Battle of the Nudes

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