DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61668#0029
BIOGRAPHY
7
in great measure the lack of discrimination as to the
relative value of their work. While Antonio, next to
Donatello, occupies the position of Chief and Pioneer
of the Florentine realistic school, Piero, but for his
influence and assistance, would probably be as little
known as any of the nameless imitators of Botticelli,
whose feeble work we are content to class as “ School.-”
Such small merit as there is in his painting is due
entirely to his brother, whose style he imitated as
closely as his abilities permitted, and there is little
doubt but that, so far from Antonio having been his
pupil, he himself owed his training as painter and
sculptor to his brother. The statement that Antonio
renounced the craft of goldsmith to become entirely a
painter is equally false. He was throughout his life
first and foremost a worker in metal. “ Orctfo ” he signs
himself whenever his name appears either in private
documents or in his public works. He was hardly a
sculptor in the accepted sense of the word, for he never,
as far as is known, touched marble, and all his existing
sculptured works were evidently intended to be executed
in metal. Yet that he began to study painting at
an early age, and practised it simultaneously with his
goldsmith’s work, is proved by dated evidence. The
goldsmith’s bottega was training-ground for the painter
as well as for the metal-worker and sculptor, the school
for design and drawing which constituted the most
important part of Florentine painting. The character
of Antonio’s work points to the probability that he
owed his technical education as a painter to Andrea
7
in great measure the lack of discrimination as to the
relative value of their work. While Antonio, next to
Donatello, occupies the position of Chief and Pioneer
of the Florentine realistic school, Piero, but for his
influence and assistance, would probably be as little
known as any of the nameless imitators of Botticelli,
whose feeble work we are content to class as “ School.-”
Such small merit as there is in his painting is due
entirely to his brother, whose style he imitated as
closely as his abilities permitted, and there is little
doubt but that, so far from Antonio having been his
pupil, he himself owed his training as painter and
sculptor to his brother. The statement that Antonio
renounced the craft of goldsmith to become entirely a
painter is equally false. He was throughout his life
first and foremost a worker in metal. “ Orctfo ” he signs
himself whenever his name appears either in private
documents or in his public works. He was hardly a
sculptor in the accepted sense of the word, for he never,
as far as is known, touched marble, and all his existing
sculptured works were evidently intended to be executed
in metal. Yet that he began to study painting at
an early age, and practised it simultaneously with his
goldsmith’s work, is proved by dated evidence. The
goldsmith’s bottega was training-ground for the painter
as well as for the metal-worker and sculptor, the school
for design and drawing which constituted the most
important part of Florentine painting. The character
of Antonio’s work points to the probability that he
owed his technical education as a painter to Andrea