Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/220

184 and drawings reveal that close study of the antique and mastery of anatomy which made Vasari say that he treated nudes in a more modern style than any artist before him. "He not only dissected many human bodies to study their anatomy, but was the first to investigate the action of the muscles and afterwards give them their due place and order in his drawings of the human frame."

The first paintings by the Pollaiuoli of which we have any record, are three figures of Hercules, each five braccia high, which, we learn from Antonio himself, were painted by him and his brother Piero for the Medici palace, in 1460. The wonderful little panels of Hercules strangling Antæus, and wrestling with the Hydra, still preserved in the Uffizi, were probably original studies for these works. Of the six life-sized Virtues which the brothers and their assistants painted for the tribunal of the Mercatanzia, two, those of Faith and Prudence, are probably the work of Piero. The smooth polished surface of the picture, the rich ornamental details of the throne and embroidered draperies of the purple mantle, betray the goldsmith's hand; but while most critics recognise Piero's style in the painted figures, that of Antonio is evident in the grand cartoon of Charity, still to be seen on the back of the ruined picture. Three imposing figures of St. Eustace, St. Vincent and St. James, also in the Uffizi, are the work of Piero, and were originally painted, in 1466, for the same sepulchral chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, which Baldovinetti adorned with frescoes, in the church of San Miniato. The life-size portrait of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, in his blue mantle sown with