Page 264 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

162
Antonio Pollaiuolo
Florentine, 1431/1432-1498
HERCULES

c. 1480
bronze
7
40.5 fi5 /sj
references: Muntz 1888; Bode 1923, 18;
Fusco 1971; Ettlinger 1972; Joannides
1977,1981; Ettlinger 1978, nos. 18, 24, 27; Bober
and Rubenstein 1986, nos. 89, 129-130
Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Like the three large paintings of the exploits of
Hercules by Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo, a
bronze sculpture of Hercules was listed in the
Medici inventories: "a Hercules who crushes
Antaeus, completely of bronze, half a braccio
high' 7 (Miintz 1888). This entry refers to the
bronze group now in the Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence (Ettlinger 1978, no. 18). No
comparably early record is known of the single
figure in Berlin, though Pollaiuolo's authorship
has not been seriously doubted since the original
attribution by Bode in 1902. The subject of Her-
cules seems to have been especially favored by the
Medici, but Hercules' more general association
with Florentine ideals — as Hercules florentinus
(Ettlinger 1972) — suggests that the Medici need
not necessarily be identified as the patrons of the
present statuette. There are no fixed points in the
chronology of Pollaiuolo's small bronze statuettes,
but the similarity of Hercules' facial features to
those of God the Father on the reliquary cross of
1478 for San Gaggio (Ettlinger 1978, no. 24)
suggests a date in the late 14705 or early 14805.
The only conspicuous damage is the fracturing of
the lion's foot at the rear of the base, which may
have been the result of a casting flaw.
Like the Medicean bronze of Hercules and
Antaeus, this is a connoisseur's piece, made as a
virtuoso exercise in the "antique" manner. It not
only emulates the Roman statues of Hercules
known in the Renaissance (Bober and Rubenstein
1986, nos. 129-130), but also recalls the statue
described in Libanios' Ekphraseis xv:
His head bends towards the earth and he seems
to me to be looking to see if he can kill another
opponent. Then his neck is bent downward
along with his head. And his whole body is bare
of covering, for Herakles was not one to care
about modesty when his attention was directed
toward excellence. Of his arms, the right one is
taut and bent behind his back, while the left is
relaxed and stretches toward the earth. He is
supported under the arm-pit by his club... Of
Herakles's two legs, the right one is beginning
to make a movement, while the left is placed
beneath and fitted firmly on the base (Pollitt
1965,148-149).

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 263