File:Antonio Pollaiuolo (1907) (14578406948).jpg

Identifier: antoniopollaiuol00crut (find matches)
Title: Antonio Pollaiuolo
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Cruttwell, Maud
Subjects: Pollaiolo, Antonio, 1426?-1498 Pollaiolo, Piero, ca. 1443-1496
Publisher: London : Duckworth and Co. New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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e multitude, an admirably composed group,whose only defect is the ill-balanced conventional figureof the Baptist himself. This defect in the principalfigure is all the more curious that the rest are treatedwith a realism almost crude in its truth to nature. Itis a repetition of the Baptist in the relief of the SilverCross, equally conventional in action, and not faultlessin anatomy. It would be of interest to know why, innearly all these scenes, otherwise treated with so muchoriginality and realism, the Baptist only should bepresented in the stiff and conventional trecentomanner. It is wonderful how little the design has sufferedfrom the mechanical process of stitching, for thespontaneity of gesture, the modelling of the nude, thevalues of distance and spaciousness of the landscape,are so well reproduced as to seem actually from thebrush of Antonio. The most subtle expressions aregiven to the faces, so that the individuality of thedifferent persons and their attitude towards the cere-
Text Appearing After Image:
^ DO X o hO g So <: Oh :?; o c/5 DESIGNS FOR EMBROIDERIES 105 mony, can be appreciated. Some remain thoughtfuland unconvinced, and seem to weigh the value of thenew doctrine; some are openly antagonistic and arguewith conviction : others are fervidly devotional. Eachfigure in the scene is worth special attention as arealistic study of character, and for its fine pose andexpressive action, caught at the most significant point.Nothing could be more natural than the gesture of thetwo personages, one standing, one kneeling, who arebeing stripped by their pages; nothing could be betterthan the anatomy and action of the three figures—academic studies of the nude though they be—whokneel to receive baptism. The contrast betweenthese and the Baptist is most striking. The landscape, with the stretch of Arno valleythrough which the river winds, is also treated with theutmost realism, and the values of distance are wonder-fully reproduced. It is the same landscape we have got toknow so wel

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