Antonio
Pollaiolo

The representative of the Florentine school of the late Quattrocento. Brother Piero del Pollaiolo.

He began his artistic career as a jeweler. After 1475 he devoted himself to sculpture.

Tested the effects of Donatello and Andrea del Castagno.

With 1477 together with his brother Piero is engaged in the manufacture of the silver reliefs for the altar of the Florentine baptistery. In 1484 they received several orders for the creation of tombs for the popes.

Italian painter, sculptor, goldsmith and engraver of the Early Renaissance. Actually, the real name of the Benci (Benci). He studied Andrea del Castagno, was influenced by Donatello; worked in Florence in 1469 and 1484 in Rome. Antonio del Pollaiolo and his brother Piero was a major Florentine sculptors, painters and jewelers, they fulfilled the orders of the city and the Cathedral, and noble Florentine families. such as the Medici. Antonio is also known for its engravings, especially engravings “battle of the Nudes,” in which Antonio pollaiuolo depicted the human body in various poses. In his fascination with the anatomy of the pollaiuolo was one of the first artists who used to study human corpses to understand the internal structure of the body.

Antonio Pollaiolo worked also in Rome by order of the papal Curia. The technique of jewelry has left its mark not only on his sculpture, but painting and graphics. He wrote a number of paintings, of which the most famous use of "Hercules killing the lion, Hydra and Anthea" and "St. Sebastian". The last is particularly distinguished for rationality and precision with which the artist demonstrates his mastery in the mastery of perspective, foreshortening and anatomy, using the religious story is only superficially, as a pretext for their experiments in painting. It is not surprising that his picture along with "Hercules" attracted numerous copyists and imitators among contemporary artists, and the engraving on copper depicting "the battle of the ten naked" was stopped on the attention of Michelangelo with its expression in the transmission of motion with a detailed anatomical analysis in the reproduction of the naked human body. In 1493-1498 years Antonio Pollaiolo sang two magnificent bronze tombs for the popes Sixtus IV and innocent VIII (Rome, St. Peter's Cathedral). The first one, unusual in shape, featuring the lying on the sarcophagus the figure of the deceased Pope in full vestments and tiara, decorated with rich ornament. A person with expressive profile transferred in a realistic and energetic way. The edges of the sarcophagus are allegorical image arts and Sciences, masterfully executed in the reliefs.

In the works of Pollaiolo sharp, accentuated expressiveness connected with the rationalist pathos of knowing the world, the cult solid, confident lines and clear plastic form, characteristic for his sculptures (tomb of Pope Sixtus IV in the Vatican grottoes, bronze, 1489-1493), and pictorial compositions reflecting the artist's interest in the anatomy, perspective and landscape (“Hercules and Antaeus”, about 1465, Uffizi). The same traits marked with engravings on copper Pollaiolo (“Battle Naked”, 1470), one of the first in Italian art.

Classes jewelry contributed to the emergence of Antonio Pollaiolo interest in sculpture, which he devoted himself after 1475. In his painting much desire for accurate transmission of plastic forms. This trend can be illustrated by the painting “Apollo and Daphne”, obviously, was written before 1470, and “the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian” (1475, both at London's National gallery). In the last athletic male figures depicted in the complex spatial angles, endowed with dynamic energy. In the first picture the important role played by the striking pattern of lines lying in the same plane. In the pollaiuolo painting “the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian” in the middle ground is a depiction of the reliefs from the triumphal arch. Small painting Antonio pollaiuolo's “Hercules and Antaeus” (1465, Florence, Uffizi gallery) and a bronze statuette of the Bargello (1475-1480) have a common story.

Antonio Pollaiolo very often collaborated with his brother Pietro del Pollaiolo (1443-1496). By a strange coincidence both brothers died in Rome, where he was invited to create a bronze tombs of popes Sixtus IV and innocent VIII in St. Peter's Basilica.