Pollaiuolo

Pollaiuolo, the popular name of the brothers Antonio and Piero di Jacobo Benci, Florentines who contributed much to Italian art in the 15th century. They were called Pollaiuolo because their father was a poulterer. The nickname was also extended to Simone, the nephew of Antonio.

Antonio (1429-1498) distinguished himself as a sculptor, jeweller, painter and engraver, and did valuable service in perfecting the art of enamelling. His painting exhibits an excess of brutality, of which the characteristics can be studied in the "Saint Sebastian," painted in 1475, and now in the National Gallery, London. A "St Christopher and the Infant Christ" is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. But it was as a sculptor and metal-worker that he achieved his greatest successes. The exact ascription of his works is doubtful, as his brother Piero did much in collaboration with him. The museum of Florence contains the bronze group "Hercules strangling Cacus" and the terra-cotta bust "The Young Warrior"; and in the South Kensington Museum, London, is a bas-relief representing a contest between naked men. In 1489 Antonio took up his residence in Rome, where he executed the tomb of Sixtus IV. (1493), a composition in which he again manifested the quality of exaggeration in the anatomical features of the figures. In 1496 he went to Florence in order to put the finishing touches to the work already begun in the sacristy of Santo Spirito. He died in 1498, having just finished his mausoleum of Innocent VIII., and was buried in the church of San Pietro in Vincula, where a monument was raised to him near that of his brother.

Piero (1443-1496) was a painter, and his principal works were his "Coronation of the Virgin," an altar-piece painted in 1483, in the choir of the cathedral at San Gimignano; his "Three Saints," an altar-piece, and "Prudence" are both at the Uff'izi Gallery.

Simone (1457-1508), nephew of Antonio Pollaiuolo, a celebrated architect, was born in Florence and went to Rome in 1484; there he entered his uncle's studio and studied architecture. On his return to Florence he was entrusted with the completion of the Strozzi palace begun by Benedetto de Maiano, and the cornice on the façade has earned him lasting fame. His highly coloured accounts of Rome earned for him the nickname of it Cronaca (chronicler). About 1498 he built the church of San Francesco at Monte and the vestibule of the sacristy of Santo Spirito. In collaboration with Guiliano da Sangallo he designed the great hall in the Palazzo Vecchio. He was a close friend and adherent of Savonarola.

See also Maud Cruttwell, Antonio Pollaiuolo (1907).