Battle of the Nudes

Battle of the Nudes
POLLAIUOLO'S RENAISSANCE MASTERPIECE
Shelley R. Langdale
THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART 2002

Battle of the Nudes: Pollaiuolo's Renaissance Masterpiece
NTONIO DEL POLLAIUOLO (Italian, 1431-1498) was a renowned
Florentine painter, sculptor, draftsman, and goldsmith who was particularly
admired for his dynamic and expressive portrayal of the human
figure. He carried out a wide range of projects including a series
of Hercules paintings (now lost) for the powerful Medici family in Florence, designs
for embroidered vestments, monumental tombs for Popes Sixtus IV and Innocent
VIII in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, small bronze sculptures, and reliefs. 1 Today,
however, a relatively small number of his works survive, and he is perhaps most
widely known for his magnificent engraving, Battle of the Nudes [1]. Its arresting image,
unusually grand scale, 2 and superior execution make this print—the first engraving
to bear an artist's full signature—a landmark in Italian Renaissance art.
The sixteenth-century artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari described the print, and
Pollaiuolo's skill: "He engraved on copper a battle of nude figures all girt round
with a chain; and after this one he made other engravings, with much better workmanship
than had been shown by the other masters who had lived before him." 3
His print is also considered among the first major artistic achievements in the history
of Italian engraving. Pollaiuolo developed an unusually refined technique that
simulates the V-shaped zigzag or "return stroke" found in pen and ink drawings:
when drawing a series of parallel lines, sometimes the pen drags lightly across the
paper as the hand returns to the starting position, leaving a fine ink line at a slightly
acute angle between the parallel lines. 4 A
This continuous back and forth line is effortless
with a drawing tool such as a quill pen. To emulate such a stroke in engraving,
Pollaiuolo carefully cut two discrete rows of parallel lines—one at a slight angle to
the other—seamlessly integrating the two, which form elongated Vs where they
converge at either end (fig. 1). He used this technique to great effect in the modeling
of the muscular bodies; he also changed the direction of his parallel shading lines to
articulate the anatomy of his figures. This was a considerable advancement over the
more rudimentary parallel shading and crosshatching found in earlier prints.
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Pollaiuolo's print is also something of a conundrum, however. Scholars have
searched in vain to identify the specific subject of the image and continue to debate
its dating (suggestions have ranged from 1465 to around 1489), seeking stylistic and
technical evidence in a period for which printmaking documentation is severely
lacking. Remarkably, the Battle appears to be Pollaiuolo's only existing print. De-
spite Vasari's suggestion that there were other examples (which may have been de-
stroyed over time), there are no known prints executed by the same hand preceding
or following the Battle that could suggest the development of his engraving style or
technique. 5 The Cleveland Museum of Art's unique first state of the Battle of the
Nudes has long been regarded as the exemplary early impression, printed before the
plate began to wear and was supposedly re-engraved by another hand. All other
known impressions (approximately forty-eight in number) are second states, pulled
from the reworked plate. The silvery, harmonious, drawing-like character of
Cleveland's first-state impression appears to give way to an image of stronger black
and white contrasts in second-state impressions. In fact, the tonalities of some early
second-state impressions, such as that in the Fogg Museum of Art [2], resemble the
black and silver niello plaques produced in Pollaiuolo's and other quattrocento
goldsmith workshops [22].
Aside from their compelling aesthetic qualities, part of the fascination of old
master prints, especially works such as the Battle that were created during the early
history of the medium, is the intrigue of their peculiarities and the close looking
they inspire. By bringing together multiple impressions of the second state to com-
pare with Cleveland's first state, this exhibition offers the opportunity for close
comparative study that reveals a new understanding of the changes between the
first and second states and what agents might have contributed to the apparent dif-
ferences. The use of variant inks and the possibility of Pollaiuolo's own modifica-
tions of the image in the second state—rather than the re-engraving of weakened
lines by someone else-—suggest aesthetic choices and accepted differences between
impressions that must alter our previous methods of evaluating Pollaiuolo's en-
graving, and possibly of other early Italian engravings as well. 6 These observations
expand our conception of what constitutes a "good" impression of an early Italian
engraving, beyond the superb qualities of the Cleveland impression, and may sug-
gest a motivation for the changes in the second state. New information about plate
wear and watermarks helps us begin to propose a rough chronology for extant im-
pressions. These and other issues will be explored using evidence gathered from
existing impressions of Pollaiuolo's engraving and in the context of his broader
artistic concerns, as represented by his work in a variety of media.
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Louise Richards, Cleveland's curator of prints and drawings from 1967 to 1986, was
the first to note the existence of a first state when the museum acquired its Battle of
the Nudes in 1967. Based on her close examination of several second-state impres-
sions, and photographs and surveys of others, Richards concluded that "all other
known impressions of the engraving were printed after the plate had begun to
show wear—after the shallow thin shading lines that model the bodies had become
weaker and a number of areas of the plate were reworked (with an engraving tool)
by another hand." 7 The most easily recognizable difference between the first and
second states is the addition of shading on the inner thigh of the man wielding an
ax at far right (fig. 2). Richards also noted the less immediately obvious, more
"destructive" alteration in the significant darkening of the background, achieved
through the re-engraving of areas between plant stalks and added shading in some
foliage. She observed that, while the figures appear weaker in the second state as
the modeling lines began to wear, the background becomes distracting through in-
creased contrasts and heightened detail. Although the plant forms in the relatively
monochromatic gray background of the first state are carefully articulated, the foli-
age is generally subordinated, through a predominance of methodical diagonal
shading, to the fluid outline of the active foreground figures. Richards concluded
that Cleveland's first-state impression is the sole unadulterated version of
Pollaiuolo's engraving, in which the harmony of natural and formal design is pre-
served in a subtle equilibrium. In her view, the reworking of the plate destroyed the
quality of Pollaiuolo's line and his intentional play of the sinuous outline of the
warriors' bodies against the linear pattern that defines the background.
As Richards was aware, the study of Pollaiuolo's engraving is further compli-
cated by the considerable wear and tear of impressions, partly because of their age
and partly because of their large size. Areas that did not print well, or suffered abra-
sion or damage over the years, were often redrawn in pen and ink at some point.
Also, nearly all impressions show evidence of folding (a number have multiple fold
lines, both horizontal and vertical). Many were trimmed; the edges of the sheets
became creased, abraded, soiled, or torn, and tattered edges were cut off. Impres-
sions were cut to fit into albums, or in a few cases appear to have been cut down in
an effort to even out the otherwise asymmetrically shaped image. Thus comparison
of impressions must take into account a greater than usual consideration of restora-
tion and condition issues.
Richards's observations were remarkable considering her limited resources at
the time: she did not have the opportunity to compare multiple impressions side by
side and consequently relied on photographs that can distort tonal values; further,
she did not have access to beta radiography (a process that uses radioactive "beta"
plates to obtain clear images of watermarks), sophisticated microscopes, or other
technical equipment. It has become clear—through close scrutiny of the Cleveland
engraving and more than thirty second-state impressions, with the advantage of
direct comparisons, magnified slide details, and to-scale digital photographs—that
while some of Richards's observations were correct, others need modification.
27

5). There also appear to be some reinforced engraved lines and possibly some addi-
tional fine lines cut closely along the diagonal shading on the left side of the tree
trunk at the far right, to the right of the forearm of the figure holding the chain (fig.
6). The plant stalk that rises above the right shoulder of the right figure holding the
chain, which stops abruptly at a leaf in the first state, is extended in the second
state, behind the leaf and the vine, above the sword blade, and behind the vine
looped around the tree branches (fig. 7). Besides the careful addition of lines be-
tween the shading patches on the ax man's inner thigh at the far right (see fig. 2),
touches of additional line work are evident elsewhere: above and below some of the
vines wrapped around the tree trunks at left and right (fig. 8); between parallel
shading lines in some plant stalks and leaves in the area above the figure at the far
right stabbing the man on the ground; in some of the foliage to the right of the ar-
cher at far left; above and below the name plaque; and in the shading on the quiver
above and below the left ax man's proper left thigh (fig. 9). A rib was added to a leaf
29

Fig. 9. Details showing additional
line work in the second state.
Cleveland (left), Boston (right).
to the left of the head and proper right shoulder of the figure at the far right stab-
bing the man on the ground; and a few section lines were inserted on some plant
stalks at right, to the left of the right ax man's stomach, for example. It should be
noted that much of the added shading is executed in a manner in keeping with
some of the fine zigzag-type lines already found in background areas in the first
state (fig. 10). However, aside from the alteration of the thigh shadow and what ap-
pear to be a few tiny strokes on the navel of the figure in the lower right stabbing
the man on the ground (fig. 11), the shading and contours of the figures appear to
be untouched.
Overall, the reworking of the plate seems limited, even nuanced in some
places, with most changes focused on adjusting shading here and there to increase
the sense of space around or between adjacent objects. Admittedly, there is some
variation of refinement in the changes. The tiny adjustments to the shading on the
quiver and in some of the foliage, and the lines in the patch of shading on the far
right ax man's thigh appear more delicately executed than some of the quick short
strokes added above and below the name plaque and vines, or in the re-engraving
of some of the interstices of the background. However, the intention or motivation
appears to be the same. The explanation for these alterations may be revealed by the
most obvious one—the shading of the ax man's thigh. This is clearly not re-engrav-
ing of worn lines but a conscious decision to sacrifice the specificity of muscular
definition in order to clarify the placement of the leg behind another figure by shad-
ing the thigh. Thus the evident changes to the plate and the fact that the figures,
where the finest shading lines occur and which are thus most vulnerable to wear,
were largely unaltered suggests that the reworking was aesthetically motivated
rather than an attempt to strengthen a worn plate.
Aside from state changes, the type of printing ink can also dramatically affect
an impression's appearance. One reason that Richards may have been deceived
about the extent of rework in the second state is the extreme difference between the
inks used in the Cleveland and Fogg impressions, the two examples she cited for
comparison. Cleveland's ink is thin and sparsely pigmented. Therefore, in many
fine lines, pigment particles appear as if individually suspended along the em-
bossed line instead of as a continuous solid black (fig. 12a). The effect is similar to
knots spaced along a piece of thread. As a result, white paper shows through the
spaces between the black particles, the lines have a blurred edge, and from a dis-
30

tance the image appears silvery gray. In sharp contrast, the Fogg ink appears
densely pigmented and thick with a more viscous binder so the lines appear blacker
(fig. 12b). In some areas of shading, the lines are so close together it looks as if lines
were added or widened (fig. 13). Determining whether an area has been reworked
requires careful scrutiny and counting lines. Sometimes, because of condition or
printing flaws, comparison of the first state with multiple second-state impressions
was necessary. During the course of research, it quickly became clear that the inks
used in second-state impressions also varied and that the character of the ink was a
key factor in the appearance of the print.
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The light, grayish quality of the Cleveland impression has long been praised as
"typical" and "representative" of good impressions of early Italian engravings, re-
flecting a preference for softer tonal effects, more akin to drawings and unlike the
strong black and white contrasts found in contemporary Northern prints. 8 Thus the
Cleveland print has been viewed as a closer representation of Pollaiuolo's original
intention. 9 It would seem, however, given the range of inks used, that a greater vari-
ety of impressions may have been acceptable than previously thought. "Relatively
early" second-state impressions are characterized by little sign of plate wear overall,
so that fine modeling lines still printed fairly well, and there is evidence of good
line embossment—that is, the lines in the plate were deep enough to create a notice-
ably raised line when the dampened paper was pressed into the inked groove dur-
ing printing. At least three such impressions, those in the Fogg, the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, seem to have fairly dense, vis-
cous black inks that result in high-contrast images where some interstices between
background forms print nearly solid black. Other relatively early impressions, such
as those at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
have somewhat softer inks with a less viscous binder, which produces a less defined
line that appears lighter, more sunk into the paper, and less densely black. The ink
variation in the relatively early impressions is interesting because nearly all (Yale,
Boston, Rijksmuseum, and Bibliotheque Nationale among them) share the same
bird watermark—suggesting that they could have been printed around the same
time. So even within a group printed close in time, ink type, and hence appearance,
could vary. The ink in some late impressions from the clearly worn and apparently
corroded plate, such as those in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art [4]
and the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, also appears densely pigmented, but somewhat
dry and thin though not "soft." Such ink may have been used to maximize the ex-
tent to which the remaining lines would print from the worn plate. Yet, other late
examples such as that in the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden, have a less dense ink,
resulting in a somewhat grayer image, so again there is variety in the inks used
even later on.
If the reworking of the plate in the second state was based on an aesthetic deci-
sion to alter the image, and given that the ink makes a substantial contribution to an
impression's appearance, the question arises: what was the motivation behind these
choices? First, one must address the time span between the states. Let us begin by
considering the implications of the existence of a single example of the first state out
of forty-eight known impressions, which might initially suggest that the first state is
a proof, a trial run before the plate was completed. However, there are two signed
woodcuts, copies created around 1490-1500 that are the same scale as Pollaiuolo's
image and clearly reproduce the first state: one by Johanes de Francfordia [5] and
the other by Lucantonio degli Uberti [6]. 10 The remarkably faithful version by
Francfordia even follows the direction of shading on both foliage and figures, as
well as other small details that are extremely difficult to emulate in woodcut.
Francfordia copied the modeling of the ax man's thigh in the first state (fig. 14), and
the scale of the figures is so close—within millimeters—that one could imagine an
impression of the engraving was used to trace the image onto his woodblocks.
Aside from the absence of crosshatching and zigzag lines, which would have been
32

difficult and time consuming to recreate in such a large woodcut, the most notice-
able departure is the delineation of white perpendicular lines and dots dispersed
over the dark ground, a convention typical of Florentine woodcut style in the late
fifteenth century, rather than following the pattern of scattered rocks and wavy
shaded strips in Pollaiuolo's engraving. 11 Uberti's more stylized interpretation
leaves out the background detail, but also retains the unshadowed thigh of the first
state. 12 It seems highly unlikely that Francfordia and Uberti would have had access
to the only impression of the first state, particularly if the woodcut postdates the
33

engraving by several decades. It is more probable that there were multiple impres-
sions of the first state in circulation before the plate was reworked and that
Cleveland's impression is not a proof.
The probable existence of multiple first-state impressions could be taken as
evidence that someone else got hold of the plate after Pollaiuolo's initial printing
and made the changes. However, the Fogg impression shows little wear, has good
embossment of line, and is the only known impression of the second state without a
printed scratch on the back of the right chain man's thigh (fig. 15). Thus it must
have been printed early on, before the plate was scratched. In addition, the water-
marks on the Cleveland and Fogg impressions nearly match: the shape and size of
the Three Mounts correspond exactly, but the staff in the Fogg watermark has a
crossbar (see Appendix: Watermarks). The close correspondence of the Cleveland
and Fogg watermarks suggests that the papers were produced on the same mold (if
the crossbar fell off or was added), by the same mill, at around the same time. Al-
though there does not appear to be an exact known match for either version of the
watermark, which would secure a dating of the paper, similar watermarks date
from the 1420s to the 1490s. The congruence of watermarks combined with the lack
of plate wear in the Fogg impression further suggests that the Fogg and Cleveland
impressions are not separated by a wide span of years and could have been printed
around the same time. Despite Richards's awareness of the similar watermarks and
the apparently early printing of the Fogg impression, she suggested that the exist-
ence of the woodcut copies, possibly made after Pollaiuolo's death in 1498, imply
that the first state of the engraving was the form in which Pollaiuolo's print was
recognized and admired, and that the plate wore quickly and was re-engraved by
another hand. 13 She believed that if there were second-state impressions circulating
when the woodcuts were made, they would have been perceived as unrepresenta-
tive of the artist's work. This reasoning, however, does not take into account other
variables involved in the appearance of different impressions of this engraving. It
would seem more likely that Francfordia happened to copy a first-state impression
because that was what was available to him. The nature of the woodcut medium
automatically altered Pollaiuolo's image, increasing the black and white contrast
34

and eliminating the subtlety of modeling in the figures. Had Francfordia used a sec-
ond state for his model, the differences would probably not be immediately discern-
ible (aside from the thigh shading). So Richards's suggestion that selecting a first-
state impression to copy was based on aesthetic preference seems moot since the
subtleties would not carry over in the woodcut version. In addition, there is no rea-
son to assume that when other impressions of the first state were printed the ink
would have been consistent; they might have looked considerably different from
the Cleveland impression, perhaps even close to some second-state impressions if a
much denser ink was used.
The reworking of the plate, given its aesthetic intent, fussy adjustments, and
execution (generally in keeping with line work in the first state), could have been
done by Pollaiuolo himself, or perhaps by an assistant in his shop (which might ex-
plain the occasional variation in the finesse of the changes), under his direction. It is
possible that the alterations to the plate relate directly to Pollaiuolo's creative inten-
tions for producing this image as an engraving.
Numerous proposals have been put forth to explain the elusive subject matter,
but, significantly, no one has offered a convincing literary source for this particular
image. 14 The lack of differentiation between heroes and villains amplifies the
ambiguity of the subject, suggesting that Pollaiuolo did not intend to describe a
specific historical or mythological battle scene. Alison Wright has suggested that
Pollaiuolo's imagery may serve as an imaginative allegory aligned with poetic
rather than historical ideas. 15 In a similar vein, Patricia Emison and more recently
Joseph Manca have explored the bestial/barbaric character of the figures, perceiv-
ing a viciousness rather than heroic effort in their animated poses, grimacing ex-
pressions, and bold nakedness that Pollaiuolo may have used to allude to man's
unbridled passion or moral corruption manifest in the human body. 16 This concept
may be reinforced by a sixteenth-century German drawing based on the Pollaiuolo
engraving. The German artist Jorg Breu (c. 1480-1537) used the Battle of the Nudes as
the basis for his 1516 design for a wall fresco [18]. Interestingly, his alterations of
Pollaiuolo's composition (the addition of figures, substitution of clubs for swords,
and adornment of the central figure with a leafy loincloth symbolic of the Germanic
"wild man") resonate with the "barbaric" associations suggested by Emison and
Manca. 17 A broader explanation—some kind of imaginative coded moral or didactic
allegory rather than a precise reference, perhaps not fully decipherable to us but
obvious to an educated contemporary viewer—seems most plausible.
SOURCES, CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY
The impact of the engraving on other artists' work, evident in references to the
dynamic poses, anatomical explicitness, and expressive character of Pollaiuolo's
figures, has left little doubt that a considerable part of the artist's intention was to
demonstrate his capacities as a master draftsman of the figure in motion, while ex-
ploring the potential of a new reproductive medium well-suited to his skills as a
goldsmith. This assumption is further reinforced by the remarkably large scale of
the print and the prominent display of his name on the plaque at left. The allusion
in the Latin inscription to his Florentine origins further suggests his plan to broad-
35

cast his talent to a wide audience. Pollaiuolo may also have created this ambitious
print in response to or in competition with engravings associated with Andrea
Mantegna (1431-1506). A particularly fine impression of Bacchanal with a Wine Vat
[12] emphasizes the drawing-like character of the engraved line, which utilizes a
zigzag technique, similar to Pollaiuolo's, in some areas of shading. This stroke and
the plaque hanging from the tree encircled by a vine (which may have derived from
the Battle of the Nudes) have raised questions about the degree of each artist's knowl-
edge of the other's work, and possible influence on one another. The plaque may
have been left blank in Mantegna's image as an egotistical display suggesting that
the artist's style was so recognizable that a signature was unnecessary. Two docu-
ments now confirm Mantegna's involvement in printmaking in 1475, although spe-
cific prints are not named and both texts indicate that Mantegna hired others to en-
grave his designs. The first is a letter of September 1475 from the engraver Simone
di Ardizzone to Ludovico Gonzaga about Mantegna's apparent desire to hire
Simone as an engraver. The second, a contract between Mantegna and the gold-
smith and engraver Zohanne (Gian Marco) Cavalli, dated April 1475, was recently
uncovered in the Mantuan archives.' 8 Yet the ongoing debate over dating and au-
thorship of specific Mantegna examples (whether Mantegna hired engravers to
make all of his engravings, or in fact executed some himself) and the uncertain dat-
ing of Pollaiuolo's engraving leaves the direction of influence open to speculation.
Pollaiuolo's composition may be approached from several angles in an attempt
to formulate a possible line of development for the specifics of his conception. There
is no indication that this engraving was commissioned; it appears to be an indepen-
dent artistic effort instead. If his goal was to demonstrate his command of the male
nude, both his understanding of its anatomy and his ability to render that knowl-
edge artistically and in a manner that would appeal to both artists and intellectual
patron/admirers, he would undoubtedly seek to create an image that would allude
to popular visual and literary sources and yet address contemporary artistic chal-
lenges. Battle of the Nudes belongs to the very inception of the Renaissance portrayal
of the blatantly nude adult male, a motif inspired by classical art sources. Though
not scientifically accurate, it is one of the earliest works of Renaissance art to depict
the figure in motion convincingly, suggesting how muscles behave under the strain
of vigorous activity.
During the fifteenth century, art executed in an all'antica style, which portrayed
classical subjects or otherwise alluded to antiquity, was increasingly admired, for
both aesthetic reasons and the implied connections to a prestigious cultural past.
The Renaissance fascination with classical models was manifest not only in the-
matic and stylistic references, but in the revival of specific types of antique objects
as well. Pollaiuolo was among the artists whose work most obviously addressed
these concerns. In addition to works such as his influential painting series of the
Labors of Hercules for the Medici palace (the mythical hero Hercules had been used
as a symbol of victory over tyranny since the early years of the Florentine commu-
nal government), 19 Polliauolo made new contributions to the development of the
bronze statuette, a revival of an antique sculpture type initiated by Donatello
(13867-1466) that, like medals, became new collector's items, along with their an-
cient counterparts. Pliny remarked that the ancient Roman owners of "figurines"
36

were so enamored of them that they often carried the small sculptures about with
them. 20 Renaissance patrons could thus replicate this fervent interest. A small
bronze in the Galleria Estense in Modena [20], often attributed to Pollaiuolo or his
workshop, is one of a number of statuettes that are thought to be copies after an
ancient Etruscan or Roman prototype of a Marsyas figure playing a flute. 21 Notably,
the copies show the figure with arms poised to hold a flute, but the actual instru-
ment is absent and most likely was missing from the antique original. Yet because
the primary interest for the Renaissance artist was in rendering the human figure
and the active pose rather than in the accuracy of subject matter, the missing ele-
ment would not have been a great concern. In fact, interestingly, a bronze Marsyas
of this type was recorded in the inventory of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492, listing the
sculpture as "gnudo della paura" (frightened nude), 22 obviously misreading the arm
gesture as a defensive reaction suggesting fear. There may not be a direct link, but
because similar examples appear in other antique objects, it is worth noting that the
semi-lunge position of the Marsyas figure and the placement of the feet are very
close to those of the archer in Pollaiuolo's engraving (see note 44). Furthermore, the
fact that such a figure would be identified by an emotional state as a "frightened
nude" and thus presumably admired for its expressive attitude, based on pose and
gesticulation rather than close scrutiny of its intended context, suggests an interest-
ing connection between Renaissance patrons' (and artists') interests in antique
sources and their admiration for Pollaiuolo's vivid, expressive portrayals of the
human form.
Pollaiuolo's famous bronze Hercules and Antaeus, c. 1470s (fig. 16), is not de-
rived from a specific antique image, but rather draws on ancient ideas to create a
highly inventive new work. 23 Though small in scale, his approach to such sculptures
was consistently monumental and innovative, and it was precisely this quality that
had been admired in the bronze statuettes of antiquity. 24 As Alison Wright has
noted, Pollaiuolo breaks new ground exploring the formal and spatial complexities
of this two-figure group. Using a triangular base, he constructed the group so that
the tensed limbs of the struggling figures fall into geometric arrangements that
draw attention to both the two- and three-dimensional qualities of the work, rather
than presenting definite front and back views. 25 He offers clear profile views of both
figures, but with Hercules' head buried in the chest of Antaeus, Antaeus's head
thrown back in fury, and the twisting arrangement of the bodies, the viewer is
forced to continually move around the figures in search of the singular viewpoint,
thereby experiencing more fully the physical engagement and sense of movement
of the struggling figures. Clearly, it was a connoisseur's object (probably the
Hercules sculpture listed in the Medici palace inventory of 1492) to be appreciated
for the mythological subject matter, reference to an important antique type, and the
formal pleasure experienced by the owner, who could manually turn the figures on
their base to appreciate the virtuosity of the artist's achievement. The Battle of the
Nudes engraving may be seen as a comparable object designed to engage this kind
of intellectual appreciation because the "pivotal representation" of the nude war-
riors (so close in physiognomy and physical type that they appear to be based on
one model shown from multiple viewpoints) may allude to the function of a small
bronze that could be picked up and rotated in the viewer's hands.
37

The layout of the Battle of the Nudes composition, the frieze-like arrangement
and lunging poses of combatants, recalls the sculpted reliefs of ancient sarcophagi
that Pollaiuolo could have seen in Rome or Tuscany (fig. 17). 26 However, while
Pollaiuolo may have been inspired by such sources, borrowing poses, figural types,
or other details and forming a general illusion of an antique image, he actually
creates more space between the rows of figures, spreading them out in a careful
arrangement to reveal more of their individual contours, while retaining enough
overlap to suggest the frieze-like structure of antique reliefs.
The inclusion of gladiatorial references (the chain, shield, and dagger) in the
engraving could have been derived from descriptions of gladiators' weapons in
well-known literary sources such as Pliny. The emphasis on contour and the ani-
mated battling figures also recalls descriptions of the work of the ancient painter
Parrhasius, whom the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), like Pliny,
had admired for his highly naturalistic paintings of running foot soldiers. It is
worthy of note that Pliny also cited Parrhasius's work as "instructive to artists." 27
The strong figure contours in Pollaiuolo's composition are executed with line
that varies in thickness, seemingly in response to the swelling of the internal forms.
Finer lines emulating zigzag pen strokes are used to describe the modeling of light
and shade within the figures, in a manner that reflects drawing in pen and ink or
wash, but notably with more extensive interior modeling than he usually employs.
A fragment of a drawing in the Fogg of three nude warriors engaged in battle [13]
and the drawing Prisoner Led before a Judge (fig. 18) show a similar emphasis on fig-
ure contour as a primary means of conveying movement, which is further under-
scored by the dark wash background that acts as a foil for the figures, while the in-
dication of interior modeling to describe anatomical detail is minimal. 28 The wiry
vigor of Pollaiuolo's pen line is clearly seen in drawings of individual figures, such
as Study of a Nude—Man Taking Aim with a Bow [16], Study of a Nude Man, Standing
with Arms Crossed (fig. 19), and Hercules and the Hydra [15]. The first two works are
focused studies of the exact pose and attitude of an individual figure, precisely the
type of image to which Pollaiuolo could refer when orchestrating his Battle compo-
sition. The third drawing is a more freely executed sketch, most probably relating to
his large Hercules paintings for the Medici, capturing the dynamic pose of the fig-
ure in motion, with hand reaching out to grasp the neck of the barely defined form
of the Hydra. The multiple broken contour lines and short strokes describing mus-
culature and bone structure in the last drawing suggest the rapidness of execution
and heighten the sense of movement that is the focus of the study. This figure is in
fact referenced in the pose of the engraved archer, and although the manner of exe-
38

cution differs in the engraving, the desire to convey the mobility of the figure re-
mains his primary focus. The dominance of the linear pen contours of Pollaiuolo's
figure drawings appears to surpass that found in the drawings of his senior gold-
smith colleague Maso Finiguerra (1426-1464), with whom he shares close stylistic
affinities. 29 With such drawings, Pollaiuolo invites the viewer to admire his virtuos-
ity in portraying the muscles tensed for action and in showing the way in which
they wrap around limbs, as articulated entirely through the bend and curve of the
contour without actually describing the specific interior details. This approach to
drawing may be seen in light of his goldsmith training, emphasizing legibility of
outline and clarity of movement and gesture necessary for detailed work in metal.
Alison Wright has also pointed out that the use of contour as a primary means of
representing the figure in Pollaiuolo's drawings recalls both Leon Battista Alberti's
emphasis on the importance of "circumscription" in defining figures within a com-
position and Pliny's praise for Parrhasius's subtle depiction of contour "to give
assurance of the parts behind, thus clearly suggesting even what it conceals." 30
The viewer's comprehension of the complete movement of the figure contributes
to a sense of volume that may account, in part, for the careful construction of
Pollaiuolo's composition in which the figures are spaced somewhat farther apart to
reveal as much of their entire form as possible, with less overlapping than that
found in the ancient reliefs that undoubtedly inspired it.
In addition to the similarities with Pollaiuolo's approach to drawing, there also
appears to be a perceptible tension in the engraved figures. The strong, two-dimen-
sional characteristic of the contours vies with the implied three-dimensional quali-
ties of the modulated tonalities created by the extensive interior modeling. This ten-
sion brings to mind additional Albertian concepts regarding artist models, two- and
three-dimensional media, and composition that Pollaiuolo may have used as the
starting point for this unprecedented engraving project. In book 3, section 58 of his
De Pictura, Alberti notes the benefit of copying from sculptural rather than painted
models, teaching the copyist to represent both the likeness of the object and the cor-
rect incidence of light, and how working in sculpture can bring greater advantages
39

than painting alone because the artist becomes more intimately familiar with the
relief of an object and thus will paint it more accurately. 31 In book 2, section 40,
under a discussion of "historia" and the tendency of overambitious artists to show
off by packing too many figures into their compositions, Alberti seems to prescribe
Pollaiuolo's composition when he states, "In my opinion, there will be no historia
so rich in variety of things that nine or ten men cannot worthily perform it." 32 He
continues, "Though variety is pleasing in any 'historia' a picture in which the atti-
tudes and movements of the bodies differ very much among themselves is most
pleasing of all. So let there be some visible full-face, with their hands turned up-
wards and fingers raised, and resting on one foot; others should have their faces
turned away, their arms by their sides and feet together, and each one of them
should have his own particular flexions and movements." Alberti even goes so far
as to suggest, "If suitable, let some be naked," though admittedly he recommends
modesty, and Pollaiuolo clearly takes liberties with his brazenly nude combatants.
The degree to which these ideas appear to describe Pollaiuolo's engraving is most
compelling. The issue of how one might render the idea of a sculptural figure—pro-
viding as much information as possible about the modeling, relief, and anatomic
specificity or "likeness" of the figure in a two-dimensional medium—is addressed
by adapting Alberti's historia discussion. Pollaiuolo portrays ten men, in a variety
of active poses including paired opposites, to provide the viewer with multiple
viewpoints of the human form in action, as if rotating a statuette or moving around
a sculptural form—the striking similarity of the faces suggesting one model. Great
attention is given to the surface modeling of the figures (the play of light across
form), and as Laurie Fusco noted, some areas of musculature are even unnaturally
twisted around a limb toward the viewer to reveal more than one would actually
see from that angle, in an attempt to provide as much information about the struc-
ture of the body as possible for the viewer's reference. 33 The pairing of oppositely
posed figures has a tradition in medieval copybooks as well. 34 The problem of con-
veying three-dimensional ideas in a two-dimensional format, and seeking a means
of resolving the tension between them, must have provided a particularly appealing
challenge for an artist like Pollaiuolo, who worked as a goldsmith, sculptor, and
painter.
POLLAIUOLO'S ULTIMATE LEGACY
Further insight into these Albertian connections may be found in a broader exami-
nation of Pollaiuolo's approach to drawing and his role as a maestro di disegno.
Among the works central to this discussion is a drawing, Nude Man Seen from Three
Angles [14], now generally accepted as by Pollaiuolo's hand. 35 Whether the model
for this image was a small, malleable wax figure with movable limbs or a live model
(as has been debated), 36 the purpose of this exercise appears to be the translation of
a three-dimensional object into two dimensions by depicting multiple viewpoints
(front, back, and side; heads shown in three-quarter, profile, and lost profile), and
establishing the anatomical structure of the figure. The two-dimensional aspect of
the drawing is subtly accentuated in the limb arrangements of the front and back
views: the contours of the arms and legs are strikingly similar and it is primarily the
40

interior modeling that suggests a single figure is shown, pivoted 180 degrees. 37 A
similar approach is found in Pollaiuolo's monumental painting The Martyrdom of
Saint Sebastian, c. 1475 (fig. 20), in which not only do the foreground figures appear
as pivoted pairs, but again the contours of the bent legs of the crossbowmen facing
front and back are remarkably close, with interior modeling again used to suggest
the alternate viewpoint. 38 While the correspondences between the contours are not
exact, and in the drawing the figures differ slightly in size, disposition of the
clenched hand, and other minor aspects, the correlation is sufficient to underscore
the two-dimensional character of the image. As with his other drawings, the pen
line varies to define the swell of the muscles as they fold around the figure. How-
ever, minimizing his use of wash, Pollaiuolo employs parallel and some slight V-
stroke/zigzag shading to articulate the placement and interrelation of the muscular
structure within the contour, in a manner similar to the Battle engraving, though not
as extensively. See, for instance, the use of thin light "sketch" lines combined with
shaped patches of shading to describe the musculature of the figure's back at right.
Vasari claimed that Pollaiuolo's knowledge of anatomy was derived from experi-
ence with dissection of human cadavers. 39 Yet Pollaiuolo's occasional misunder-
standings (evident in the lack of inclusion of certain muscles and tendons) 40 and the
tendency to show all visible muscles flexed simultaneously (and thus inaccurately)
when describing a particular movement or pose suggest that his knowledge came
from the close scrutiny of a live nude model with a distinctive muscular develop-
ment (perhaps an athlete or some kind of professional fighter) 41 and that he com-
bined the flexing of muscles for different actions within one figure.
41

The use of more extensive interior modeling in the Battle engraving may have
had two purposes: first, as a means to demonstrate the artist's considerable (if less
than perfect) understanding of human anatomy by articulating the figures' muscu-
lar structure in considerable detail (one can even discern the suggestion of bulging
veins in the raised arm of the left chain man); and second, to convey a greater sense
of surface modeling through a detailed description of the fall of light across form,
suggesting a sculpted three-dimensional surface, or at least the relief of a highly
modeled surface—just as Alberti prescribes.
Pollaiuolo used drawing to expand his understanding of the human figure and
to develop a repertoire of reusable motifs, frequently based on antique sources,
which appear throughout his work. The forward-facing striding figure of the Lou-
vre drawing [14] could easily be seen as a warrior type if a weapon was inserted
into his clenched hand. His pose, one foot in profile (or near profile), one pointing
forward, is seen time and again, including the Berlin archer [16], the foreground
archer in the right and left corners of the St. Sebastian altarpiece and (slightly modi-
fied) in the left man holding the chain in the Battle engraving. The other key recur-
ring motif is that of the lunging figure with arms raised, often positioned to shoot
an arrow from a bow or wield some other weapon. This pose is found in the archer
at left in the Battle engraving, in the British Museum Hercules sketch [15], the small
oil painting Hercules and the Hydra in the Uffizi (fig. 21)—and thus most likely in the
large Hercules and the Hydra painting made for the Medici family that is now lost,
but which is generally believed to be represented in the small Uffizi oil—and (re-
versed) in the figure of Hercules in the painting Hercules, Nessus, and Deianeira [19]
at the Yale University Art Gallery.
The high esteem in which Pollaiuolo's abilities were held and his motifs
admired is evident in the inscription that appears in the upper left of the Louvre
drawing [14]: "This is the work of the excellent and famous Florentine painter and
outstanding sculptor Antonio di Jacopo. When he depicts man look how marvel-
42

ously he renders the limbs." 42 A close, unfortunately cropped, anonymous copy of
the Louvre drawing (which includes the changes in the arm position of the right
figure as well as the latter portion of the inscription in handwriting emulating the
original), now in the British Museum (fig. 22), testifies to the veracity of the inscrip-
tion through the homage paid to Pollaiuolo's skills by replication, albeit in a less
accomplished, less nuanced hand. The choice of parchment as the support for the
British Museum version is noteworthy for its durability, suggesting the desire to
preserve this detailed copy as a model for future reference. 43 Numerous copies and
adaptations of the figures in the Louvre drawing, used for specific projects or as a
means of developing drawing skills, further substantiate the recognition of
Pollaiuolo's portrayal of anatomy in the active nude male as exemplary. 44
In the first book of his Commentarii, Ghiberti extols the importance of drawing
as fundamental to all branches of art, with the implication that the mastery of
"disegno" (under the broader meaning of "design") liberated the artist from an at-
tachment to a single manual skill and allowed him, as a generator of ideas, to ap-
proach a greater intellectual standing. Ghiberti used himself as an example of the
significance of the artist's role as a maestro di disegno when he stated: "Also for
many painters, sculptors and stone-carvers I provided the greatest honors in their
works [for] I have made very many models in wax and clay and for the painters I
have designed very many things." In fact, Ghiberti was specifically paid for his skill
as well as his labor in producing cartoons for a stained-glass window of the Flo-
rence Cathedral in 1438. 45 Pollaiuolo's ultimate legacy as a maestro di disegno was
noted in his mid career by the Florentine patron Giovanni Ruccellai, who applied
the term to both Pollaiuolo and his goldsmith colleague Maso Finiguerra as part of
a list of the illustrious artists represented in his collection (c. 1471), 46 although the
work he owned by Pollaiuolo was not specified. A key function of the maestro di
disegno was to create images that could be reproduced and/or used by other artists
working in a variety of media. Finiguerra worked primarily as a goldsmith. He de-
43

veloped a very consistent and lucid drawing style, predominantly figural and often
based on live models; the resulting clear contours gently modeled in light wash
reflect the legibility required of goldsmith work. Two of his rarer grand narrative
compositions (the Deluge and Moses on Mount Sinai) were later reproduced as en-
gravings by Francesco Rosselli (1448-1508/25?) in the 1490s after Maso's death, and
certainly Finiguerra's drawing style has been recognized as influential in much of
early Florentine printmaking. 47 Pollaiuolo's similarly goldsmith-like approach to
drawing, in the emphasis on clear contour, revealed a more flexible approach in a
dynamic pen line than that found in the more resolutely consistent pen over metal
point approach in the Finiguerra workshop. Pollaiuolo was influenced, as described
above, by his more diverse experience as a painter and sculptor, which in turn may
have also helped him win more ambitious commissions than Finiguerra as a de-
signer. 48 However, despite the significance of such commissions as the Hercules
paintings, or the St. Sebastian altarpiece for his workshop, Pollaiuolo's reputation
rested on his impact as a maestro di disegno, as evidenced by the enormous extent
to which his figural works were copied and imitated; it was in this role that he
made his most significant contribution to Italian Renaissance art. The sixteenth-
century goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini confirmed Pollaiuolo's influence
as "a goldsmith and a draughtsman of such skill that all the goldsmiths made use of
his beautiful designs, which were of such excellence that many of the best sculptors
and painters also use them .. . [he] did little else but admirable drawing and always
kept faith with that great disegno." 49
The broader relationship of the maestro di disegno to Florentine artistic prac-
tice in general is widely acknowledged. The importance is specifically emphasized
as a requirement for master goldsmiths—significantly, Pollaiuolo retained his mem-
bership in the goldsmith guild and identified himself with the profession through-
out his life, despite his endeavors in other media—in Biringuccio's treatise on
metallurgy of 1540:
Those who work in gold and silver must outdistance all other craftsmen in
learning and achievement to the same degree that their materials outdistance
all others in nobility. Therefore, it is necessary first of all to be a good designer,
because design is the key that opens the doors not only to the goldsmith's craft
but to all others. . . . There are, in short, three things . . . that are greatly es-
teemed in this art: first, engraving and making figures or foliage in full or bas-
relief; next, drawing out a vessel in silver or gold . . . and third, setting a gem
accurately and gracefully. 50
It is in this light that scholars such as Leopold D. Ettlinger and Francis Ames-Lewis
have been inclined to view Pollaiuolo's Battle engraving as a "demonstration" piece
specifically created as a way to disseminate and lay claim to artistic ideas (specifi-
cally the anatomy of the male nude figure in action), despite the unprecedented na-
ture of this kind of self-advertisement by an artist. 51 The extent of Pollaiuolo's role
as a maestro di disegno is revealed in the range of copies and adaptations of his
work, many through exchanges in graphic forms, but interwoven with associations
with other media appropriate to Pollaiuolo's diverse talents—as indicated in his
44

own inscription on the tomb of Sixtus IV: "The work of the Florentine Antonio
Pollaiuolo, famous in silver, gold, painting, bronze, 1493." 52
An examination of some of the copies and adaptations of Pollaiuolo's imagery
in works by other artists may offer some further insight into the motivation behind
the Battle of the Nudes engraving. A fairly large (approximately 40 x 59 cm) less so-
phisticated engraving, mistitled Battle of Hercules and the Giants [7, 8], appears to be
based on a Pollaiuolo drawing that may be partially represented in the Fogg frag-
ment Three Fighting Men [13], which corresponds to the figures at the far right of the
composition. Oddly, the engraved composition, like the drawing fragment, appears
cropped at the right where a seemingly disembodied hand holds a dagger in the
upper corner. The hand should belong to the cut-off warrior, but the spatial rela-
tionship does not work. The entire design is apparently preserved in a small copy
drawing at the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, attributed to school of Pollaiuolo (fig. 23),
which shows a group of twelve battling nudes in the left half of the composition
and a nude man with arms tied behind his back running away from this group to-
ward four nude or semi-draped men and women near a tree. The extended compo-
sition is also represented, in a reverse copy, omitting the woman seated by the tree
and the soldier at far left, in a sixteenth-century engraving by the Netherlandish
artist Allaert Claesz (fig. 24). 53 The engraved inscription that appears in the com-
pleted second state of the anonymous engraving mistitled Battle of Hercules and the
Giants [8] identifies the scene as the hero and twelve giants, despite the fact that
there are only nine figures in addition to "Hercules," whose name appears on the
sheath of his sword. 54 The cropping of figures at the right could allude to other
"giants" outside the picture. Yet none of the figures are characterized as overly large
in stature and the supposed protagonist/victor is not distinguished in any way,
45

aside from his "label." The inscription thus suggests a misguided attempt to assign
a known subject to a generalized battle scene that, like the Battle of the Nudes, has no
clear protagonist but appears to draw on imagery from Roman sarcophagi such as
the half-fallen warrior seen from the front or the lunging figure with the curved
sword, and like the Battle serves as an all'antica invention rather than an illustration
of a specific narrative event. (The misnomer is perpetuated, however, because it ap-
pears on the second state of the print and serves as a means of differentiating be-
tween Pollaiuolo's engraving and the anonymous engraver's similar subject by
title.) The engraver's addition of extensive interior modeling (albeit exaggerated
and crude, resulting in a schematic and inaccurate anatomical description) and the
background vegetation of vines and stalks, which are not indicated in either the
Fogg fragment or the expanded copy drawing, were not independently invented,
but rather appear to derive from some awareness of the Battle engraving. Although
closely spaced parallel shading lines predominate, the contours are weaker, the
tonal subtleties Pollaiuolo achieved with his nuanced zigzag strokes are lacking,
and the figures appear stiff and awkward. In light of the similarities in scale and
nude secular subjects, various scholars have tried to devise a logical narrative con-
nection between the two engravings and the drawing Prisoner Led before a Judge (see
fig. 18), but to no satisfactory conclusion. 55 Stylistically, the Battle of Hercules and the
Giants engraving is typically identified as North Italian (possibly Paduan), based on
the consistent, narrowly spaced parallel hatching used for shading and the angular
treatment of the broken rocky foreground ledge that is similar to that found in some
Mantegna School prints. Thus it does seem probable that the original Pollaiuolo
drawing (of which the Fogg fragment may be a part, or which may show the same
composition) may have been the cartonum (cartoon) of nude figures that is docu-
mented as being among the drawings used as models by students in the art school
of Paduan painter Francesco Squarcione (c. 1395-c. 1468) in the 1460s. 56 Whether or
not Pollaiuolo ever intended that this composition be engraved remains specula-
tion, but it is worthy of note that the Battle of the Nudes presents a more carefully
orchestrated composition in which the figures appear more balanced, less crowded
together, and overlapped—and thus provides a more complete view of their entire
bodies than those found in the Hercules battle image, which are more in keeping
with classical battle reliefs. The cropped edge of the Hercules print also suggests the
reuse of another image for another purpose. It is also possible that the intention was
to reproduce the original drawing on two paired engraving plates, like Mantegna's
Battle of the Sea Gods, but for some reason the second plate was never realized. Lilian
Armstrong Anderson objected to dating the Hercules print to c. 1500, as Arthur
Hind and John Goldsmith Phillips had suggested, 57 observing that some of the fig-
ures in the composition correspond to images of putti portrayed in combat in illu-
minations for several Venetian incunabula printed around 1470; she thus asserts
that the print must have been in circulation by the late 1460s. 58 However, one must
consider the possibility that the miniaturists who created the illuminations might
have known the drawing, particularly during the time it was "stolen" from the
Squarcione school. 59 So the print could have been made at any time during the last
quarter of the fifteenth century. Another possible factor that affects the dating of the
print is the suggestion that Pollaiuolo may have created his Battle engraving in re-
46

sponse to the crude interpretation of his drawing as represented by the Hercules and
the Giants engraving.
Among the many examples by other artists that appear to borrow figures from
the Hercules battle image is the bizarre and spatially inconsistent composition,
Fighting Beasts Regarded by Soldiers [9]. Here the anonymous Florentine engraver
created a pastiche: lifting the ax-wielding warrior, complete with ferocious attitude
and gaping mouth, from the Hercules image, turning him into a centaur-type beast,
changing his ax to a ball and chain weapon on a pole, and setting him to battle with
a half-man/half-lion counterpart while elegantly dressed soldiers in classical styled
armor calmly look on. Interestingly, the subject has been interpreted as a moralizing
contrast between the bestial and rational aspects of man's nature, 60 a theme perhaps
not unrelated to issues addressed in the Battle of the Nudes discussed earlier. The
pair of soldiers at left are copied from an embroidered design, The Beheading of St.
John the Baptist (fig. 25), one of twenty-seven surviving panels from a monumental
series of narrative designs portraying the life of John the Baptist commissioned
from Pollaiuolo for a set of liturgical vestments to be used for services on major
feast days in the Florentine Baptistery. Made over a long period (c. 1466-80S), these
embroideries were the largest and most detailed series showing the life of St. John
in the history of Florentine art. The extensive cycle tested Pollaiuolo's practice of
inventive reuse of figures and poses, but his success is evident in the existence of
copy drawings, 61 and engravings such as Fighting Beasts Regarded by Soldiers that
replicate certain motifs, thus putting into circulation images that would seldom be
accessible to the public, except for high holy days at the church. The stylized ren-
dering of hair and fur in the engraving, and the fine patterned shading strokes and
hatching, suggest a familiarity with goldsmith work and the so-called fine manner
style of engraving practiced by Florentine engravers such as the so-called Baccio
Baldini (supposedly active 1460s-80s), 62 very different from the longer diagonal
shading and delicate engraving strokes used by Pollaiuolo to suggest subtleties in
47

tonal values and modeling of forms in the Battle of the Nudes. The less schematized
rendering of anatomy in the Florentine engraving suggests that it was based on
Pollaiuolo's drawing rather than the Hercules engraving, since the North Italian
copyist seems to have less of an understanding of musculature.
Several Northern European examples testify to the spread and adaptation of
Pollaiuolo's imagery outside Italy. Possibly as early as the 1480s and certainly no
later than 1496, the Netherlandish engraver Master IAM van Zwolle, who is not
known to have traveled to Italy, apparently had access to the Hercules battle en-
gravings as he adapted the ax-wielding figure from that image, showing the figure
with upraised arms framing an open-mouthed grimace in his own print Battle of
Two Men with a Centaur. The streaming headbands, lithe figures, and pointedly con-
trasting poses (shown in side and back views) further underscore a connection to
Pollaiuolo's figural ideas as indicated in both battle engravings. 63 Albrecht Durer
(1471-1528), known for his fascination with Italian art, also copied and borrowed
imagery from Italian engravings. 64 In his drawing study Abduction of a Woman (Rape
of the Sabine Women) of 1495 (fig. 26), Durer adapts the lunging pose and figure type
of the archer in Pollaiuolo's Battle of the Nudes engraving (within millimeters of the
same scale) to portray one of the young Roman men carrying off a Sabine woman.
In keeping with Pollaiuolo's composition, Durer's two male figures are also por-
trayed so that one faces forward; the other, in mirrored pose, has his back to the
viewer. 65 Jorg Breu's creative adaptation of Pollaiuolo's Battle of the Nudes [18] for
his 1516 wall fresco design has already been addressed. In contrast, a school of
Nuremberg drawing of c. 1500-10 (fig. 27), too weak to be Durer but possibly an
artist in his circle, produces a straightforward copy of the figures at the right of the
second state of the Hercules battle engraving in pen on pink prepared paper. 66
Pollaiuolo's Italian followers also made use of his figure types as represented
in the Battle engravings. One example is A Battle of Naked Men, c. 1500-10 [17] by an
artist in the circle of Pietro Perugino (c. 1450-1523). This drawing has recently been
48

attributed to Perugino's most famous student, Raphael (1483-1520), noting the
modification of Pollaiuolo's vigorous approach (evident not only in the pose, but
also in the grimaces and open-mouthed expressions of some figures) through the
more delicate sensibilities of the Perugino workshop. 67 Francis Ames-Lewis and
Elizabeth Clegg have suggested that incised lines present in the contours of some of
the figures, such as the helmeted lunging man at right, indicate that they were
transferred from a Pollaiuolesque source, while other figures, such as those behind
the archers at left, were added to fill out the composition. 68 The fallen front-facing
warrior at center, and his counterpart seen from the back, as well as the lunging fig-
ure at right recall figures in Pollaiuolo's Hercules and the Giants battle [7, 8] as well as
antique prototypes. The sharply bent back of the man with the shield at far right
and, behind him, the open-mouthed man with pike raised over his head loosely
relate to the poses of the right man holding the chain and the man fending off the ax
behind him in the Battle of the Nudes. Because neither engraving presents a precise
match, the hypothesis of Ames-Lewis and Clegg of another Pollaiuolesque source
seems probable, or like Durer and Breu, the artist freely adapted forms based on
Pollaiuolo's figural ideas. Pollaiuolo's inventions are also reflected in two prints by
Cristofano Robetta (1462-1535 or after): Hercules and the Hydra [10] shows
Pollaiuolo's favored lunging figure motif (in reverse); 69 Hercules and Antaeus [11]
recalls the exaggerated bend of Hercules' back, the front-to-front arrangement of the
figures, and the gaping mouth, thrown-back head, and balletic extension of the leg
of Antaeus of Pollaiuolo's small bronze. Both Robetta compositions are generally
associated with Pollaiuolo's famous lost Hercules paintings. 70
Since Pollaiuolo repeated favorite motifs in the other media in which he
worked, his conceptions also circulated through works produced in a variety of me-
dia. It has recently been suggested that a terracotta relief, Battle of Nude Men [21], in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, possibly late fifteenth or early sixteenth century,
may represent a copy of a "metal" (presumably bronze) relief of battling figures by
49

Pollaiuolo that, according to Vasari, was sent to Spain, but of which "every crafts-
man in Florence has a plaster cast." 71 The composition shares affinities with the
Battle of the Nudes engraving in the two-tiered layout of mostly paired-off figures in
a relatively shallow stage-like space; the inclusion of two fighting figures with a
chain shown in the same pose pivoted 180 degrees with feet slightly overlapped;
the range of activity and pose revealing a generalized portrayal of violent action in
the service of anatomical display; and the articulation of musculature and classiciz-
ing robust type. Yet the three-dimensional qualities of the medium, even in rela-
tively shallow relief, allow for more subtle modeling than that portrayed in the en-
graving, and the more archaic facial type (deep-set eyes, stylized mask-like profile)
is less expressive. The lunging figure with the dagger facing right and the figure
with dagger raised about to strike a seated man with a shield near the center back-
ground also recall the turbaned lunging figure with the sword at right and the man
with the dagger in the central background of the Hercules battle engraving. The
figure being tied to a tree may relate to antique examples of Marsyas prepared for
punishment with his hands tied above his head. 72
Examples such as these would seem to confirm the supposition that
Pollaiuolo's Battle of the Nudes engraving was intended as a means of disseminating
artistic ideas. It has been suggested that both Pollaiuolo and Mantegna, the two ear-
liest Italian artists to conceive of prints on a large pictorial scale, used prints to dem-
onstrate to a wide audience that they understood the Albertian principle of what
constitutes a good historia, while further addressing popular intellectual tastes for
all'antica designs. 73 The visual manifestation of the two artists' endeavors, however,
reveals ultimately different artistic concerns. Pollaiuolo's success in conveying the
vitality of the active male figure is achieved at times at the expense of anatomical
accuracy and three-dimensionality. His circumscription of the figure with a lively
contour line, use of flickering patches of highlight, and varied engraving technique
infuse the bodies with energy, suggesting the behavior of muscles under the strain
of vigorous activity in a highly convincing, if not precisely naturalistic manner.
While Mantegna's heavier, static figures, though portrayed perhaps more convinc-
ingly as weighty three-dimensional forms, recall more literally their antique
sources, the lines that surround modeled sections within a figure, defining planes or
pockets of flesh and the crisp curls of hair, give the appearance of a form carved
from marble or stone (see [12], for example). The line in the Mantegna engravings
has long been lauded for its marvelous variety and drawing-like character. 74
Pollaiuolo's creative use of line, evident not only in his unusual delicate zigzag
technique manipulated at different angles to articulate the musculature of his fig-
ures, but also in tiny nuanced shading strokes in background foliage, combined
with broad parallel shading and selective crosshatching, has been underappreciated
in comparison to Mantegna both in its contribution to the overall energy of his com-
position and in its departure from similar techniques used by engravers of lesser
skill.
Given Pollaiuolo's sensibility for sculptural media, the allusion to classical im-
agery in the composition, and the connections to Alberti's theories about two- and
three-dimensional media, it would seem perfectly plausible that Pollaiuolo himself,
or an assistant under his direction, could have been responsible for the reworking of
50

the plate in an attempt to alter the largely monochromatic tapestry-like background
(seen in Cleveland's first state) by increasing the sense of space between forms. This
interest in spatial relationships and adjacencies is evident in the ground shading in
the first state, which shows some effort to describe the areas around the figures'
contours in order to allude to cast shadows and set forms off from the background
rather than serving as generalized background fill: see particularly the shading
around the figures in the lower right quadrant. Highlighted passages of leaves just
below the right ax man's blade at the upper left and above the sword blade of the
man fending off the ax at center as well as the tree branches at upper left and right
also hint at an attempt to describe light penetrating the otherwise undifferentiated
background in the first state. However, the halo effect of much of the ground shad-
ing seems to heighten tension between the two-dimensional surface of the sheet and
the three-dimensional forms described, rather than increasing spatial depth. The
subtle highlights become somewhat lost in the background, overshadowed by the
rippling muscular bodies. The attempts to modify the image in the second state
were not entirely successful either. In fact, the shaded thigh looks flattened and,
given the character of different inks and printing difficulties (double printing,
smudging, etc.), it is not altogether clear that the reworking had a major impact on
the appearance of the print, and the engraver may have decided to leave well
enough alone.
Variant ink types and the possibility of the artist's own changes to the plate,
consisting of modifications of the image and not merely the re-engraving of weak-
ened lines, suggest aesthetic choices and accepted differences that must alter our
previous methods of evaluation of Pollaiuolo's engraving, and possibly of other
early Italian engravings as well. 75 These observations do not detract from the superb
qualities of the Cleveland impression, but rather expand our conception of what
constitutes a "good" impression of an early Italian engraving.
DATING THE ENGRAVING
One of the most difficult aspects of addressing the small body of work that remains
by Pollaiuolo is the lack of secure dates of execution. Aside from the papal tombs
(1493 and 1498), the bronze relief for the baptistery altar (1477-83), and the St.
Sebastian altarpiece (1474-75), documents suggest that the embroideries were cre-
ated over a period of fifteen years (c. 1466-80s), record his commission for the lower
portion of the reliquary cross for the baptistery (1457), and refer to works in a vari-
ety of media (some now lost). Yet they fail to establish a clear chronology for his
extant oeuvre. Dates suggested for the engraving have ranged from 1465 to about
1489, with c. 1470-75 often given as a compromise. Arguments have been made for
both earlier and later dates, but the lack of specific documentation and the com-
plexities of the evidence put forth for each make it difficult to resolve the matter
absolutely. For these reasons, I have elected to review the issue separately, rather
than attempting to include the arguments in the analysis of the engraving.
As another possible source for motifs in Pollaiuolo's engraving, Fusco cites
Apollonio di Giovanni's Death of Panthus in the Virgil Codex manuscript (c. 1453-64),
51

possibly made for the Medici, which includes a lunging archer running in from the
left and two central figures in approximately pivoted positions raising their swords
to strike while a figure with arms raised strikes a blow with a long spear at right. 76
Such a source would suggest 1453-64 as the earliest period when the print could
have been made. Some scholars have argued that the figure style relates to the now-
lost Hercules paintings of c. 1460 (though the 1460 date is dependent on Pollaiuolo's
recollection years later, when in a letter from 1494 he referred to the paintings he
created with his brother for the Medici "thirty four years ago"), 77 which becomes
more advanced in the c. 1474-75 St. Sebastian altarpiece. Affinities between the en-
graving and the Five Dancers frescoes at Villa la Gallina in Arcetri (fig. 28), recently
redated to the early 1470s, have also been put forth as evidence: the carefully or-
chestrated placement of active figures of a similar type, strongly contoured with
articulated musculature, sometimes twisted unnaturally into view (fig. 29) and
shown from varying viewpoints (though this is difficult to discern in photographs
because of the deteriorated condition of the frescoes). 78 Armstrong's recognition of
motifs associated with the Battle of Hercules and the Giants [7, 8] in early manuscript
illuminations for Venetian incunabula dated to 1469-72 has frequently been used in
support of an early date for both engravings (since the background of Hercules
appears to be based on that of the Battle of the Nudes). 79 Yet, as stated earlier, these
Venetian examples (which conform more to the Hercules and the Giants than to the
Battle of the Nudes) could have been based on the drawing in Squarcione's workshop
and do not necessarily presuppose knowledge of the Hercules engraving. Ruccellai's
identification of Pollaiuolo as a maestro di disegno around 1471, seen as a possible
impetus for the artist to have created such a self-promoting piece, has also been
suggested as reason for furthering the argument for an early dating. The possibility
that the unspecified work Ruccellai owned was an impression of the engraving,
though, must also remain speculation. 80 An early date has also been supported by
the tenuous connection between the pose of the right figure holding the chain in the
engraving and the drawing of a nude male figure seen from the back (Mercurius
Trismegistus, plate 51 of the book of drawings known as the Florentine Picture
Chronicle, in the British Museum) recently attributed to the workshop of the so-
called Baccio Baldini and dated to the 1470s). 81
Advocating a later date, while also intriguing, can be equally speculative.
Fusco's discovery of a specific classical model for the reclining figure in the lower
left corner of the Battle of the Nudes engraving postulates a much later dating of
1489, based on the excavation in that year of an antique work (as noted in a letter to
Lorenzo de' Medici by his agent), now in a private collection in Graz. 82 Although
there is some doubt, as is often the case when dealing with antique sources, about
whether the marble group at Graz is in fact the precise example cited in the Medici
letter, there is a striking correspondence between Pollaiuolo's figure and the marble,
not only in position of the torso but in facial expression as well. Pollaiuolo's connec-
tions to the Medici and his presence in Rome during the late 1480s into the 1490s
also lend credence to this proposal. Another letter, also from 1489, written by
Lorenzo de' Medici to Giovanni Lanfredini, Florentine ambassador to Rome (the
same family that commissioned the Arcetri frescoes), urgently requests that
Pollaiuolo execute some "task" that they had recently discussed when the artist
52

visited Florence. And although wildly speculative (as the "task" need not be art
related) one cannot rule out the possibility that it could refer to the engraving.
Madeline Cirillo Archer's redating of Francesco Rosselli's Life of the Virgin and Christ
engravings to the mid 1480s or later 83 has also been identified as evidence that
Pollaiuolo's Battle of the Nudes was made after the 1470s because in one of several
dramatic changes in the third state of Rosselli's Flagellation scene, the figure on the
right has been completely transformed to correspond with the pose of the nude
warrior with the chain seen from the back in the Battle engraving, suggesting a re-
sponse to an idea from a new source unavailable when he made the first state of the
Flagellation. 84 Although it might seem unlikely that Rosselli could have been un-
aware of Pollaiuolo's engraving when he first executed his series, given Pollaiuolo's
reputation and the apparent speed and extent to which his ideas seemed to circu-
late, the possibility must be suggested, so again this evidence is not absolute. Simi-
larly, the woodcut copies of the first state by Francfordia and Uberti, c. 1490-1500,
might be taken as evidence for a later dating of the Battle engraving, if one surmised
that the woodcuts were created soon after the appearance of the engraving in Flo-
rence in response to demand for the image. The fact that the woodcuts copy the first
state, of which there were presumably far fewer examples, might suggest that they
were produced close to the same time as the engraving. Yet, as seen with engravers
such as Robetta (in his Hercules prints after Pollaiuolo, c. 1500) and Rosselli (in his
prints after Maso Finiguerra, c. 1490s), images could be appropriated for use several
decades after they were created.
Wright has posited that some outside influence may have spurred Pollaiuolo
to produce the Battle of the Nudes in the 1460s or 1470s. 85 Although she suggests a
possible competition with Mantegna's Passion engravings, which itself opens a
thorny issue regarding the recent debate over different datings for his work, an-
other mechanism may have triggered Pollaiuolo's interest in creating the Battle: to
53

assert his knowledge of the human figure. Bernard Schultz discusses the publica-
tion of a small but important number of printed medical texts, beginning in 1472,
that made information about anatomy more available throughout the 1470s, specifi-
cally citing the publication in 1478 of De medicina of Celsus in Florence, which had
concise chapters on human anatomy that attracted such attention the volume was
quickly reprinted in many editions. 86 Schultz outlines the publication and market-
ing of such books through a branch of the Medici e Speziali guild during this pe-
riod—they were sold in the same apothecary shops where artists purchased some of
their supplies. A papal bull in 1482 allowed certain hospitals to practice dissection
with ecclesiastical permission, and Schultz notes that Pollaiuolo could have been
acquainted with the anatomist Gabriele Zerbi, the attending physician at the papal
court in Rome during 1483-94 when Pollaiuolo was working on the tomb for Sixtus
IV. 87 This is not to imply that Pollaiuolo ever actually participated in dissection (the
consensus based on the visual analysis of his figures points instead to an in-depth
study of surface anatomy for his own purposes in rendering the figure, rather than .
the scientific interest advocated by Leonardo), but it seems equally valid to consider
the increasing awareness and discussion of anatomical knowledge surrounding
Pollaiuolo in the late 1470s into the 1480s as a possible factor in his decision to pro-
duce the engraving. However, Schultz also cites the greater accuracy in anatomical
description of the Louvre drawing (undated but often assigned to the 1470s) and
the correct portrayal of muscular opposition in the arms of the bent-over archers in
the St. Sebastian altarpiece (as does Wright) while finding the engraving less accu-
rate, thereby suggesting that the engraving might precede the other works (and
thus fall into the early 1470s), presuming that Pollaiuolo's anatomical accuracy
would have increased. While Schultz's account does not offer a clear resolution to
the dating issue, he raises important historical factors that provide additional in-
sight into Pollaiuolo's working environment. The arguments for a later date (1470s-
80s) are compelling in many respects, not least of which is the extraordinary size
and scale of the print. Bernardo Prevedari's engraving of an architectural subject
after Bramante of 1481 is the only other print executed on a larger single plate in the
quattrocento. 88 The later dating for the Battle would seem more plausible, from a
purely logistical point of view, for one might presume an advancement in printing
equipment and ability as the demand for printing increased in the last quarter of
the fifteenth century. Finally, the dated Durer copy after the engraving suggests a
terminus ante quern of 1495, just three years before Pollaiuolo's death.
Pollaiuolo's artistic personality and the limited examples of his work that re-
main further confound the attempt to come to a consensus about the dating of the
print. His reuse of motifs throughout his career and in different media somewhat
weakens the arguments about stylistic affinities with early works, and, without
other engravings, establishing a chronological development of his technique is im-
practical. His diverse approach to drawing, with both minimal interior modeling
using few lines and light wash such as the Bayonne and Berlin examples and more
extensive shading in the Louvre and other drawings, adds a further element of un-
certainty. Information provided by watermarks on various impressions of the Battle
of the Nudes has likewise proved to be inadequate in pinpointing an execution date.
However, it is interesting to note, although it has no bearing on the date when the
54

plate was cut, that while the sheer number of extant impressions (approximately
forty-eight) indicates the extent to which the print was prized over the years, the
fact that the majority are late, most likely posthumous impressions, may suggest
that more impressions were made as the popularity of the image increased after the
artist's death. The large number of late, worn impressions also suggests that the
plate seems to have deteriorated (with corrosion as well as wear) fairly quickly and
may not have been printed very long after the sixteenth century. None of the water-
marks indicate an absolute date, early or late, for any of the impressions (see Ap-
pendix: Watermarks).
The possibility that the changes in the plate could have been executed or aided
by an assistant encourages further examination of the quattrocento Italian print-
making process: who was printing the plates, and where (in the artist's workshop or
at the printer's)? The relationship between the designer of the image and the execu-
tion of the engraved plate has been raised most recently in the heated debate over
the authorship of the Mantegna engravings. 89 But one cannot rule out the possibility,
though much less likely since he possessed sophisticated metalworking skills, that
Pollaiuolo provided a drawing (as a maestro di disegno) for another engraver to
execute as a print. Since Bramante's name appears on the engraving executed by
Prevedari, it would not be out of the question for Pollaiuolo's name to appear on an
engraving he did not actually cut, as the one responsible for the image. Inscribed
references such as "inv." to indicate the inventor of the image, "fecit" to indicate the
engraver of the plate, and "excudit" to indicate the publisher (and sometimes
engraver) had not yet entered printmaking practices. These and other unresolved
issues will come into sharper focus as new sources and documents (such as the
contract between Mantegna and an engraver he hired to make prints that was dis-
covered in 2000) are unearthed, and current research projects, such as the fifteenth-
century Italian watermark project at the Istituto Centrale per la Patologia del Libro
in Rome, come to fruition. 90 New research, combined with the opportunity to
compare works side by side, in different contexts, through the periodic organization
of exhibitions such as the present one, will ultimately lead to new revelations
and expand our appreciation of the remarkable achievement of works such as the
Battle of the Nudes. Clearly, the rich field of early Italian engraving has yet to be fully
cultivated.
55

Notes
1. The lost paintings are believed
to have depicted three subjects
from the Labors of Hercules:
Hercules killing the Nemean lion,
Hercules and the Hydra, and
Hercules and Antaeus (the com-
positions of the last two are pre-
sumed to be represented by the
much smaller versions of these
subjects painted on panel, also by
Pollaiuolo, now in the collection
of the Uffizi in Florence; loss of
paint around the edges of the
panels suggests a previous frame
or perhaps insertion in some type
of furnishing); the designs for
embroidered vestments were
commissioned by the merchants'
guild for the celebrant to wear
during special services at the
Florence Baptistery and are now
housed in the Museo dell'Opera
del Duomo; the Tomb of Pope
Sixtus IV, 1493, and Tomb of Pope
Innocent VIII, 1498, both in
bronze, remain at St. Peter's Ba-
silica, the Vatican; the most fa-
mous of his small bronze sculp-
tures, Hercules and Antaeus (see
fig. 16), once owned by the
Medici family, is now in the
Museo Nazionale del Bargello,
Florence; and the bronze relief
panel Birth of John the Baptist,
made for the large silver altar for
the Florence Baptistery, is now
also in the Museo dell'Opera del
Duomo. See Leopold D. Ettlinger,
Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo: Com-
plete Edition with a Critical Cata-
logue (London, 1978): nos. 18, 20,
21, 25, 26, and 44 (all illustrated
except no. 44).
2. The engraving plate measured
approximately 41.2 x 61 cm,
which is unusually large, for most
engravings produced in the 15th
century were half that size or
smaller. There are a few excep-
tions: Bernardo Prevedari's Inte-
rior of a Church after Bramante,
1481, 70.5 x 51.3 cm; attributed to
Baccio Baldini, Judgment Hall of
Pilate, 43.5 x 58.1 cm; and
Francesco Rosselli, Assumption of
the Virgin, 1490s, 82.6 x 56 cm
overall, but printed from two
plates, each approximately 41.3 x
56 cm. Even the largest plates
used for the Mantegna engrav-
ings do not appear to have ex-
ceeded 37 x 48 cm; see Jane
56
Martineau, ed., Andrea Mantegna,
exh. cat., Royal Academy/Metro-
politan Museum of Art (London/
New York, 1992), 469. Yet the
large scale of Pollaiuolo's figures,
which measure approximately
25.5 cm tall, is also exceptional,
even when compared with the
above examples.
3. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the
Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,
trans. Gaston du C. de Vere (New
York/Toronto, 1996), 1: 533.
4. The continued debate over
whether the engraved zigzag
shading technique was developed
in the Mantegna engravings or
Pollaiuolo's Battle is complicated
by the lack of documented evi-
dence and the disagreement
among scholars about the relative
chronologies of these prints. Most
recently, Shelley Fletcher has
suggested that the two artists
may have developed the tech-
nique independently of one an-
other; she views Mantegna's use
of the zigzag or simulated return
stroke as a natural development
in the evolution of his engraving
style, as she has outlined in "A
Closer Look at Mantegna's
Prints," Print Quarterly 18 (2001),
19-22. She also suggests that
Pollaiuolo's influence may have
been in the increased elegance of
line and streamlining of pattern
evident in Mantegna's Bacchanal
with a Wine Vat [12], the first of
his engravings where this specific
zigzag technique appears, as well
as in the more widely spaced
modeling lines found in its pen-
dant engraving, Bacchanal with
Silenus. Basically, the concept is
the same for both artists but the
manner of execution differs—
more refined and delicate in
Pollaiuolo, more idiosyncratic
and varied in the Mantegna ex-
amples. Given the fame of the
two artists, however, it seems
more likely tha t one might have
adopted and modified the other's
idea. Some argue that the tech-
nique was the outcome of
Pollaiuolo's prowess as a gold-
smith and knowledge of working
in metal, and his renown as a
master draftsman and designer
would have further contributed
to his ability to devise such a
technique. Others suggest that
the drawing-like character of the
resulting effect points more to-
ward Mantegna's approach to
drawing and the particularly
flexible and diverse drawing-like
qualities of his engravings.
Alison Wright has suggested that
the expanded use of interior
modeling in Pollaiuolo's engrav-
ing, in a manner less typical of his
drawing technique, may indicate
adaptation of the long parallel
and zigzag strokes used in the
Mantegna examples; see Alison
Wright, "Mantegna and
Pollaiuolo: Artistic Personality
and the Marketing of Invention,"
in Stuart Currie, ed., Drawing
1400-1600: Invention and Innova-
tion (Aldershot, U.K., 1998). How-
ever, Pollaiuolo may have created
this method of shading to de-
scribe the modeling of his figures
more explicitly, and it may have
been the only means available to
him to achieve the effects of tonal
modeling that he produced with
wash in his drawings. Yet without
other examples of Pollaiuolo's
engraved works (if they existed)
for comparison, one can only
speculate about which artist to
credit with originating the tech-
niques, and perhaps it is most
reasonable to surmise that they
were aware of each other's work
and that each may have re-
sponded by adjusting his ap-
proach to some degree.
5. Various prints have been attrib-
uted to Pollaiuolo over the years,
but most of them are now recog-
nized as the work of other
printmakers, sometimes based on
Pollaiuolo's designs but clearly
not engraved by his hand. The
first systematic catalogue of
prints listed by artist was com-
piled by Adam Bartsch in his
volume on early Italian engravers
(Le peintre-graveur [Vienna, 1811],
13: 202-4). He lists three prints by
Pollaiuolo: Battle of the Nudes
(erroneously entitled "The Gladi-
ators"); Hercules and Antaeus (now
attributed to the Master of 1515,
based on a design by Andrea
Mantegna); and the so-called
Hercules and the Giants (now at-
tributed to an anonymous North

Italian printmaker, possibly
Paduan) [7, 8]. Arthur M. Hind
(Early Italian Engraving [London,
1938-48], 1: 189-92, hereafter
Hind) lists six prints under
Pollaiuolo, but suggests that all
but the Battle are copies based on
Pollaiuolo designs: Battle of the
Nudes (as "Battle of Naked
Men"), Hercules and the Giants,
Hercules and the Hydra (a different
version than that described by
Bartsch), Profile Portrait of a Lady,
The Grand Turk (El Gran Turco),
and Two Centaurs Fighting.
6. Inspired by Shelley Fletcher's
study of Mantegna and the pre-
liminary research for the present
catalogue, the Center for Ad-
vanced Studies in the Visual Arts
(CASVA) held a colloquy, gathering
ten impressions of Pollaiuolo's
Battle of the Nudes from eight
institutions in the paper conser-
vation lab at the National Gallery
of Art in Washington for exami-
nation and comparison by a
group of scholars, curators, and
conservators (Curatorial/Conser-
vation Colloquy 9: Antonio
Pollaiuolo's Battle of the Nudes,
19-21 June 2000). Cleveland's
unique impression of the first
state was examined next to three
second-state impressions from the
National Gallery (Russell Allen,
Rosenwald Collection, and
"Gott" impression) and second-
state impressions from the Balti-
more Museum of Art, Fogg Art
Museum at Harvard University,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, and
Yale University Art Gallery. This
event allowed the comparison of
many impressions at once, un-
mounted and unframed, with
high-caliber microscopes (particu-
larly important for discerning ink
variation, plate wear, and state
changes) and the input of inter-
ested and knowledgeable profes-
sionals in the field, which pro-
vided essential groundwork for
the course of research for the
Cleveland project (see Acknowl-
edgments for a list of partici-
pants).
7. Louise S. Richards, "Battle of
Naked Men," The Bulletin of the
Cleveland Museum of Art (hereafter
CMA Bulletin) 55 (1968), 66.
8. Jay A. Levenson, "Mantegna
and the Emergence of Engraving
in Italy," in Cesare Mozzarelli et
al., Le Corte di Mantove nell'eta di
57
would have made up this stalk on
a whim. The extended stalk in the
woodcut also fills in the other-
wise empty area in the upper
right corner of the engraving, and
seems better matched with the
opposite corner where tree
branches and foliage extend right
up to the edge. Since the woodcut
has a printed border around the
image, it is unlikely that the stalk
was added by Francfordia to
make a firmer printing edge.
12. One must also allow for the
possibility that Uberti could have
copied Francfordia's woodcut
rather than Pollaiuolo's engrav-
ing, which might explain the
slightly cruder style, once-
removed from the original ex-
ample. It is also worthy of note
that despite their appropriated
image, both Francfordia and
Uberti saw fit to promote their
own names in prominent
plaques; Uberti's is ironically
elaborate considering the decid-
edly weaker effort displayed in
his version.
13. Richards, "Battle of Naked
Men," 69-70.
14. Erwin Panofsky (Albrecht
Diirer [Princeton, 1943], 2: 95-96)
identified the scene as the story
of the Roman consul Titus
Manlius who slew a Gaul and
took his necklace, thus gaining
the nickname "Torquatus" or
"chain." John Goldsmith Phillips
(Early Florentine Designers and
Engravers [Cambridge, 1955], 48-
49) suggested that the print repre-
sents a scene from the Legend of
the Golden Fleece, the battling
warriors that sprang to life when
Jason sowed the dragon's teeth.
But the figure of Jason, the central
character, is neither present nor
alluded to, and it was a helmet,
not a chain, that Jason threw into
the warriors' midst that caused
them to turn on one another.
According to Fusco, Colin Eisler,
following Bartsch (Le peintre-
graveur, 13: 202, no. 2) and Paul
Oskar Kristeller (Kupferstich und
Holzschnittt in vier Jahrhunderten
[Berlin, 1905], 171), put forth the
idea that the figures are gladia-
tors who are engaged in an an-
cient funerary ritual fight to the
death, thus offering a blood sacri-
fice signifying regeneration in
commemoration of the deceased.
The remains of the fallen gladia-
tors would nurture the soil from
which their own sustenance came
(grain, wine from the vines,
from olive trees). Eisler even
suggested that the print may
have been commissioned to
memorate the death of a pow
ful Florentine such as Cosim
(1464), Piero (1469), or Giul
de' Medici (1478). This prop
at least accounts for the lack
differentiation among the fig
figures and the seeming aiml
ness of the battle. For a summ
tion of these and other sugge
tions, see Hind, 1: 189-92; L
Smith Fusco, "Battle of the
Nudes," in Jay A. Levenson
Early Italian Engravings fro
National Gallery of Art (Wa
ton, 1973), 66-80; and Wend
Stedman Sheard, Antiquity in
Renaissance, exh. cat., Smith
lege Museum of Art (Northampton,
1979), no. 44.
15. Alison Wright, in Patrici
Rubin and Alison Wright, Re
sance Florence: The Art of th
exh. cat., National Gallery (L
don, 1999), 259.
16. Patricia Emison, "The W
Made Naked in Pollaiuolo's B
of the Nudes," Art History 13
(1990), 261-75; Joseph Manc
"Passion and Primitivism in
Antonio Pollaiuolo's Battle of
Naked Men," Source: Notes i
History 20 (2001), 28-36. Em
perceives a more generalized
concept for Pollaiuolo's imag
that offers a complex allusion
philosophical and theologica
beliefs rather than a specific
or historical event. She reads
grain and vines as referring t
Eucharist while the ensuing b
of nude figures points to the
subject of universal death an
resurrection of the soul when
separated from the mortal bo
Manca (p. 34) dismisses the
"subjectless" interpretation o
engraving and describes the w
riors as representative of the
passions of a base and barbar
society. He regards the engra
as a statement about the impo
tance of moderating desire, "
central tenet that unites vario
moral philosophies that flour
ished in antiquity, a point we
known in humanistic circles
quattrocento Florence."
17. For a discussion of the as
ciation of the wild man with
German tribal origins and fur
analysis of the iconography r
ing to an ancient battle betwe
the Romans and the Germani

the Pollaiuolo workshop, based
on the slightly faceted articula-
tion of the anatomy, notably the
V-shape of the sternocleidomas-
toid muscles near the neck, al-
though the large hands with large
and distinct knuckles and highly
articulated feet appear somewhat
closer to Verrochio's style. How-
ever, these Renaissance copies
after antique examples are notori-
ously difficult to attribute with
certainty to specific artists be-
cause of the complexity in dis-
cerning the Renaissance artist's
individual stylistic approaches
from elements belonging to the
original antique sculpture. John
Pope-Hennessy considers the
bronze Marsyas in the Frick
Collection to be in the style of
Pollaiuolo (The Study and Criticism
of Italian Sculpture [Princeton,
1980], 129-32). The less finished
surface of the Modena example,
as compared with the Frick
bronze, is more in keeping with
the Florentine practice of leaving
bronze statuettes relatively in the
rough (since they would have
been shown alongside excavated
examples), and typical of
Pollaiuolo's other known works
such as the Hercules, also in the
Frick Collection, and the Hercules
and Antaeus in the Museo
Nazionale del Bargello. For a
description of the antique source,
see Phyllis Pray Bober and Ruth
Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and
Antique Sculpture: A Handbook of
Sources (London, 1986), 73-74, no.
30.
22. For a discussion of a group of
Marsyas bronzes affiliated with
the Medici collections, see Anna
Maria Massinelli, Bronzetti e
Anticaglie dalla Guardaroba di
Cosimo I, exh. cat., Museo
Nazionale del Bargello (Florence,
1991), 31-39.
23. For instance, the use of the
lion skin as a supporting strut for
the Hercules figure is unneces-
sary given the tensile strength of
the bronze, but it may have been
an intended allusion to the use of
such struts to support marble
Roman copies of Greek bronze
statuary. For further discussion of
possible antique sources and
motives that influenced
Pollaiuolo's Hercules and Antaeus
sculpture, see Edward J.
Olszewski, "Framing the Moral
Lesson in Pollaiuolo's Hercules
and Antaeus," in Luba Freedman
and Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich,
58
eds., Wege zum Mythos (Berlin,
2001), 71-87; and Massinelli,
Bronzetti e Anticaglie, 26-30.
24. See Joy Kenseth, "The Virtue
of Littleness: Small-Scale Sculp-
tures of the Italian Renaissance,"
in Sarah Blake McHam, ed., Look-
ing at Italian Renaissance Sculpture
(Cambridge, 1998), 128-48.
25. Alison Wright, "Dimensional
Tension in the Work of Antonio
Pollaiuolo," in Stuart Currie and
Peta Motture, eds., The Sculpted
Object 1400-1700 (Aldershot,
U.K., 1997), 65-86. For further
discussion of Pollaiuolo's incor-
poration of two- and three-
dimensional formal concerns and
use of antique sources, see Laurie
Fusco, "Antonio Pollaiuolo's Use
of the Antique," Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
42 (1979): 257-63.
26. Before entering the Uffizi
collection in 1788, the Rape of the
Daughters of Leucippus (fig. 17)
was housed in the Medici villa in
Rome. It was acquired by the
Medici family in 1584 when
Ferdinand de' Medici bought
most of the antique sculptures
from the della Valle collection. It
is not known when this sarcopha-
gus entered the collection of Car-
dinal Andrea della Valle (1463-
1534), which was well established
in the quattrocento by the della
Valle family of learned jurists,
physicians, and classical scholars
and developed by the cardinal
into one of the most important
collections of the 16th century. A
variant example, also known in
the Renaissance, is now in the
Vatican collection. See Bober and
Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and
Antique Sculpture, 161-62, 479-80,
nos. 126 and 126a.
27. Lorenzo Ghiberti, I Commen-
tarii, ed. Julius von Schlosser
(Berlin 1912), 1: 22; Pliny, Natural
History, 35.67-72.
28. It should be noted that both
the Fogg and British Museum
drawings have suffered damage
over the years. Some of the lim-
ited interior modeling lines (de-
scribing ribs and muscles in the
areas of the stomach and neck)
have faded and thus are difficult
to see in an illustration; the dis-
coloration and restoration of the
surface of the drawings make it
impossible to ascertain if any pale
wash was applied, as is often
found in Pollaiuolo's drawings
this type. The execution of the
two drawings with their unusu
solid dark backgrounds have
been compared to the dancing
nude figures of Pollaiuolo's Vi
Gallina frescoes at Arcetri, wh
in turn have been discussed in
relation to painted imagery on
ancient Greek vases that were
being rediscovered as collector
items in Italy in the 1460s. In
attempts to link the elusive sub
ject matter of the British Muse
drawing and the Fogg fragmen
(and the so-called Hercules an
Giants engraving to which it re
lates) with the Battle of the Nu
engraving, Cruttwell, Popham
and Pouncey, and others have
suggested that all these works
may have been conceived as
preparatory to some decorative
scheme that did not necessarily
have a complicated iconograph
beyond staging inventive displ
of the nude figure in action, w
generalized references to class
sources. See Maud Cruttwell,
Antonio Pollaiuolo (London, 1
124; A. E. Popham and Philip
Pouncey, Italian Drawings in
Department of Prints and Dra
at the British Museum: The Fo
teenth and Fifteenth Centuries
don, 1950), 136-38, no. 224; F
Shapley, "A Student of Ancien
Ceramics, Antonio Pollajuolo,
Art Bulletin 2 (1919), 78-86; A
H. Barr, "A Drawing by Anton
Pollaiuolo," in Art Studies: Me
eval Renaissance and Modern
bridge, 1926), 73-78; Michael
Vickers, "A Greek Source for
Antonio Pollaiuolo's Battle of
Nudes and Hercules and the Tw
Giants," Art Bulletin 59 (1977
182-87; Ettlinger, Antonio and
Piero Pollaiuolo, 161, nos. 35
and Ann Driscoll, "The Pig
Painter: Parties, Poets, and
Pollaiuolo," CMA Bulletin 80 (1
83-111. Alison Wright (Rubin
Wright, Renaissance Florence
has also noted the affinity of th
Fogg and British Museum draw
ings with the small-scale relief
silhouetted against dark groun
found in the ancient cameos th
were avidly collected by
Pollaiuolo's patrons, the Medic
in the 1470s.
29. For a discussion of
Finiguerra's stylistic relationsh
to Pollaiuolo, and their possibl
collaboration in the same gold
smith shop in the early years o
Pollaiuolo's career, see Alison
Wright, "Studies in the Paintin

of the Pollaiuolo" (Ph.D. diss.,
Courtauld Institute, University of
London, 1992), 23-30, and Alison
Wright, "Antonio Pollaiuolo
Maestro di disegno," in Elizabeth
Cropper, ed., Florentine Drawing
at the Time of Lorenzo the Magnifi-
cent (Bologna/Baltimore, 1994),
131-46.
30. Wright, in Rubin and Wright,
Renaissance Florence, 264; Pliny
35.67-68. See also Wright, "Di-
mensional Tension," 69-70.
31. Leon Battista Alberti, On
Painting and On Sculpture: The
Latin Texts of De Pictura and De
Statua, ed. and trans. Cecil
Grayson (London, 1972), 101.
32. Ibid., 79.
33. Laurie Fusco, "The Use of
Sculptural Models by Painters in
15th-century Italy," Art Bulletin
64 (1982), 175-94.
34. See examples from the Villard
de Honnecourt Sketchbook, Fig-
ures based on Geometric Shapes, c.
1235, Bibilotheque Nationale,
Paris; Children Playing from a
Neopolitan sketchbook, late 14th
century, Pierpont Morgan Li-
brary, New York; and Horsemen,
from the workshop of Bartolo di
Fredi, c. 1370, Musee Bonnat,
Bayonne; reproduced in Ettlinger,
Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo, figs.
12, 13, and 14.
35. As noted by Ettlinger (Antonio
and Piero Pollaiuolo, 159),
Pollaiuolo's drawings present a
special problem in that a rela-
tively small number of sheets
have survived; because his style
quickly became popular, there are
workshop replicas, copies (some-
times of a later date), and many
other works executed in his man-
ner. Some drawings attributed to
Pollaiuolo that share affinities
with the style of Maso Finiguerra
have also complicated attribu-
tions at times. For the purposes
of this study, I have chosen to
discuss drawings that have been
generally accepted by current
scholarship as attributable to
Pollaiuolo. Bernard Berenson,
Maud Cruttwell, and Sergio
Ortolani did not believe this
drawing was by Pollaiuolo's
hand: Berenson (The Drawings of
the Florentine Painters [Chicago,
1938], 2: 271) gives the work to
the school of Pollaiuolo, as does
Cruttwell (Antonio Pollaiuolo,
59
battle of nude figures" (Vasari,
Lives, 1: 533).
40. For detailed discussion of
Pollaiuolo's correct anatomical
observations, slight exaggera-
tions, and inaccuracies, as re-
vealed in his nude figures, and
the unlikelihood that he practiced
dissection, see Laurie Fusco, "The
Nude as Protagonist: Pollaiuolo's
Figural Style Explicated by
Leonardo's Study of Static
Anatomy, Movement and Func-
tional Anatomy" (Ph.D. diss.,
New York University, 1978), 16-
25. Bernard Schultz (Art and
Anatomy in Renaissance Italy [Ann
Arbor, 1985], 51-66) concludes
that Pollaiuolo may have "per-
formed limited dissections in the
service of his art" in light of a
1482 papal brief, by Sixtus IV,
approving the practice of dissec-
tion by ecclesiastical permission
and the possible contact between
noted anatomist Gabriele Zerbi
and Pollaiuolo at the papal court
between 1482/83 and 1494.
41. Wright, in Rubin and Wright,
Renaissance Florence, 245.
42. "[A]ntonii Jaco[b]i excelentis-
simi ac eximii florentini pictoris
scultorisque prestantissimi hoc
opus est./Umquam hominum
imaginem fecit/Vide quam
mirum in membra redigit." This
inscription appears to be written
in an ink that is contemporary to
the drawing. Ettlinger (Antonio
and Piero Pollaiuolo, 161) has sug-
gested that the drawing was
inscribed by a 15th-century
owner or collector.
43. A recent article by Lorenza
Melli, "Sull'uso della carta lucida
nel Quattrocento e un esempio
per il Pollaiolo," Paragone: Arte,
no. 316 (March 2001), 3-9, makes
the very intriguing suggestion
that the British Museum copy
was actually made by tracing
Pollaiuolo's original, following a
pedagogical practice recom-
mended by Cennino Cennini in
his Libro dell'Arte (c. 1400). This
would account for the closeness
of the copy; the slightly smaller
scale of the British Museum ver-
sion could be explained by the
possibility that the parchment
support could have shrunk in
reaction to environmental condi-
tions; and the necessary prepara-
tion of the parchment to make it
transparent for tracing could
account in part for the discolora-

60
graving to a drawing of the Death
of Pentheus by Marco Zoppo
(1432/33-1478) in the British
Museum, from the early 1470s.
But this supposition seems less
convincing given the differences
in articulation of musculature and
absence of modeling in the thigh,
the slightly more frontal orienta-
tion of the face, and the elevation
of the body by the raised out-
stretched leg of Zoppo's figure.
Since there was a known antique
prototype for this figure, Zoppo
could have used it as a model
instead (perhaps based on a cast
found in the workshop of
Squarcione, with whom Zoppo
was affiliated from the 1450s), or
he might have known
Pollaiuolo's drawing and adapted
the figure—but the connection
does not presuppose that Zoppo
would have to have known the
engraving, thereby securing a
date for the print. This also raises
a similar question with regard to
the incunabula illuminations:
Could they be based on
Pollaiuolo's drawing rather than
the print? Especially if the draw-
ing was out of the Squarcione
family's hands from 1462-74;
perhaps the drawing was in
Venice?
59. See note 56 above.
60. For further discussion of
beasts and centaurs in relation to
early human ancestors, irrational-
ity, and the inability to control
violent impulses, see Wright, in
Rubin and Wright, Renaissance
Florence, 284.
61. Zachariah Leaving the Temple,
Galleria degli Uffizi (inv. 98 F)
and St. John the Baptist Questioned,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Kupferstichkabinett (inv. 5028).
The latter drawing is reproduced
in Rubin and Wright, Renaissance
Florence, 242, no. 49. For discus-
sion of Pollaiuolo's embroideries
as sources for some of the draw-
ings in The Florentine Picture
Chronicle in the British Museum,
see Lucy Whitaker, "Maso
Finiguerra, Baccio Baldini and
The Florentine Picture Chronicle,"
in Elizabeth Cropper, ed., Floren-
tine Drawing at the Time of Lorenzo
the Magnificent (Bologna/Balti-
more, 1994), 183.
62. Various early Florentine prints
that appear to have been exe-
cuted by the same hand, includ-
ing one cycle of Prophets and
Sibyls, the Planets, Judgement H
of Pilate, and the engraved illus
trations for Dante's Divine Com
edy based on Botticelli's drawings,
have long been attributed
the largely undocumented figur
Baccio Baldini. For recent argu
ments regarding the historical
basis for the attribution of the
Divine Comedy illustrations, an
Baldini's existence in general, s
Peter Keller, "The Engravings i
the 1481 Edition of the Divine
Comedy," in Hein.-Th. Schulze
Altcappenberg, Sandro Botticel
The Drawings for Dante's Divin
Comedy (London, 2001), 326-3
and Mark Zucker, review of
Altcappenberg, Sandro Botticel
Print Quarterly 19 (2002), 81-8
63. See Evans, "Pollaiuolo, Dur
and the Master IAM van Zwolle
114-16.
64. Perhaps the most famous
example is Durer's 1494 copy
after Andrea Mantegna's Battle
the Sea Gods; see Walter Straus
The Complete Drawings of Albr
Durer (New York, 1974), no. 14
13. In her forthcoming book,
Albrecht Durer and the Venetia
Renaissance (Cambridge, in pre
Katherine Luber makes the case
that Durer may not have travele
to Italy until 1504, and that his
drawings showing the influence
of Italian works of art dating to
the 1490s are entirely based on
engraved sources he would have
seen in Nuremberg, brought to
Germany via active trade routes
possibly through the hands of on
of Germany's most influential
humanists and Durer's friend
and supporter, Willibald
Pirckheimer. I am grateful to
Suzanne Boorsch for bringing th
information to my attention and
to Katherine Luber for sharing
her thoughts with me in advance
of the publication of her book.
65. Although this drawing has
been described as after a "lost"
engraving by Pollaiuolo, I see n
reason, given the close correspo
dences in scale and figure type
(including physiognomy) between
Pollaiuolo's archer and
Durer's lunging figure, why an
artist of Durer's skill and knack
for invention could not have
adapted the figure from the Batt
of the Nudes to his own purpose
66. Evans, "Pollaiuolo, Durer, a
the Master 1AM van Zwolle," 1

67. Martin Clayton, Raphael and
His Circle: Drawings from Windsor
Castle, exh. cat., Queen's Gallery
(London, 1999), 50-53, no. 10. For
additional autograph drawings
by Raphael that have been inter-
preted as revealing evidence of
his interest in the expressive force
of attitude and pose of
Pollaiuolo's nude figures, see
Battle Scene with Prisoners Being
Pinioned and Nude Warriors Fight-
ing for a Standard, both pen and
ink over chalk, in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford University.
68. Francis Ames-Lewis and
Elizabeth Clegg, "A Contribution
to an Inventory of Pollaiuolo
Figure-Group Drawings," Master
Drawings 25 (1987), 237-41.
69. Another print of the Hercules
and the Hydra subject, based on
Pollaiuolo's lunging figure motif
but shown in a much larger scale
and with reduced landscape
elements, is executed in a fairly
crude, "fine manner" type in
which short strokes and cross-
hatching are employed and the
forms are stylized in the manner
of goldsmith work. Sometimes
attributed to the Florentine en-
graver Baldini, but listed under
Pollaiuolo in Hind (see Hind
D.I.3), this print is known in only
one impression in the collection
of the Topkapi Palace,
Constantinople.
70. In both examples, Robetta
closely follows Pollaiuolo's fig-
ural motifs, but models the forms
in his own graphic language
(short engraving strokes and
stippled dots) and places them in
rocky landscapes of his own in-
vention, based on Albrecht Durer
and, in the case of the Hercules
and Antaeus, includes a bizarrely
out-of-place figure of a frolicking
putto. As Levenson has sug-
gested, it would be inaccurate to
call Robetta's prints reproductive
(Levenson, Early Italian Engrav-
ings, 290). The association with
the Medici Hercules painting
series is perhaps reinforced by the
similarity between the British
Museum drawing Hercules and the
Hydra (also believed to be related
to the paintings) and Robetta's
print in which Hercules wields a
lighted torch. The smaller painted
Uffizi panel of the same subject,
which has also been suggested as
a source for the print, shows
Hercules carrying a club.
71. Vasari, Lives, 1: 534. See
Wright, in Rubin and Wright,
Renaissance Florence, 260, for a
technical analysis of the makeup
of the terracotta version and its
possible relationship to
Pollaiuolo's bronze example,
either direct or based on one of
the plaster casts. See also Italian
Renaissance Sculpture in the Time of
Donatello, exh. cat., Detroit Insti-
tute of Arts (1985), 203-4, no. 69.
Another terracotta relief, ascribed
to an anonymous artist working
at the end of the 15 th century,
Birth of St. John the Baptist (Musee
Jacquemart Andre, Paris, inv.
865), is a close copy of
Pollaiuolo's silver relief made for
the Florentine Baptistery altar
(c. 1477-83), now in the Museo
dcll'Opera del Duomo in
Florence, and may be a similar
example.
72. Bober and Rubinstein, Renais-
sance Artists and Antique Sculpture,
75-76, nos. 32-34.
73. Ames-Lewis, The Intellectual
Life, 40-44, 254-56.
74. Fletcher, "A Close Look at
Mantegna's Prints," 3-41.
75. The 1992 Mantegna exhibition
(Royal Academy/Metropolitan
Museum of Art) and Shelley
Fletcher's recent investigations
into Mantegna's prints have re-
vealed new insight into the coarse
granular ink used in many early
impressions (see ibid., p. 74); it
seems that in some instances the
thick dark ink lifted off the sur-
face in places, leaving a softer,
more muted charcoal-like line
exposed, making some impres-
sions appear grayer and less
black than they originally ap-
peared. David Landau discusses
the use of a variety of different
color inks by early Italian engrav-
ers, hypothesizing that certain
choices of gray or brown might
have been consciously selected to
achieve effects similar to draw-
ings in silverpoint or pen and ink,
which may have been intentional,
or not (depending on how good
the artist's chemistry was in mix-
ing inks). The range of inks used
within the black/gray/brown
categories, aside from the red or
green anomalies, suggests a
broader, more flexible approach
to aesthetic "standards" even in
light of a prevailing interest in
tonal qualities. See David Landau
and Peter Parshall, The Renais-
6l
sance Print (New Haven/London,
1994), 78-80.
76. Fusco, "Battle of the Nudes,"
79-80.
77. Ettlinger, Antonio and Piero
Pollaiuolo, 164, no. 44.
78. For a thorough discussion of
the frescoes and the post 1464
dating, see Alison Wright, "Danc-
ing Nudes in the Lanfredini Villa
at Arcetri," in Eckart Marchand
and Alison Wright, eds., With and
Without the Medici (Aldershot,
U.K., 1998), 47-76.
79. See note 55 and discussion
preceding it.
80. Wright has expressed reserva-
tions about the interpretation of
this unidentified work as an en-
graving, arguing that while
Pollaiuolo's abilities as a designer
would certainly include creating
engraved works, the moniker
"maestro di disegno" does not
presuppose such activity; because
Pollaiuolo does not appear to
have pursued printmaking exten-
sively, it seems unlikely that
Ruccellai's reference would indi-
cate his ownership of prints by
Pollaiuolo and Finiguerra. See
Wright, "Antonio Pollaiuolo,"
141. One might also add that it
would be highly unusual for a
print to be perceived as making
its creator worthy of the designa-
tion "maestro" in a document as
early as 1471, when printmaking
was still such a young medium
and collecting patterns had not
yet been established. Pollaiuolo's
engraving would have been an
extraordinary example, however,
and thus might be argued as
deserving of comment. During
the CASVA colloquy, Evelyn Lin-
coln, who has described the Battle
of the Nudes as a "virtuoso origi-
nal performance in the arts of
design and engraving" (Invention
of the Italian Renaissance Print-
maker [New Haven, 2000), 31),
advanced the possible legitimacy
of a connection between the en-
graving and Ruccellai's diary
entry.
81. While the feet and pose of the
legs are similar, the dramatically
shortened back, summary model-
ing, differences in articulation of
musculature, and variation in
position of arms and proportions
of the figure all seem to weaken
this connection; now that the
drawings are no longe
ered to be by Finiguer
died in 1464), the loo
opens up the possibili
there is a vague conne
suggests only a time f
Pollaiuolo print. For a
son of figures, see Ph
Florentine Designers
pls. 47 a-b. For discus
new attribution and da
well as the Pollaiuolo
the Chronicle drawing
Whitaker, "Maso Fini
Baccio Baldini and th
Picture Chronicle," 1
82. Laurie Fusco, "Po
Battle of the Nudes,"
storia dell'arte in ono
Zeri (Milan, 1984), 19
discussion of the date
her text is incorrect; sh
corrected the date to 1
cited in Mark Zucker'
the Battle of the Nude
in Kristin L. Spangenb
Centuries of Master P
sures from the Herber
Collection (Cincinnat
16.
83. Madeline Cirillo A
Dating of a Florentine
Virgin and Christ," Pr
terly 5 (1988), 395-40
84. Tom Rassieur and
Boorsch recognized th
tion of Archer's article
Pollaiuolo dating. See
Blumenthal, Cosimo R
85. Wright, "Mantegn
Pollaiuolo," 77.
86. Schultz, Art and A
Renaissance Italy, 59-
87. Ibid., 63-64. He al
a fascinating account
ence of medical and a
texts on artists' direct
when studying the hum
88. 705 x 513 mm. Se
101-4, Bramante/Prev
89. See articles by Da
and Suzanne Boorsch
Martineau, Andrea Ma
66.
90. The watermark pr
under the direction of
Munafo, with the assi
Rosella Graziaplena.