A Student of Ancient Ceramics, Antonio Pollajuolo

Author(s): Fern Rusk Shapley

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Dec., 1919), pp. 78-86
Published by: College Art Association
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A Student of Ancient Ceramics, Antonio

Pollajuolo
by FERN RUSK SHAPLEY

\7WHEN one speaks of the influence of the antique

upon Renaissance figurative art, it is classical

sculpture, either in relief or in the round, that is immediately called to mind; and it is this phase of ancient
art, almost exclusively, that students of the Renaissance have considered.
For obvious reasons, this
attitude is largely justifiable. Renaissance literature
and art both give rich evidence of enthusiasm for classical sculpture. Many examples of ancient sculpture
that have come down to us are mentioned in Renaissance
records of contemporary collections and are copied,
often quite frankly, in Renaissance sculpture and painting. Such precise reference is comparatively rare in
the case of classical painting and minor arts. Yet it is
hard to understand why, in the analysis of the Renaissance debt to antiquity, arts of so much importance
originally and of such abundant bequest to posterity as
Greek vase painting and Arretine pottery should so
long have been left almost entirely out of account.
Already in the 13th century Greek vases of ancient
importation, as well as great quantities of the red
Arretine ware, had been excavated and were highly
prized in Italy. Both were at that time and even much
later thought to be of indigenous production. Ristoro
d'Arezzo describes in his Libro della composizione del
mondo, completed in 1282, the finds of vases in his
On these vases, he tells us, "were designed
native ton.
and modelled all varieties of plants, leaves, and flowers,
and all kinds of animals imaginable . . .
they are
in two colors, blue' and red, but usually red." "On
some are modelled figures, thin and fat, langhing and
1. Although he writes blue (azzurro) instead of black, Ristoro
is undoubtedly referring to Greek pottery here. He is not aware that
the black and red painted vases are Greek but considers them, as

(78)

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THE ART BULLETIN.

79

crying, dead and living, old and young, nude and

draped . . ." There is no limit to Ristoro's praise of
the work on the vases, and it seems that others of his
time were equally enthusiastic, for he says that "when
sculptors, designers. or other connoisseurs got any of
these fragments, they looked upon them as sacred
relics, marvelling that human nature could rise to such
a height in refinement, in craftsmanship, in the form of
these vases, in the colors, and in the modelling; and
they say: 'those craftsmen were divine' or 'those vases
In the middle of the 14th century
fell from heaven.' ,2
Giovanni Villani gives us a brief notice of the continued
discovery of Arretine ware;3 and about two centuries
after Ristoro's account Vasari, who follows Ristoro in
thinking that the red and black painted ware is Arretine
work, tells us of his grandfather Giorgio Vasari's interest in the vases. Giorgio, according to the biographer, busied himself at the potter's profession in
Arezzo. Through his study of ancient vases he rediscovered the secret of their red and black coloring. He
was also so fortunate as to unearth outside the town
part of an ancient kiln, and, besides many fragments, he
found there four whole vases, which he presented to
Lorenzo the Magnificent upon the visit of that prince to
Arezzo. Finally, a letter, published by Miintz, from
one of Lorenzo's agents at Venice tells of the proposed
addition to Lorenzo's collection of three antique vases
which had recently been imported from Greece.5
With these last accounts we come to the time of the
Renaissance painter with whom we are here concerned.
This painter, Antonio Pollajuolo, had as the patron
of some of his most characteristic work Lorenzo the
well as the examples in relief, a product of Arezzo. (See Schlosser in
Austrian Jahrbuch.
vol. XXIV, p. 154.)
2. Ristoro d'Arezzo, Libro delha composizione del mondo. The
Italian is repeatedly quoted, e. g., by Fabroni, Storia degli antichi vast
fittili Aretini, p. 12 if. and by Schlosser, op. cit., p. 152, note 2. An
English version is given by G. H. Chase, Loeb Collection of Arretine
Pottery, p. 9 and Catalogue of Arretine Pottery (Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston), p. 4.
3. See Fabroni, op. cit., p. 16.
4. Vasari's Lives. trans. by G. de Vere, vol. III, p. 54 if.
5. Miintz, Les collections des Medicis au quinzieme siecle, p. 57.

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80

THE COLLE
AG

ATASOCIATION OF AMFRTCA.

Magnificent, whom we find interested in collecting ancient vases.

Now Antonio Pollajuolo's fame has rested chiefly
on his realism. He was an innovator in Florentine art,
basing his work upon a direct study of the human body
made by dissection and by observation of movement.
But with his undisputed original realism he combined
peculiarities of movement and composition which find
their prototypes in red-figured Greek vase paintings,
and more especially in those of the "severe" period.
Two considerations make it immediately clear that one
cannot, however, as if it were a case of ancient sculptures, point to definite Greek vases as the ones from
which any Renaissance painter has necessarily drawn
his inspiration. In the first place, our records of individual vases do not date back so far as the Renaissance. In the second place, types of figures and forms
of compositions, when once created by a Greek vase
painter, became common property and were repeated
again and again. In the case of Antonio Pollajuolo we
have the additional fact that he was too deeply interested in anatomy to have slavishly copied the comparatively stereotyped, schematic vase figures.
The movement expressed in Antonio's paintings
has always been their most noticeable feature and one
of the most difficult to analyze, as witness the conflicting comments made upon it by critics. Berenson finds
the artist "one of the greatest masters of movement
that there ever has been, one of the ablest interpreters
of the human body as a vehicle of life-communicating
energy and exulting power."6 Maud Cruttwell, his
most extensive biographer, speaks with enthusiasm of
his scientific presentation of movement. "Never,"
she says, "have rapid movement, vehement gesture and
the violence of brute force been better rendered

even Signorelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo-those

great masters of vehement movement-have never surpassed him. And he can be equally successful in rhyth6. Berenson, Florentine Drawings, vol. I, p. 19.

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PLATEV.

a
Fig.

VILLA DELLA

1-ARCETRI,

GALLINA: Detail of Fresco by

Pollajuolo.

Fig. 3-SILENUS

2-WINGED
FIGFig.
URE FROM A GREEK
VASE (mirror-wise).

ror-wise).

b
Fig.

FROM

A GREEK VASE (mir-

4-ARCETRI

FIGURE

(Fig.

d
1, a)

Compared

with

Examples from Greek Vases.

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THE ART BULLETIN.

81

mic as in rapid movement,in quiet as in violent action."7

On the other hand, he is reproached by Crowe and Cavalcaselle for "rigid and exaggerated action," for "affected action," and for lack of grace in movement.8Cox
calls his figures ungainly9and Perkins speaks of their extravagance and mannerism.10
These attitudes and movements of Antonio's figures, giving at once the impression of intense, realistic
life and of unreal, superhuman contortion, are precisely the peculiarities that impress one in Greek vase
paintings, particularly of the 5th century.
Let us look first at what remains of the sadly mistreated frescoes of the Villa della Gallina (in the
grounds of the Torre del Gallo, Arcetri, near Florence),
"works that are accepted as entirely by Antonio's own
hand and as most characteristic of his genius" (Pls. V
and VI, figs. 1 and 6). The similarity of these frescoes
to the familiar subject of the Bacchic Dance in Greek
vase paintings ought to strike one immediately. Of the
manner in which the light-colored figures stand out
against the dark background we shall speak later, as
also of the dependence almost entirely upon line for
the indication of form and muscle. But note now the
extravagant movement of the bodies, how they seem to
spring into the air, fall at once into the attitude the
artist has chosen and remain fixed so. We have the
peculiar sensation of witnessing the preceding move.
ment rather than the usual sensation of anticipating the
following action. Take, for example, the youith seen
from the front (P1. V, fig. 1, a and fig. 4, a; the latter is
an outline drawing). The same paradox of static
movement, as well as a striking similarity of contorted
pose is found in the three figures taken from Greek
vases and placed above and at the sides of the Pollajuolo
7. Cruttwell, Antonio Pollajuolo, pp. 28 and 40.
8. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, ed. Hut
ton, vol. II, pp. 375 and 377.
9. Cox, Painters and Sculptors, p. 21.
10. Perkins, Tuscan Sculptors, vol. 1, p. 223

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82

TEE COLLEGE
ART ASSOCIATION
OF AMEICA.

dancer in fig. 4.11 Comparison with the one at the right

is particularly satisfactory because the position of the

legs and of the arms corresponds most closely to the
fresco figure. The motive of action, however, seems
somewhat more closely paralleled in the other two,
where there is no support under the upraised foot.
The beautiful forward-rushing figure in the fresco
(P. VI, fig. 6), which seems to be the best preserved
of the five, may also have been inspired by any one of
many Greek types. It is shown here (P1. VI, fig. 5) in
outline drawing between two figures from the famous
cylix in Cracow, which is assigned by Hartwig to
Euphronius.12The wild abandon of the dance expressed
by the Greek artist in the figure at the right with head
thrown back and open mouth is a worthy model for
any artist. Omitting every accessory detail, both the
classical and the Renaissance work seem to have but
one goal, the expression of the most vigorous, exhilarating movement; and it must be admitted that, in
spite of his advanced anatomical knowledge, Antonio
has not quite so nearly attained the goal as has
Euphronius with his far more conventional means.
Though not so close to Antonio's figure in the expression of forward movement as are the figures of the
Cracow cylix, the Silenus from a vase in the Hermitage
(P1. Vl, fig. 713) furnishes an interesting parallel for
the position of the arms and legs, and the parallel is
the more obvious when the figure is seen mirror-wise, as
it is also shown here (P1. V, fig. 3). With the upper
part of the Silenus' body another of the figures of the
fresco is more closely analogous (P1. V, fig. 1, c). Here
the body is seen more from the front, the arms and
11. b, from a vase in the Ducal Museum of Gotha, elite des Monuments

, vol. II,

p. 90.

c, from the volute crater in Arezzo, Furtwaingler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, pl. 62.
d, from a vase in the Louvre, Blite des Monuments . .
vol. IV, pl. 31.
12.

Hartwig,

Die griechischen

Meisterschalen

, pl. XI.

13. Compte-Rendu de la Commission Archeologique, Atlas, 1869,

pi. VI, 3.

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PLATE VI.

b
Fig.

a
c
FIGURE (Fig. 6) Compared with Examples from a Greek Vase.

5-ARCETRI

Fig. 6-ARCETRI, VILLA DELLA

GALLINA: Detail of Fresco by
Pollajuolo.

Fig.

7-SILENUIS

FROM A GREEK

VASE.

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THE ART BULLETIN.

83

hands are arranged much as are those of the Silenus

(P1. V, fig. 3), and the peculiar movement, in which the
forward rush of the body is interrupted by a backward
swing, is repeated.
The standing female figure (P1. V, fig. 1, b), which
forms such a pleasing contrast with the dancing youths
on either side, finds a more or less close parallel in a
winged figure from an Attic crater with white painting
(P1. V, fig. 214). The poses of the two are very much the
same when one of them is seen mirror-wise, as is the
vase figure here.
An ever recurrent peculiarity of Pollajuolo, the
position of the hand turned back sharply at right angles
to the wrist, is well illustrated in the Gallina frescoes.
This peculiarity is no doubt very cogent in making the
attitudes appear to some to be affected; but it does
enhance the suggestion of tense, nervous movement.
A similar effect is seen in many Greek vases, though
Pollajuolo twists and contorts the fingers more. A
particularly close parallel is on an early 4th century
crater in Palermo.15 It should be compared with the
arm and hand of the almost completely destroyed figure
of the fresco (Pl. VI, fig. 6).
Two other paintings universally recognized as the
work of Antonio are the little pictures in the Uffizi,
presumably free replicas of the artist's large paintings
of the same subjects, deeds of Hercules, executed in
1460 for Lorenzo de' .Medici, who, we remember, had
at least a few examples of Greek vases. The labors
of Hercules were so commonly represented in classical
art that there would have been no difficulty in finding
a model. Many Roman sarcophagi are decorated with
the subject. But there the hero is short, thick-set, and
more compact in his movement. Here (P1. VII, fig. 9),
Hercules is tall and lean, with broad shoulders and
narrow waist and a broad, striding movement-in short,
the type of hero dear to the heart of the Greek vase
painter. I need give for comparison only the familiar
14. Furtwiingler-Reichhold,
15. Ibid., pl. 59.

op. cit., pl. 100.

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84

THE CoLiLEnxART ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA.

example on the volute crater in Arezmo, where the subject is Hercules combating the Amazons (P1. VII, fig.
1016).

The same Hercules appears in the Rape of Dejanira

in the Jarves collection at Yale University.17 And this
type of figure is repeated in the man at the extreme
left in the engraving of the Battle of the Nudes,18 as
also in the study for this engraving (see below and
P1. VIII).
Without stopping to illgstrate in detail,
the similarity of other parts of the engraving to
Greek vase painting is apparent. The figure just at the
right of the Hercules type runs with upraised club
as do repeated examples on vases, and the striding
movement throughout the whole composition suggests
Greek prototypes.
In further connection with the Hercules type, we
may consider the terra cotta bust of a young warrior in
the Museo Nationale, Florence.19 On the breastplate
are modelled two groups representing deeds of Hercules.
On the left he slays the Stymphalian birds, and on the
Aside from some
right he strangles the serpents.
similarity in the figures themselves to Greek vase paintings, the compositions, with their circular boundaries
for the figures suggest the decoration on the interior of
a cylix.
Antonio's

drawing

of Adam

(P1. VII,

fig. 8, a20),

crutched on his hoe, gesticulating with his left hand and

resting his right hand on his hip, strikes one as rather
ludicrous. And yet this posture was quite the fashion
among Greek artists (P1. VII, fig. 8, b, c, d, e2l). Again
16. Ibid., pl. 61.
17. Illustrated in Sir6n's

Catalogue

of tke Jarves

Collection,

p.

112.
Illustrated in Cruttwell, op. cit., pl. XXIII.
Illustrated ibid., pl. XII.
Given here in an outline copy. Illustrated in Berenson, op.
I, pl. XVI.
b, from a cylix in the Louvre, Hartwig, op. cit., pl. LXVI.
. .
c, from a vase in the Hamilton collection, Collection
Hamilton (1802), vol. III, pi. 34.
d, from a vase in the collection of M. de Paroi (1808), Reinach, Peintures de Vases Antiques, pl. 29.
e, from a vase in the Vatican, Reinach, op. cit., pl. 43.
18.
19.
20.
cit., vol.
21.

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PLATEVII.

Fig. 8-POLLAJUOLO'S DRAWINGOF ADAM compared

Figures from Greek Vases.

Fig. 9-FLORENCE, UFFIZI: HERCULES

THE HYDRA
SLAYING
POLLAJUOLO.

BY

with

Fig. 10-HERCULES FROMA GREEK

VASE.

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PLATE VIII.

CA.MBRIDGE,

COLLECTION OF MR.
MASS.,
DRAWING BY POLLAJUOLO.

PAUL

J. SACIIS:

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85

THE ART BULLETN.

and again we find the pose; with legs crossed, cane under
left arm, left arm free, right hand on hip the men stand
at ease, discoursing with one another, watching the
gymnastic sports, or directing the work of the bottega.
The more finished and far more beautiful drawing
(evidently part of a study for the Battle of the Nudes)
in the collection of Mr. Paul J. Sachs, Cambridge, is
useful for our thesis (P1. VIII). Not only in the almost
entire reliance upon sharp, clear outline, with few interior markings, but also in the use of a solid dark
background against which the figures stand out in
reddish-brown bistre does the drawing give the striking
effect of a red-figured Greek vase. The well-known
drawing of a Prisoner Brought before a Judge, in the
British Museum (P1. IX, fig. 11), gives the same effect
as Mr. Sachs' drawing; and for these features of redfigured Greek vase treatment attention should again
be called to the frescoes from the Villa della Gallina,
with their light-colored figures done almost entirely with
sure, clear outline, and placed sharply against a solid
dark ground (Pls. V and VI, figs. 1 and 6).
Turning to another branch of Antonio's activity, the
sculptures on the tomb of Sixtus IV show little or none
of the influence of painted Greek vases. But precisely
these sculptures would lead us to believe that our
artist was not blind to the entirely different beauties of
the red Arretine ware, which we mentioned in the beginning. The charming Arretine vases with their softly
modelled, graceful figures, their flying putti, their
clinging drapery, and their rich garlands and other
abundance of decoration must surely have been admired by many artists of the Renaissance.22 One of the
most common subjects with which they are decorated is
the symposium scene, in some such form of composition
as we see it on a vase in the Boston Museum of Fine
Arts (P1. IX, fig. 12, a and b). Notice particularly the
female figure who holds with her right hand a lyre resting upon her knee, while she turns her head to look
over her shoulder at the man behind (P1. IX, fig. 12, a).
22.

Cf. Chase, Loeb Collection

of Arretine

Pottery,

p. 34.

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86

THE COLLEG E ART ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA.

The similarity between this symposium figure and the

personification of Perspective from Antonio's tomb of
Sixtus IV (P1. IX, fig. 13) needs no comment. With
the other female figure on this vase (PI. IX, fig. 12, b)
Antonio's Theology from the Sixtus monument shows
much likeness.23 The flying angel appearing here at the
left might well have been suggested by the flying putto
motive of the Arretine vases.
Let me repeat that the particular vases here used
for comparison are not put forward as those which
Antonio Pollajuolo knew. Further, there is no intention of suggesting that all of his work was inspired either by Greek or by Arretine pottery decoration. In
spite of these reservations, however, the relationships
which have been traced may be helpful in making intelligible the contradicting impressions of the artist's
fixedness and movement, their jerkiproductions-their
ness and rhythm, their awkwardness and grace.
23. Illustrated in Cruttwell, op. cit., pi. XLIV.

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PLATE IX.

Fig.

11-LONDON,

BRITISH

MUSEUM:

DRAWING BY

POLLAJUOLO.

Fig. 12-BOSTON,

Fig.

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS:

13--RoAlE,

ST. PETERS:

OF SIXTUS

b
ARRETINE VASE.

RELIEF FROMITHE TOMB

IV BY POLLAJUOLO.

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