Battle of the Nudes

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