Page 265 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

At least two antique statuettes and a relief of this 164 adaptation. Bertoldo's version is in bronze rather
type of relaxed Hercules— with the right leg than marble and is less than half the size of the
crossed over the left — were known in the Renais- Bertoldo di Giovanni original. Since none of the figures and horses in
sance (Joannides 1977, 1981), and Pollaiuolo had Florentine, c. 1420-1491 the Roman relief are intact, and the center of the
himself adapted this model in his drawing of EQUESTRIAN BATTLE IN THE scene is completely missing, Bertoldo was com-
Adam in the Uffizi (Ettlinger 1978, no. 27). The ANCIENT MANNER pelled to reinvent parts of the composition. He
Berlin bronze appears to combine the general air seems to have based the lateral figures largely on
of this model with a reworking of the pose of c. 1485-1490 another Roman prototype, and he substantially
Donatello's famous bronze David (Bargello, Flor- bronze revised even the figures that are relatively intact
ence). The placing of the lion's head under the 43 x 99 (16 x 39) on the Pisa sarcophagus. He also removed many
foot of Hercules, a motif which is not found in the references: Wickhoff 1882; Muntz 1888; Pope- of their draperies in order to display the anato-
antique prototypes, appears to make deliberate Hennessy 1971, 302-304; Bober and Rubenstein mies more fully. Bertoldo allowed the feet of
allusion to the subject of David with the head of 1986, no. 157 some of the figures to extend over the front of the
Goliath and underlines the characterization of Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence shallow foreground ledge. Moreover, the tangle of
Hercules as a kind of "pagan saint/' In his left warring figures in the bronze version is radically
hand Hercules holds the three golden apples of more complex in both rhythm and depth than in
the Hesperides, the fruits of immortality obtained This relief is unquestionably identifiable in the the marble original.
from the last of his twelve labors. Medici inventory of 1492, when it was located The relative depths of relief of Bertoldo's fig-
The three-sided base, with the motif of a above a chimneypiece in the "room opposite the ures, the more prominent of which appear to lean
monopodial sphinx at each corner, is consciously great hall" (Miintz 1888). Bertoldo, a pupil and out from the back plane, suggest that the bronze
antique in style (Bober and Rubenstein 1986, no. assistant to the aged Donatello, occupied a special was always intended to be seen from a relatively
89), and serves to underscore the archaizing spirit position in the Medici household. He appears to low viewpoint, and it may have been conceived
of the piece. The judicious polishing and chasing have been in charge of the collection of antiquities specifically for the space it occupied in 1492. The
of this splendid, patinated cast are also intended and was on unusually intimate terms with iconography of Bertoldo's composition is consider-
to convey an antique air. However, the wiry Lorenzo il Magnifico. He seems to have been ably more developed than that of the Roman orig-
strength of the figure's anatomy, with knobby largely occupied in making private works for the inal, particularly by the introduction of figures
muscles and angular joints, the spatial complexity Medici family rather than executing public com- of winged victories standing on vanquished male
of the apertures between the limbs and the club, missions with the assistance of a workshop in foes at either end of the relief. The carefully
and the "saint-like" head are ultimately unlike the traditional manner. counterposed lateral figures, a Venus-like woman
any classical exemplar, and proclaim Pollaiuolo's The battle relief reflects the new kind of and a gruffly pensive man, have been identified as
own distinctive gifts in the characterization of patronage practiced by Lorenzo. A connoisseur's Helen and Menelaus, which would suggest that
male figures. M. K. piece, it is a showily impressive reworking of an the battle is between the Trojans and Romans,
actual Roman battle sarcophagus that is still in the with Hector at the center of the action (Wickhoff
Camposanto in Pisa (Bober and Rubenstein 1986, 1882). However, the central horseman with a club
163 not in exhibition no. 157). There are numerous significant differ- possesses the lion's-skin that identifies Hercules,
ences between the ancient prototype and the and the battle may therefore illustrate one of his

264 CIRCA 1492