Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Antonio del Pollaiuolo was an Italian Renaissance artist who lived from 1429/33 to 1498. Though ten years apart, Antonio and his younger brother, Piero del Pollaiuolo, were both artists. Antonio trained as a goldsmith and sculptor while his brother trained as a painter. In 1459, at around 30 years old, Antonio opened his own studio. After 1460, the two brothers often collaborated and were extremely successful.
Besides painting, Antonio del Pollaiuolo was also an engraver, a sculptor, and a goldsmith. His engraving, “Battle of the Ten Nudes,” is his most famous piece, and perhaps, the most famous print from the fifteenth century. His depiction of the moving body was seen as revolutionary. That was because Antonio studied human anatomy through dissections, and he was one of the first to do so.
Both Pollaiuolo brothers painted a large number of portraits of women towards the end of the fifteenth century. Though both were highly respected artists, Antonio is usually regarded as more talented than his brother due to the very fine detail that he added to his subjects’ clothes and hair, in addition to his grasp of the human anatomy. Sandro Botticelli, the painter who created the very famous painting, “The Birth of Venus,” studied under Antonio del Pollaiuolo. Now that’s impressive!
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