DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61668#0080
52
POLLAIUOLO
The lower part of the Cross has suffered much
damage, the enamels being almost entirely broken away.
Here and there only a touch of colour remains. This
is hardly to be regretted from the student’s point of
view, since the exposure of the metal has rendered it
possible to take casts, without which, owing to the
inaccessible position of the Cross, it would be impossible
to study these early examples of Antonio’s art.* There
are fifteen reliefs, and most of them of the greatest im-
portance for the influence they evidently had upon
contemporary and later work. A few of them however
are so inferior in quality as to suggest that they were
left to the hand of assistants.
The largest and most elaborate of the reliefs is that
which decorates the base of the Cross, representing the
Baptism of Christ. The composition differs in no way
from that of Verrocchio in his painting now in the
Accademia, and both bear a strong resemblance to the
small panel by Alesso Baldovinetti in the same gallery.f
In the centre stands the Herculean figure of Christ, his
arms folded across his chest, looking like a pugilist
resting after a fight. The legs are crossed one behind
the other, in an attitude repeated many times by
Antonio, an attitude somewhat conventional but indi-
* Casts of all the details of Antonio’s work can be obtained at the
atelier of Giuseppe Lelli, 95 Corso dei Tintori, Florence. Photo-
graphs of the reliefs are reproduced in Dr.Mackowsky’s article “Das
Silberkreuz fur den Johannisaltar im Museo di S. Maria del Fiore
zu Florenz.” Jahrbuch der K. Preuss. Kunstsammlungen, 1902, p.
235-
t No. 233. In the Gallery attributed to Fra Angelico.
POLLAIUOLO
The lower part of the Cross has suffered much
damage, the enamels being almost entirely broken away.
Here and there only a touch of colour remains. This
is hardly to be regretted from the student’s point of
view, since the exposure of the metal has rendered it
possible to take casts, without which, owing to the
inaccessible position of the Cross, it would be impossible
to study these early examples of Antonio’s art.* There
are fifteen reliefs, and most of them of the greatest im-
portance for the influence they evidently had upon
contemporary and later work. A few of them however
are so inferior in quality as to suggest that they were
left to the hand of assistants.
The largest and most elaborate of the reliefs is that
which decorates the base of the Cross, representing the
Baptism of Christ. The composition differs in no way
from that of Verrocchio in his painting now in the
Accademia, and both bear a strong resemblance to the
small panel by Alesso Baldovinetti in the same gallery.f
In the centre stands the Herculean figure of Christ, his
arms folded across his chest, looking like a pugilist
resting after a fight. The legs are crossed one behind
the other, in an attitude repeated many times by
Antonio, an attitude somewhat conventional but indi-
* Casts of all the details of Antonio’s work can be obtained at the
atelier of Giuseppe Lelli, 95 Corso dei Tintori, Florence. Photo-
graphs of the reliefs are reproduced in Dr.Mackowsky’s article “Das
Silberkreuz fur den Johannisaltar im Museo di S. Maria del Fiore
zu Florenz.” Jahrbuch der K. Preuss. Kunstsammlungen, 1902, p.
235-
t No. 233. In the Gallery attributed to Fra Angelico.