Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/223

1498] panion of the brothers, who figures in more than one of their pictures. Probably the latest painting, executed by the Pollaiuoli was the altar-piece of the Coronation of the Virgin, in the choir of S. Agostino at San Gimignano, which in style and colouring closely resembles the Berlin Annunciation, and bears the signature of Piero del Pollaiuolo, with the date 1483.

In 1489, Antonio Pollaiuolo was invited to Rome by Pope Innocent VIII. to execute the bronze tomb of his predecessor, Sixtus IV., as well as his own monument, in St. Peter's. The high esteem in which the artist was held in Florence is proved by a letter which Lorenzo de' Medici addressed to his envoy in Rome, on this occasion, recommending the said Antonio, as the "greatest master in the city, and one who, in the opinion of every intelligent person, had never been equalled." On the other hand, we have a proof of Antonio's affection for the Medici in a letter which he wrote from Ostia, in July 1494, to one of the Orsini, promising to execute his bust in bronze, and begging him in return, to obtain leave for him from Piero de' Medici, to visit his farm near Poggio, fifteen miles from Florence. In consequence of the plague then raging in central Italy, no travellers from Rome were allowed to come within twenty miles of the city; but Antonio feels sure that Piero will give him the necessary permission, since he has always been a loyal and devoted servant of his house, and as much as thirty-four years ago, he and his brother executed the works of Hercules which Orsini had seen in the Palazzo Medici. But although Antonio may have wished to see his old home again,