Piero del Pollaiuolo

Piero del Pollaiuolo (UK: /ˌpɒlaɪˈwoʊloʊ/ POL-eye-WOH-loh,^[1] US: /ˌpoʊl-/ POHL-,^[2] Italian: [ˈpjɛːro del pollaˈjwɔːlo]; also spelled Pollaiolo; c. 1443 – by 1496), whose birth name was Piero Benci, was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. His older brother, by about ten years, was the artist Antonio del Pollaiuolo and the two frequently worked together. Their work shows both classical influences and an interest in human anatomy; according to Vasari, the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject (though modern scholars tend to doubt this).^[3]

Giorgio Vasari, who wrote several decades after both brothers were dead, includes a joint biography of Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Vasari says that Antonio was especially highly regarded for his disegno or drawing,^[4] and it may be that on shared works he did most of the underdrawing, leaving Piero and their assistants to complete the painting. Vasari began the tradition of stressing the contribution of Antonio rather than Piero to the paintings, which went largely unchallenged until the 20th century, despite suspicions by art historians such as "Crowe and Cavalcaselle" in the late 19th century,^[5] and in the 20th Martin Davies, later Director of the National Gallery.^[6] In the 21st century a full and partly successful challenge has been mounted, and some attributions changed.

In recent years there has been a trend among art historians to increase the credit Piero is given for the paintings, led by figures such as Aldo Galli, whose Antonio and Piero Del Pollaiuolo: Silver and Gold, Painting and Bronze (2014) assigns the actual painting of many works to Piero that had long been given to Antonio, or both brothers. At least one of the brothers was influenced by the landscape style of Early Netherlandish painting, and the revisionist school thinks that this was Piero.

Contemporaries regarded Antonio as much the more significant talent; he was also a sculptor, whereas Piero seems only to have painted. They had separate workshops in a shared building. Disentangling their contributions, and those of their assistants, in paintings is difficult, as can be seen from Vasari onwards.^[7] Many works are given joint attributions, but others, especially smaller works, are given to a single brother. In some cases these have changed over the years, for example the Apollo and Daphne in the National Gallery in London was long attributed to Antonio, but by 2023 is described by the museum as by Piero.^[8] Davies, in 1961, noted "The attribution to Antonio, claimed to be a better man than Piero, is little more than a recognition of its high quality".^[9]

In the traditional distribution of authorship, Piero (and his workshop) was usually given the smaller altarpieces and portraits, with mythological subjects, especially several with Hercules, given to Antonio.^[10] One well-known portrait in Berlin, the Profile Portrait of a Young Lady has been attributed to both brothers individually, as well as a string of other masters. Piero only signed and dated one painting, his Coronation of the Virgin of 1483 in Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano, while Antonio only signed his most important sculptures, his papal tombs, and his single engraving, the Battle of the Nude Men.^[11]

A profile portrait of a richly dressed young woman, the Museo Poldi Pezzoli's Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1470), is now also regarded by the museum (Aldo Galli's base) as by Piero, but in 2005 was "now generally assigned to Antonio", according to Alison Wright, author of the most recent monograph of the brothers in English.^[12] Similar portraits in Berlin, the Uffizi in Florence, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York form a group of four that are typically given the same attribution, but the plainer and more forceful Boston female portrait is separated by many (see below).^[13]

A letter by Antonio in 1494 stated that the original, now lost, very large three paintings featuring Hercules done for the Palazzo Medici over thirty years before, were a work of both brothers, the only specific documentation tying Antonio to any work in painting.^[14] The miniature versions of two of them that are now in the Uffizi are one pair of traditional attributions to Antonio that Galli accepts.^[15]

In the case of the largest surviving Pollaiuolo painting, the Saint Sebastian altarpiece now in London, differences in quality within the large painted area have always been noted by art historians, and traditionally those parts regarded as of top quality were attributed to Antonio, and those less good to Piero or assistants.^[16] Galli sees the whole piece as Piero's, with his team.^[17]

The situation is not entirely clarified by Piero's documented, important and very public commission in 1479 for a set of full-length paintings of the Seven Virtues for the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of government of the Republic of Florence. They were to decorate the room of the Tribunale della Mercanzia, the body overseeing all the Guilds of Florence. In the end, and after some public acrimony, Fortitude was done by Botticelli and the other six by Piero; all seven are now in the Uffizi (see below).^[18] Given the nature of their relationship, some art historians have continued to suggest that Antonio helped Piero with aspects of the paintings, either in the design or the execution. Others are happy to use their style to identify similar works as by Piero's workshop.^[19]

Aldo Galli's redistribution of the paintings does not so much depend on stylistic analysis as a reassessment of early (pre-Vasari) documentary records and comments by early writers such as the "Anonimo Gaddiano" probably from the 1530s and 1540s, so only shortly before Vasari.^[20] But one characteristic and unusual feature of some paintings is that they are painted directly onto the wood panel, without the usual careful preparation of glue and gesso. The Boston Lady and Uffizi Galeazzo Maria Sforza are examples.^[21] But this has also been described as a technique used by Antonio, and was used in the David in Berlin.^[22]

A recently re-attributed Portrait of a Youth sold at Sotheby's in 2021 for 4,564,200 GBP (6,261,764 USD), the first "fully attributed work" by Piero ever to come to auction.^[23] It had previously been attributed to Cosimo Rosselli among others, and with the portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza is Piero's only known male portrait. The teenage subject is given an almost frontal pose, unusual for the period. The reattribution was supported by Alison Wright and Aldo Galli, among others.^[24]

He was born in Florence. The brothers took their nickname from the trade of their father Jacopo, who sold poultry, pollaio meaning "hen coop" in Italian,^[25] and pollaiuolo "poulterer".^[26] This was a luxury trade at the time, and Jacopo's four sons were unlikely all to find room for careers in it. According to Benedetto Dei, the contemporary "fanatical enumerator" of Florentine life, there were only 8 poultry suppliers in Florence in 1472, but 44 goldsmith's workshops.^[27]

Antonio was the eldest son; the two middle brothers respectively went into poultry (eventually inheriting that business) and goldsmithing. The youngest brother was Piero, and he and Antonio very frequently worked together, though their workshops were physically "separate but mutually accessible".^[28]

Piero's training is uncertain. The Florentine painter Andrea del Castagno (d. 1457) has been considered as a possible master (sometimes for both brothers) on stylistic grounds and the authority of Vasari, but problems with the dating makes this questioned by many scholars.^[29]

In a surviving letter by Antonio of 1494 he says that he and a brother (presumed to be Piero) painted the three huge canvases of three Labours of Hercules for the Medici Palace thirty-four years before; these were famous in their time, but are now lost.^[30] Art historians think he may have misremembered the date by a year or two.^[31]

According to Francesco Albertini, writing in 1510, he painted a fresco of Saint Christopher six metres high on the facade of San Miniato fra le Torri, near his house;^[32] both church and fresco have now disappeared. Albertini gives to Piero alone the Saint Sebastian altarpiece now in London, the Cardinal of Portugal's Altarpiece, and others.^[33]

His only signed work, the Coronation of the Virgin in San Gimignano, is dated 1483. In about 1484, when he was around 41, he followed Antonio to Rome, and thereafter seems to have spent most of his time there until his death.^[34] Not many works are usually allocated to this period.^[35]

The last certain record of him is when he was paid for a now unidentified painting in Pistoia Cathedral in November 1485. It is clear from Antonio's will of November 1496 that he was dead by then; otherwise the date and circumstances of his death are unknown. As his tomb is in Rome he is thought to have died there, like Antonio. He had never married, but left an illegitimate daughter called Lisa, whose care was entrusted to Antonio; she later married, with Antonio giving 150 lire to her dowry.^[36]

The characterisation of his style inevitably depends on which paintings are attributed to him and his workshop. Over a century ago Wilhelm Bode complained of Maud Cruttwell in her monograph on the brothers "it is hardly permissable for Miss Cruttwell to attribute whichever of the paintings pleases her best to Antonio and the rest to Piero".^[37] This was really directed at Bernard Berenson, who Bode saw as Cruttwell's mentor, who was especially critical of the few works and elements of works he allowed to Piero. He said in 1903 that the Coronation of the Virgin in San Gimignano was "a picture of unalloyed mediocrity, with scarcely a touch of charm to repay the absence of life and vigour".^[38] Frederick Hartt, an enthusiast for Antonio, remarked that "Piero... was a painter—a dull one, judging by his one signed work" (the San Gimignano Coronation).^[39]

By contrast, Aldo Galli describes it as "a magnificent painting" that "presents ... close stylistic and technical affinities with" other works he attributes to Piero, and others have attributed to Antonio: the six Virtues, the Cardinal of Portugal's altarpiece, and the London Saint Sebastian. According to Galli, "What they all have in common is a pronounced taste for precious effects, the highly efficacious imitation of jewels, brocades, velvets, with an illusionistic and tactile treatment based on the extensive and experimental use of oil-based binders (at the height of the reign of tempera in Florence), in open emulation of the Flemish masters. This refulgent pictorial treatment characterizes compositions that are highly studied, always somewhat artificial, populated with rather lanky and awkward figures, often seen with bottom-to-top perspective, with hands and feet that are nervously articulated, somewhat affected, emerging in their aristocratic pallor from silks and velvets studded with rubies and gilded trimmings".^[40]

• Profile Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1465) – oil on wood, Berlin, often given to Antonio.^[41]
• Tobias and the Angel (c. 1465–1470), Turin, given by the museum to both brothers.^[42]
• Cardinal of Portugal's altarpiece (1467–1468) – altarpiece, long given to Antonio. Now Uffizi.^[43]
• Seven Virtues, 1469–1470; six painted by Pollaiuolo, all now Uffizi. Documented as by Piero, in terms of the payments.^[44]

  Charity

  Faith

  Temperance

  Prudence

  Hope

  Justice

• Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470, Milan.^[45]
• Portrait of a Lady, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.^[46]
• Apollo and Daphne, c. 1470–1480, National Gallery, who in 2023 give it to Piero alone (formerly usually Antonio).^[47]
• Portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1471, tempera on wood, Uffizi.^[48] This was recorded as by Piero in a Palazzo Medici inventory in 1492, and so has always been regarded as by him. It is in poor condition. The turning pose with a hand shown is unusual for Florence at this time, and may have been suggested by the sitter, the Duke of Milan who was very interested in portraiture.^[49]
• Portrait of a Woman, c. 1475, Uffizi (who in 2023 still attribute it to Antonio).^[50]
• Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, completed 1475, oil on wood, National Gallery, who have long attributed it to both brothers;^[51] for Galli it is entirely by Piero and his team.^[52]
• Coronation of the Virgin (1483) – altarpiece now in Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano, Piero's only signed and dated work.^[53]

Always or traditionally attributed to Piero

• 
  Temperance from the Seven Virtues, 1469–1470, Uffizi (and the other five Piero was commissioned to do).
• 
  Portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1471, Uffizi
• 
  Coronation of the Virgin, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano, signed and dated 1483

• Campbell, Lorne, Renaissance Portraits, European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries, 1990, Yale, ISBN 0300046758
• Davies, Martin, The Earlier Italian Schools, National Gallery Catalogues, 1961, reprinted 1986, ISBN 0901791296
• Galli, Aldo, "The Fortune of the Pollaiuolo Brothers", in Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo: "Silver and Gold, Painting and Bronze”, exhibition catalogue (Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, 2014 – 2015), eds. A. Di Lorenzo and A. Galli , Milan 2014, pp. 25–77, PDF on Academia.edu
• Hartt, Frederick, History of Italian Renaissance Art, (2nd edn.)1987, Thames & Hudson (US Harry N Abrams), ISBN 0500235104
• Seymour, Charles Jr., Sculpture in Italy, 1400–1500, 1966, Penguin (Pelican History of Art)
• "Vasari": Giorgio Vasari's joint biography of the Pollaiuolo brothers, in his Lives of the Artists.
• Wright, Alison, The Pollaiuolo Brothers: The Arts of Florence and Rome, 2005, Yale, ISBN 9780300106251, google books

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piero del Pollaiolo.

• Biography on the Web Gallery of Art
• Extensive biography of Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo
• Piero del Pollaiuolo at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery
• Italian Paintings: Florentine School, a Metropolitan Museum of Art collection catalog containing information about Pollaiuolo and his works (see pages 123–125; MMA #50.135.3).