The altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin by Piero del Pollaiuolo behind the high altar in the church of Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano in Tuscany, Italy, was painted in 1483. [1] As the painter's only signed and dated work it is a key piece of evidence in the question of which paintings to attribute to Piero and which to his more famous brother, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, which has become a contentious subject in recent years. [2]
The painting is in tempera on panel, although recent technical analysis has shown that linseed oil was also used, a rather early example of oil painting for Florentine painting, found in other paintings by the Pollaiuolo brothers. [3]
The composition has an in aria zone where Christ crowns the Virgin Mary, flanked at a distance by angelic musicians and seraph-heads (body-less putti). Below the clouds on which the main figures are seated putti support a chalice representing the Eucharist; this sits on the head of the lowest. On the ground below kneel six saints with their eyes raised to the sight above. In the front are Saints Augustine (left, dedicatee of the church) and Jerome, and behind Saints Fina (Serafina, from the city, d. 1253), Nicholas of Bari, Geminianus (Gimignano, Bishop of Modena, after whom the city is named), and at right Nicolas of Tolentino (d. 1305), tonsured and holding a lily. [4]
Presumably as St Gimignano is rarely shown in art outside Modena, his name is shown embroidered around his collar. As bishops, Augustine and Gimignano hold crosiers and have laid their mitres on the ground. Nicholas of Bari was also a bishop but here merely wears richly decorated vestments. Jerome's red cardinal's hat is also on the ground; he is shown as a penitent in the desert, nearly naked to the waist and about to hit himself with a rock, allowing the Pollaiuolos' interest in the body in energetic action to be shown in his pose. [5]
The composition is a less crowded version of that in a Coronation of c. 1432 by Fra Angelico, which was then in a church in Florence, so presumably known to Piero. Previous compositions had shown a similar arrangement of the figures, but with the main figures raised on a high dais, rather than in mid-air. The in aria composition was taken from images of the Assumption of Mary, of which "the Coronation was the culminating episode". [6]
The bottom of the frame carries the Latin inscription "OPVS PIERI POLAIOLI FLOR. A. D. MCCCCLXXXIII" (The work of Piero Pollaiuolo the Florentine, 1483) in large gold letters. A similar inscription with the date in modern style is painted on the ground at bottom centre. At this period works for places away from the artist's native city were often signed in this way, advertising the skill of the painter, and showing the commissioner, here one Domenico Strambi, [7] had gone to the expense of bringing in an artist from a major centre. Antonio del Pollaiuolo signed both his papal tombs, [8] though far less prominently than this. [9]
The painting was originally painted for its current location of Sant' Agostino, but for a long time was in the Collegiata, the largest church in the city, until returned in the late 20th century. [10] Saint Fina was buried in the Collegiata, [11] which also has relics of Gimignano.
Perhaps because it was not in a major city, and because it is signed by Piero, traditionally regarded as the lesser artist, the painting has generally been less discussed than other major works by the Pollaiuolo brothers. Very hostile comments by Bernard Berenson in 1903 called it "a picture of unalloyed mediocrity, with scarcely a touch of charm to repay the absence of life and vigour"; this did not encourage detailed study by others. [12] Frederick Hartt, an enthusiast for Antonio, remarked that "Piero... was a painter—a dull one, judging by his one signed work". [13]
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. "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". [14] He describes the saints as "aristocratic" but "poised between ecstasy and migraine". [15]
Charles Seymour Jr. compares it to the Primavera of Sandro Botticelli, "of virtually the same date", finding "Proto-Mannerism" in these and the slightly earlier sculpture of Mino da Fiesole. [16]
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Antonio del Pollaiuolo, also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, who made important works in all these media, as well as designing works in others, for example vestments, metal embroidery being a medium he worked in at the start of his career.
Piero del Pollaiuolo, 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.
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Bastiano di Bartolo Mainardi (1466–1513) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He was born in San Gimignano and was active there and in Florence.
The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is a large altarpiece by the brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, commissioned by the Florentine Pucci family and now in the National Gallery, London.
Venus and Mars is a panel painting of about 1485 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful baby satyrs.
Hercules slaying Antaeus, c. 1460, is a painting by the Florentine artist Antonio del Pollaiuolo. It is small at 6 x 3 1/2 inches, painted in egg tempera on a panel of wood. It is now in the Uffizi gallery, Florence.
Profile Portrait of a Young Lady is a 1465 half-length portrait, made with oil-based paint and tempera on a poplar panel, usually attributed to Antonio del Pollaiuolo, although the owning museum, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, now describes this work as by his brother Piero del Pollaiuolo, and as one of its most famous paintings, and as one of the most famous portraits of women from the early Italian Renaissance.
Faith is a 1470 oil on panel painting by Piero del Pollaiuolo, now in the Uffizi in Florence.
The Cardinal of Portugal's altarpiece or Altarpiece for the Cardinal of Portugal's chapel, is a painting of c. 1466 in tempera and oil on panel by one or both of the brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo. It was painted for the altar in the Cardinal of Portugal's Chapel, a funerary chapel in the church of San Miniato al Monte in Florence, built for the prince and cardinal James of Portugal, who died in exile in Florence in 1459 at the age of 25.
Charity is a 1469 oil on panel painting by Piero del Pollaiuolo, now in the Uffizi in Florence.
The Assumption of St Mary Magdalene or Mystic Communion is a c. 1460 oil and tempera on panel painting by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, now in the Museo della Pala del Pollaiolo at Staggia Senese, now a district in the town of Poggibonsi in the Province of Siena, Italy. It shows the saint in penitence and prayer in the desert, supported by four angels and with a fifth bringing her a host. It is an altarpiece measuring 209.5 cm by 166.2 cm.
Hercules and the Hydra is a c. 1475 tempera grassa-on-panel painting by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, forming a pair with the same artist's Hercules slaying Antaeus. Both works are now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. It measures 17 cm by 12 cm, small like all his surviving mythological paintings. It is assumed that both these are miniature copies by the artist of two out of the three enormous paintings on canvas of the Labours of Hercules commissioned from Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo by Piero di Cosimo de' Medici for the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Medici in the 1460s, which have now been lost.