Page 263 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

changes position has seven directions of move- recorded by Vasari, Hercules and the Nemean
ment, either up or down or to the left or right, or Lion, does not correspond to a surviving image.
going away in the distance or coming towards us; There seems no reason to doubt Pollaiuolo's
and the seventh is going round in a circle. I want precise account of when he and Piero painted the
all these seven movements to be in a painting. large versions, and the smaller panels may have
There should be some bodies that face towards us, been executed around the same time (that is, c.
and others going away, to right and left. Of these 1460), though they could be as readily assigned to
some parts should be shown towards the specta- the 14705 on stylistic grounds. The handling of
tors, and others should be turned away; some the Uffizi panel paintings suggests Antonio's sole
should be raised upwards and others directed authorship. Such small panels would most likely
downwards" (Kemp 1991, 43). Such an exemplary serve as integral decorations of an item of wooden
function would not exclude a specific meaning for furniture, probably something like a casket rather
the image, and Pollaiuolo may have been as keen than a larger chest or cassone. The removal of the
to display his powers of invenzione ("invention" panels from their setting may have been partly
in the rhetorical sense of devising subject matter) responsible for the damage they have suffered,
as his prowess with the human body. In this though the vertical cracking and paint loss are less
respect, the engraving would be similar to Man- severe in this panel than in its companion piece.
tegna's engravings of all'antica themes, such as The chief area of paint loss occurs in the body and
the Battle of the Sea Gods and Bacchanals. wings of the hydra. The damage around the edges
The selection of the carefully characterized of the panel reflects an earlier but not original
plants in the background appears to be deliberate. frame. The present edges of the two panels do not
The corn and grapes may refer to the Eucharist, provide clear evidence of their mounting.
while the two olive trees may allude to the Chris- The lost paintings described by Vasari were of
tian peace, which is notably absent in the fore- great historical significance, as the first recorded
ground. The chain —the possession of which does images in the Renaissance that depicted classical
not seem to be the prime subject of dispute —can subjects on a large scale in an overtly Antique
be read as a reference to the chaining of the soul which are in the sala of his palace, made by me manner, drawing upon Roman relief sculpture for
to the unredeemed body of mortal man (Emison and my brother [Piero]." Three huge canvases their figure style. The choice of subject, however,
1990). According to this reading, we see a con- depicting three of Hercules' exploits — overcoming was not motivated solely by humanist antiquar-
scious juxtaposition of the spiritual reality of the hydra, strangling Antaeus, and killing the ianism. Hercules served as a kind of pagan guard-
Christ's flesh and blood in the Eucharist with the Nemean lion—were recorded in the Medici inven- ian of Florence, appearing on the seal of the city
corporeal reality of man's sinful and untamed tory in 1492 in the sala grande of Lorenzo il and in the sculptural decoration of the Porta della
body. This line of interpretation suggests that it Magnifico. A little over a year after the letter, Mandorla at the cathedral (Ettlinger 1972). The
is not the heroism of the fighting warriors that following the expulsion of Piero de' Medici from commissioning of large images of Hercules flor-
is held up for admiration, but the artist's high Florence, the images were requisitioned by the entinus for the Medici palace either by Cosimo il
achievement in combining the depiction of their government of the Florentine republic, and they Vecchio or Piero il Gottoso confirmed their wish
beastly actions with the devising of a meaningful have since disappeared. From Vasari's description to be identified with the virtues of the Florentine
context. The artist could thus demonstrate not of the Medicean paintings, it is clear that the republic. The family's possession of Uccello's
only his great command of anatomy but also an composition of the figure groups in two of three patriotic panels, The Rout of San Romano,
intellectual ability to invent significant content in them — Hercules and the Hydra and Hercules and served much the same function. The smaller
a manner to equal the poet. M.K. Antaeus —are closely reflected in two small panel images, including the bronze version of Hercules
paintings in the Uffizi, Florence. Vasari greatly and Antaeus (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Flor-
admired the vitality of the former, describing it as ence), obviously can not have performed such a
"truly a marvelous thing, particularly the ser- publicly rhetorical role and belong rather in the
pent; the coloring of which is so vividly done, and realm of humanist connoisseurship asssociated
l6l £fc* so appropriately, that it is impossible that any- with Lorenzo il Magnifico. It is likely though not
thing could be more lively" (Milanesi 1878, certain that the small panels, too, were painted for
Antonio Pollaiuolo 3:294). His assessment of the Hercules and one of the Medici.
Florentine, 1431/1432-1498 Antaeus perfectly captures the "anatomical" Even in its damaged state, the landscape of this
quality of the portrayal: "Hercules... strangles panel exhibits Pollaiuolo's remarkable and charac-
HERCULES AND THE HYDRA Antaeus, a beautiful image; in which one can teristic use of a foreground "plateau," behind and
genuinely see the force of Hercules in the act of below which a plain extends into the limitless
c. 1460-1475 strangling, in that his muscles and tendons are all distance. He may have gleaned this technique
oil on panel bunched up in the effort to finish off Antaeus; from Netherlandish painting, but his use of it as
7
3
17.5 X 12 (6 /8 X 4 /4) and in the head of this Hercules one can discern a foil for the monumentally sculptural description
references: Milanesi 1878, 3:293-295; Muntz 1888;
Fusco 1971; Ettlinger 1972 the gnashing of the teeth, in keeping with the of near-naked figures is entirely his own. M.K.
character of the other parts of his body, right
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence down to his toes, which turn up with the strain.
Nor does the artist devote less attention to
When Antonio Pollaiuolo wrote to Gentile Vir- Antaeus, who, constrained by the arms of Her-
ginio Orsini in 1494 seeking a favor from Piero cules, is seen to be declining and losing all vigor,
de' Medici, the artist said Piero would "remember and with open mouth his spirit is departing"
that 34 years ago I made the Exploits of Hercules (Milanesi 1878, 31294). The third of the paintings

262 CIRCA 1492