DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67657#0289
D.L]
Pollaiuolo and his School.
191
in his treatment which recall the practice of the niello-engravers:
notably the deep incision of the outlines os the figures and the relief
of the design against a darkly shaded background—broken up in this
case with the stems os a wood or brake. Tradition represents
Pollaiuolo as having engraved in niello himself in youth, besides
furnishing designs to be engraved by Maso Finiguerra: and attempts
have been made to recognize his hand in certain os the finest extant
specimens os Florentine nielli.1 Such conjectures can only be
adequately discussed in a special catalogue of nielli. The nearest
analogy to niello among the unquestionably authentic work of
Pollaiuolo are the small medallion enamels (from which the enamel
has disappeared, leaving the metal work uncovered) round the base
of the silver cross of S. John which was commissioned in 1457 and
completed in 1459 (now preserved in the Opera del Duomo, Florence).
This has been very adequately described and discussed by Mac-
kowsky (Jahrbuch der Preuss. Kunstsammlungen, XXIII. 235).
Far more essentially distinctive of Pollaiuolo’s technique in his
one great plate is his adoption of a bold open system of shading
closely resembling that used by Andrea Mantegna, and differing from
the ordinary run of broad-manner work at Florence by its use of the
return stroke at an acute angle between the parallels. For a fuller
discussion of the several modes in which Pollaiuolo and Mantegna
use this system, see above, introductory note to the Broad-manner
division, pp. 97-8, and below, introductory note to Mantegna, p. 331.
Which of the two was the inspiring force it is difficult to decide.
Comparison with Pollaiuolo’s frescoes in the Villa della Gallina
(Torre del Gallo, Arcetri, near Florence), which were probably done
soon after 1464, and with the earlier Hercules subjects done for
Lorenzo de’ Medici about 1460, suggests that the Battle engraving
must date from the decade after 1464. Considering the general
course of engraving at the period, it should probably be placed after
rather than before 1470. Now although Mantegna may not himself
have taken up the graver until after 1475, there is definite evidence
that a school of engraving was already in existence at Mantua by
1475, and several of the plates until recently attributed to the
master, which are probably the work of other hands after his
drawings, may have been done well before that date. There is no
1 E.g. Dr. Kristeller has attributed to Pollaiuolo the Fortitude (Dut. 425 ;
R>eid, Salamanca coll., No. 54), the Beheading of a Captive (Parma; un-
described original of the engraving, A. II. f6), the Fountain of Love (Duch.
298; Pavia; part reprod. Pr. Jahrbuch XIX. 257) and the Hercules and the
Hydra (Duch. 248, Dut. 338: British Museum).
Pollaiuolo and his School.
191
in his treatment which recall the practice of the niello-engravers:
notably the deep incision of the outlines os the figures and the relief
of the design against a darkly shaded background—broken up in this
case with the stems os a wood or brake. Tradition represents
Pollaiuolo as having engraved in niello himself in youth, besides
furnishing designs to be engraved by Maso Finiguerra: and attempts
have been made to recognize his hand in certain os the finest extant
specimens os Florentine nielli.1 Such conjectures can only be
adequately discussed in a special catalogue of nielli. The nearest
analogy to niello among the unquestionably authentic work of
Pollaiuolo are the small medallion enamels (from which the enamel
has disappeared, leaving the metal work uncovered) round the base
of the silver cross of S. John which was commissioned in 1457 and
completed in 1459 (now preserved in the Opera del Duomo, Florence).
This has been very adequately described and discussed by Mac-
kowsky (Jahrbuch der Preuss. Kunstsammlungen, XXIII. 235).
Far more essentially distinctive of Pollaiuolo’s technique in his
one great plate is his adoption of a bold open system of shading
closely resembling that used by Andrea Mantegna, and differing from
the ordinary run of broad-manner work at Florence by its use of the
return stroke at an acute angle between the parallels. For a fuller
discussion of the several modes in which Pollaiuolo and Mantegna
use this system, see above, introductory note to the Broad-manner
division, pp. 97-8, and below, introductory note to Mantegna, p. 331.
Which of the two was the inspiring force it is difficult to decide.
Comparison with Pollaiuolo’s frescoes in the Villa della Gallina
(Torre del Gallo, Arcetri, near Florence), which were probably done
soon after 1464, and with the earlier Hercules subjects done for
Lorenzo de’ Medici about 1460, suggests that the Battle engraving
must date from the decade after 1464. Considering the general
course of engraving at the period, it should probably be placed after
rather than before 1470. Now although Mantegna may not himself
have taken up the graver until after 1475, there is definite evidence
that a school of engraving was already in existence at Mantua by
1475, and several of the plates until recently attributed to the
master, which are probably the work of other hands after his
drawings, may have been done well before that date. There is no
1 E.g. Dr. Kristeller has attributed to Pollaiuolo the Fortitude (Dut. 425 ;
R>eid, Salamanca coll., No. 54), the Beheading of a Captive (Parma; un-
described original of the engraving, A. II. f6), the Fountain of Love (Duch.
298; Pavia; part reprod. Pr. Jahrbuch XIX. 257) and the Hercules and the
Hydra (Duch. 248, Dut. 338: British Museum).