_Antonio Pollajuolo_ (Florentine: 1429-1498).
This picture is expressly ascribed by Vasari to Antonio alone.
On the other hand, Albertini, an earlier authority (1510),
ascribes it to Piero, the younger brother of Antonio. It is
known that many pictures were the joint production of both
brothers--Antonio furnishing the design, and Piero putting it
into colour. "In the 'St. Sebastian,'" says Sir F. Burton, "we
probably have a work so produced; the severe and strenuous
drawing of the elder brother, the sculptor and _toreuta_ by
profession, is visible throughout; whether he shared in the
painting, and if he did, to what extent, may remain an open
question."
Antonio Pollajuolo (the "poulterer,"--so called from his
grandfather's trade) is an interesting man from two points of
view: first, as an instance of the union of the arts in old
times; for he was a working goldsmith and engraver as well as
a sculptor and painter. He took to painting comparatively late
in life, desiring, says Vasari, "for his labour a more enduring
memory" than belongs to works of the goldsmith's art; "and his
brother Piero being a painter, he joined himself to him for
the purpose of learning the modes of proceeding in painting.
He acquired a knowledge in the course of a few months and
became an excellent master." He became, indeed, an excellent
draughtsman, but "neither harmony of colours nor grace was
the strong point of this master" (Morelli's _Italian Masters
in German Galleries_, p. 351). In 1484 Antonio was invited
to Rome by Pope Innocent VIII., and executed some important
monumental works in St. Peter's. His brother died in 1496;
Antonio, two years later. The two brothers were buried in S.
Pietro in Vincoli, where busts of them may be seen. Antonio
is interesting, in the second place, for the developments he
introduced into Italian painting. He was one of the first of
the Florentines to adopt an oil medium, and the first (says
Vasari) who had recourse to the dissection of the dead subject.
To him, therefore, Ruskin attributes a baleful influence. "The
virtual beginner of artistic anatomy in Italy was a man called
'the poulterer'--Pollajuolo, a man of immense power, but on
whom the curse of the Italian mind in this age was set at its
deepest. See the horrible picture of St. Sebastian by him in
our National Gallery." He was the beginner of those anatomical
studies, continues Ruskin, which, pursued and established
by later masters, "polluted their work with the science of
the sepulchre, and degraded it with presumptuous and paltry
technical skill. Foreshorten your Christ, and paint Him, if
you can, half-putrefied--that is the scientific art of the
Renaissance" (_Ariadne Florentina_, Appendix IV.).
How popular this "scientific art" was in its day may be seen from the
following enthusiastic account which Vasari gives of this picture:--
A remarkable and admirably executed work, with numerous
horses, many undraped figures, and singularly beautiful
foreshortenings. This picture likewise contains the portrait
of St. Sebastian himself, taken from the life--from the face
of Gino di Ludovico Capponi, that is. The painting has been
more extolled than any other ever executed by Antonio. He has
evidently copied nature in this work to the utmost of his
power, as we perceive more particularly in one of the archers,
who, bending towards the earth, and resting his weapon against
his breast, is employing all the force of a strong arm to
prepare it for action; the veins are swelling, the muscles
strained, and the man holds his breath as he applies all his
strength to the effort. Nor is this the only figure executed
with care; all the others are likewise well done, and in the
diversity of their attitudes give clear proof of the artist's
ability and of the labour bestowed by him on his work; all
which was fully acknowledged by Antonio Pucci, who gave him
three hundred scudi for the picture, declaring at the same time
that he was barely paying him for the colours. This work was
completed in the year 1475.
The dominant motive in the picture is, it will be seen, interest in
the mechanism of the human body; notice especially the muscles of the
executioners' legs and their efforts in stretching their bows. There
are, however, other points worthy of notice. "The work is not less
remarkable for the extent and variety of the landscape, and for the
sense of aerial, as distinct from mere linear, perspective. Instead
of standing up like a wall behind the figures it appears to recede to
the horizon, as in nature. The study of the remains of classical art
also is betrayed by the introduction of one of the Roman monumental
arches in the background. The groups of soldiers and horses introduced
at different distances further attest the variety of the designers'
interests" (Monkhouse: _In the National Gallery_, 1894, p. 77).