Battle of the Nudes

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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 derived 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 warriors (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 figure 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 composition. 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 figure 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
Page 1 and 2: Battle of the Nudes POLLAIUOLO'S RE
Page 3 and 4: Pollaiuolo's print is also somethin
Page 6 and 7: 5). There also appear to be some re
Page 8 and 9: tance the image appears silvery gra
Page 10 and 11: difficult and time consuming to rec
Page 12 and 13: and eliminating the subtlety of mod
Page 16 and 17: cution differs in the engraving, th
Page 18 and 19: interior modeling that suggests a s
Page 20 and 21: ously he renders the limbs." 42 A c
Page 22 and 23: own inscription on the tomb of Sixt
Page 24 and 25: sponse to the crude interpretation
Page 26 and 27: attributed to Perugino's most famou
Page 28 and 29: the plate in an attempt to alter th
Page 30 and 31: visited Florence. And although wild
Page 32 and 33: plate was cut, that while the sheer
Page 34 and 35: Italian printmaker, possibly Paduan
Page 36 and 37: of the Pollaiuolo" (Ph.D. diss., Co
Page 38: 67. Martin Clayton, Raphael and His

Battle of the Nudes

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