Antonio Del Pollaiuolo

Pollaiuolo, Antonio Del 

(real surname Benci). Born Jan. 17, 1433, in Florence; died Feb. 4, 1498, in Rome. Italian painter, sculptor, goldsmith, and engraver. Representative of the Florentine school of the late quattrocento.

Pollaiuolo, who was influenced by Donatello and A. del Cas-tagno, combined expressiveness with an enthusiasm for the rational regularities of the natural world. The refined, crisp line typical of his sculpture (tomb of Pope Sixtus IV in the Vatican grottoes, bronze, 1489–93) is also manifest in his painting. Such paintings as Hercules and Antaeus (c. 1465, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) and The Rape of Deianira (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven) reveal the artist’s interest in body movements, anatomy, perspective, and landscape. The same interests are evident in his copperplate engravings, which were often used by the Renaissance masters as models for the representation of the naked body. Pollaiuolo collaborated with his brother Piero (born 1443; died 1496).

REFERENCES

Sabatini, A. Antonio e Piero del Pollaiolo. Florence, 1944.
Busignani, A. Pollaiolo. Florence, 1970.