DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61668#0114
POLLAIUOLO
76
differences that the point of the club breaks out in
flame and that the hand has not yet grasped the
Hydra’s neck. These variations, resembling as they do,
those in Robetta’s engraving, suggest that it was a
study, not for the small panel, but for the lost canvas.
It is a magnificent sketch, rapidly touched in with
clean decisive strokes, as spirited and full of fire as a
drawing by Leonardo. For energy of action it is quite
equal to the painting, but the proportions of the figure
are not so faultless, the arms being somewhat too small
and the legs too large for the body. It is a study of
action rather than of form.*
The two engravings attributed to Antonio by
Bartsch, one representing the Combat with Antaeus, the
other Hercules fighting the Giants are neither executed
by him. A fragment however by his own hand of a
cartoon for some painting or wall decoration from
which the latter must have been copied, exists in the
Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House.
It is in pen and sepia, the figures being relieved against
a dark washed background. Full of energy and
vibrating with fury they fight with bow and sabre.
Only three entire figures remain, but parts of others are
to be seen, and from these fragmentary parts—a
shoulder, fluttering ribbons, feet—we are able to
reconstruct the action of the complete body. The
energy and ferocity concentrated in the face and
* It was first attributed to Antonio by Morelli, having before
passed, most unaccountably, under the name of Ridolfo Ghirlan-
dajo. See Morelli, “Die Galerie zu Berlin,’’ p. 30, Note 2.
76
differences that the point of the club breaks out in
flame and that the hand has not yet grasped the
Hydra’s neck. These variations, resembling as they do,
those in Robetta’s engraving, suggest that it was a
study, not for the small panel, but for the lost canvas.
It is a magnificent sketch, rapidly touched in with
clean decisive strokes, as spirited and full of fire as a
drawing by Leonardo. For energy of action it is quite
equal to the painting, but the proportions of the figure
are not so faultless, the arms being somewhat too small
and the legs too large for the body. It is a study of
action rather than of form.*
The two engravings attributed to Antonio by
Bartsch, one representing the Combat with Antaeus, the
other Hercules fighting the Giants are neither executed
by him. A fragment however by his own hand of a
cartoon for some painting or wall decoration from
which the latter must have been copied, exists in the
Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House.
It is in pen and sepia, the figures being relieved against
a dark washed background. Full of energy and
vibrating with fury they fight with bow and sabre.
Only three entire figures remain, but parts of others are
to be seen, and from these fragmentary parts—a
shoulder, fluttering ribbons, feet—we are able to
reconstruct the action of the complete body. The
energy and ferocity concentrated in the face and
* It was first attributed to Antonio by Morelli, having before
passed, most unaccountably, under the name of Ridolfo Ghirlan-
dajo. See Morelli, “Die Galerie zu Berlin,’’ p. 30, Note 2.