The Early Renaissance


   

Antonio Pollaiuolo

(b Florence, c. 1432; d Rome, ?4 Feb 1498).

Sculptor, painter, designer and engraver. He was trained as a goldsmith and bronze sculptor, probably in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s workshop. In 1466 he joined the Arte della Seta, the silkworkers’ guild (to which goldsmiths traditionally belonged), and he listed himself as a goldsmith and painter in the membership records of the Compagnia di S Luca in 1473; this is the only documented reference to him as a painter. In his tax return in 1480 he reported that he was renting a workshop specifically for goldsmiths’ work. He still described himself as a goldsmith, and not as a painter, in his last tax return in 1496.

 

Apollo and Daphne
Tempera on wood, 30 x 20 cm
National Gallery, London

Hercules and the Hydra
c. 1475
Tempera on wood, 17 x 12 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence