inheriting that business) and goldsmithing. The youngest brother, Piero, was also an artist, apparently only in painting, and he and Antonio very frequently worked together, though their workshops were physically "separate but mutually accessible". Their work shows both classical influences and an interest in human anatomy; reportedly, the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject. If so, these would be "among the early Renaissance forays into anatomical research".
Antonio's first trade was goldsmithing and metalworking. Although documentation is probably missing, the statements of many near-contemporaries that he trained in the large workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti may well be correct. This is not contradicted by the possibility that he was the "Antonio di Jacopo" listed in 1457 as a "lavorante" for Miliani Dei, twin brother of the chronicler and from a long-established goldsmithing family.
Vasari, whose account of the brothers' "early training contains a number of implausibilities", says that having decided to move from goldsmithing to painting, his brother gave him his first lessons. Piero was about ten years younger but had trained as a painter from the start. However, this seems unlikely; Andrea del Castagno was a great influence on him, and he may have trained with him, as Piero may have done, or possibly Domenico Veneziano.
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Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Antonio del Pollaiuolo (UK: /ˌpɒlaɪˈwoʊloʊ/ POL-eye-WOH-loh, US: /ˌpoʊl-/ POHL-, Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo del pollaˈjwɔːlo]; 17 January 1429/1433 – 4 February 1498), also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo (also spelled Pollaiolo), was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, who made important works in all these media, as well as designing works in others, for example vestments, metal embroidery being a medium he worked in at the start of his career.
His most characteristic works in his main media show largely naked male figures in complicated poses of violent action, drawing from classical examples and often centred on a heroic Hercules. He, or possibly his brother, was also an innovative painter of wide landscape backgrounds, perhaps having learnt from Early Netherlandish painting. His two papal tombs were the only monuments to survive the demolition of Old St Peter's in the next century and be reconstructed in the present St Peter's Basilica.
He very often worked in collaboration with his younger brother Piero del Pollaiuolo (c. 1443–1496), and distinguishing their contributions to satisfy modern ideas of authorship has proved exceptionally difficult, so that many paintings are just described as by the Pollaiuolo brothers. Contemporaries, and Giorgio Vasari, saw Antonio as by far the more talented, and responsible for the design and main painting of most works, but in recent decades the reputation of Piero has strengthened somewhat, and he is now given sole authorship of, for example, the small Apollo and Daphne (1470–1480) by its owner, the National Gallery. At the same time, contemporary references in lists of leading artists, of which there are a number, mostly mention the brothers together, and Vasari's Lives of the Artists treats them in a single life.
According to Kenneth Clark, two factors have reduced his prominence in the modern view of Quattrocento art: the loss of his large paintings of the labours of Hercules (surviving only in miniature copies), and "a name which looks difficult to pronounce". In his own day, and for several decades later, his "true position" as "one of the originating forces in the history of European art" was recognised.
He was born in Florence. The brothers took the nickname pollaiuolo meaning "poulterer" in Italian from the trade of their father Jacopo, who sold poultry, pollaio. This was a luxury trade at the time, and Jacopo's four sons were unlikely all to find room for careers in it. According to Benedetto Dei, the contemporary "fanatical enumerator" of Florentine life, there were only 8 poultry suppliers in Florence in 1472, but 44 goldsmith's workshops.
Antonio was the eldest son; the two middle brothers respectively went into poultry (eventually inheriting that business) and goldsmithing. The youngest brother, Piero, was also an artist, apparently only in painting, and he and Antonio very frequently worked together, though their workshops were physically "separate but mutually accessible". Their work shows both classical influences and an interest in human anatomy; reportedly, the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject. If so, these would be "among the early Renaissance forays into anatomical research".
Antonio's first trade was goldsmithing and metalworking. Although documentation is probably missing, the statements of many near-contemporaries that he trained in the large workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti may well be correct. This is not contradicted by the possibility that he was the "Antonio di Jacopo" listed in 1457 as a "lavorante" for Miliani Dei, twin brother of the chronicler and from a long-established goldsmithing family.
Vasari, whose account of the brothers' "early training contains a number of implausibilities", says that having decided to move from goldsmithing to painting, his brother gave him his first lessons. Piero was about ten years younger but had trained as a painter from the start. However, this seems unlikely; Andrea del Castagno was a great influence on him, and he may have trained with him, as Piero may have done, or possibly Domenico Veneziano.