Background

Antonio Pollaiuolo was born on January 17, 1433 in Florence. His brother, Piero, was also an artist.

Career

Most of the dated documents refer to his activity as a goldsmith, in which trade he began. The varied nature of his work may be observed in the following commissions: a silver cross for S. Giovanni (1457), a reliquary for the prior of S. Pancrazio (1461), a silver belt and chain for Filippo Rinuccini (1461-1462), two candelabra for S. Giovanni (1465), and the embroidery designs for two tunics, a chasuble, and a cope (1465).

In 1468 Pollaiuolo bought property near Pistoia, and his success as both artist and businessman is attested by the purchase of additional property in and near Florence in the 1480s. In 1472 he was called upon to decorate the helmet of the Duke of Urbino, and that year his name first appeared in the register of the guild of Florentine painters.

Pollaiuolo's monumental Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (completed 1475), his most ambitious painting, is a milestone in Renaissance art in showing muscular figures in action. Other paintings are the tiny Apollo and Daphne, the Rape of Deianira, and the elegant Profile Portrait of a Lady. The famous studies of concentrated muscular energy shown in the panels of Hercules and the Hydra and Hercules and Antaeus are tiny replicas of lost canvases of the Labors of Hercules painted about 1460 for the Medici palace. Pollaiuolo again used the subject of Hercules and Antaeus for a bronze statuette, which, like the damaged fresco painting of the frenetic Dancing Nudes in the Villa la Gallina near Florence, reveals his fanatical interest in the nude in action.

Pollaiuolo also executed one engraving, the famous Battle of the Nudes (ca. 1465). It is a masterful synthesis of his main artistic ideal: the decorative beauty, in violent posturings, of the male nude.

Pollaiuolo's most important commissions for sculpture were executed not in Florence but Rome. He was called, with his artist brother Piero, to the Vatican in 1484 to do the tombs of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, masterpieces of bronze casting. Though the former tomb was not finished until 1493, the artist evidently returned to Florence in 1491 to take part in a competition for the facade of the Cathedral. In 1494 he was commissioned to make a bronze bust of Condottiere Gentile Orsini.

He died on February 4, 1498 in Rome as a rich man, having just finished his mausoleum of Pope Innocent VIII, also in St. Peter's, and was buried in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, where a monument was raised to him near that of his brother.

Achievements

• Antonio Pollaiuolo was a master of anatomical rendering and excelled in action subjects, notably mythologies. This "most Florentine of artists" appealed especially to the circle of Lorenzo de' Medici.
  
  He produced one surviving engraving, the Battle of the Nude Men, but both in its size and sophistication this took the Italian print to new levels, and remains one of the most famous prints of the Renaissance.
  
  His main contribution to Florentine painting lay in his analysis of the human body in movement or under conditions of strain, but he is also important for his pioneering interest in landscape. His students included Sandro Botticelli.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Perfect Effect Canvas Of Oil Painting 'Antonio Del Pollaiuolo And Piero Del Pollaiuolo - The Martyrdom Of Saint Sebastian,1475' ,size: 10x14 Inch / 25x36 Cm ,this High Resolution Art Decorative Canvas Prints Is Fit For Foyer Artwork And Home Decoration And Gifts

    (Vivid Painting on Canvas Without Stretch and Without Fram...)

  • High Quality Polyster Canvas ,the High Resolution Art Decorative Canvas Prints Of Oil Painting 'Antonio Del Pollaiuolo Apollo And Daphne ', 30 X 44 Inch / 76 X 113 Cm Is Best For Dining Room Artwork And Home Decoration And Gifts

    (Beautiful Print on Canvas Without Stretch and Without Fra...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO DEL ALTARPIECE SS VINCENT JAMES EUSTACE ARTIST PAINTING CANVA 20x20inch MUSEUM QUALITY

    ( POLLAIUOLO Antonio del Altarpiece Of The SS Vincent Jam...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO DEL PORTRAIT YOUNG WOMAN ARTIST PAINTING OIL CANVAS REPRO 36x24inch MUSEUM QUALITY

    ( POLLAIUOLO Antonio del Portrait Of A Young Woman 1465 ,...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO DEL HERCULES HYDRA ARTIST PAINTING OIL CANVAS REPRO ART DECO 36x24inch

    ( POLLAIUOLO Antonio del Hercules And The Hydra , Beautif...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO ITALIAN APPROX 1431 1498 1 ARTIST PAINTING OIL CANVAS REPRO 36x24inch MUSEUM QUALITY

    ( Pollaiuolo Antonio Italian Approx 1431 1498 1 , Beautif...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO DEL HERCULES ANTAEUS ARTIST PAINTING OIL CANVAS REPRO ART 44x28inch

    ( POLLAIUOLO Antonio del Hercules And Antaeus , Beautiful...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO DEL PORTRAIT GIRL ARTIST PAINTING OIL CANVAS REPRO ART DECO 36x24inch

    ( POLLAIUOLO Antonio del Portrait Of A Girl , Beautiful r...)

  • POLLAIUOLO ANTONIO ST JEROME ARTIST PAINTING REPRODUCTION HANDMADE OIL CANVAS 40x28inch MUSEUM QUALITY

    ( Pollaiuolo Antonio St Jerome , Beautiful reproduction o...)

Connections

Brother:

Piero del Pollaiuolo

(c. 1443 – 1496)

References

• Antonio Pollaiuolo (Classic Reprint)
• The Pollaiuolo Brothers: The Arts of Florence and Rome
• L'Album des "Disegni di Antonio Pollaiuolo" (Carnets Et Albums: Dessins Du Musee Du Louvre)
• Vision, Reflection, and Desire in Western Painting (Bettie Allison Rand Lectures in Art History)
• Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolos: Silver and Gold, Painting and Bronze...
• Battle of the Nudes: Pollaiuolo's Renaissance Masterpiece
• The Pollaiuolo (Gallery of the Arts)