DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61668#0060
34
POLLAIUOLO
Sculpture, and never did he work in a manner so
personal and modern as when in the atmosphere of
Rome. He was as indifferent to the conventions of
classic as of early Christian Art. It is significant that
while some of the figures round the Tomb of Sixtus
bear a superficial likeness to certain antique statues, by
their postures, their gesticulation, and the arrangement
of their draperies, they are as far removed from classic
art as any work of the Renaissance.
Antonio’s place in the development of engraving
cannot be disregarded, although we have but one plate
from his hand, and it is possible this was his only
experiment in the art, outside his niello work.* But
this single plate— The Battle of Ten Nudes—gives
him an important place as an engraver. In the strong
outline and to some extent also in the regular shading
* Of the three engravings given by Bartsch to Antonio this only
is authentic. Mr. Berenson has suggested as possibly work by his
hand the Profile Portrait of a Lady in the Berlin Print-Room,
officially attributed to an unknown Florentine engraver of the
fifteenth century (“ Florentine Drawings,’^i. 25). It has been
ascribed also to an Umbrian master, and Delaborde suggested that
it is a portrait of Battista Sforza, Duchess of Urbino. (See “ La
Gravure en Italie,” Paris, p. 146.) The technique is of the
simplest. The profile is engraved in one continuous, deeply-cut,
line, and the modelling is obtained by colour—a wash of pale red,
obviously applied by the artist himself. The lady wears a very
elaborate headdress of jewels and goldsmith’s work, fastened on her
forehead by a star-shaped jewel, and the too great elaboration of
this headdress, which eclipses the face, seems to me at variance
with Antonio’s usual emphasis of the significant, and his interest
in the human face. The engraving is well reproduced in colour by
the International Chalcographical Society.
POLLAIUOLO
Sculpture, and never did he work in a manner so
personal and modern as when in the atmosphere of
Rome. He was as indifferent to the conventions of
classic as of early Christian Art. It is significant that
while some of the figures round the Tomb of Sixtus
bear a superficial likeness to certain antique statues, by
their postures, their gesticulation, and the arrangement
of their draperies, they are as far removed from classic
art as any work of the Renaissance.
Antonio’s place in the development of engraving
cannot be disregarded, although we have but one plate
from his hand, and it is possible this was his only
experiment in the art, outside his niello work.* But
this single plate— The Battle of Ten Nudes—gives
him an important place as an engraver. In the strong
outline and to some extent also in the regular shading
* Of the three engravings given by Bartsch to Antonio this only
is authentic. Mr. Berenson has suggested as possibly work by his
hand the Profile Portrait of a Lady in the Berlin Print-Room,
officially attributed to an unknown Florentine engraver of the
fifteenth century (“ Florentine Drawings,’^i. 25). It has been
ascribed also to an Umbrian master, and Delaborde suggested that
it is a portrait of Battista Sforza, Duchess of Urbino. (See “ La
Gravure en Italie,” Paris, p. 146.) The technique is of the
simplest. The profile is engraved in one continuous, deeply-cut,
line, and the modelling is obtained by colour—a wash of pale red,
obviously applied by the artist himself. The lady wears a very
elaborate headdress of jewels and goldsmith’s work, fastened on her
forehead by a star-shaped jewel, and the too great elaboration of
this headdress, which eclipses the face, seems to me at variance
with Antonio’s usual emphasis of the significant, and his interest
in the human face. The engraving is well reproduced in colour by
the International Chalcographical Society.