Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Studies of Male Nudes in Combat The Florentine painter Antonio Pollaiuolo\’s interest in drawing the male nude in active pose was shared by many Renaissance artists. His Combat engraving was widely distributed across Italy and Northern Europe, as shown by the figures appearing in other works of art. The terracotta relief recalls elements of Pollaiuolo\’s engraving. Relief Possibly 1470-1500 Italy Terracotta

 

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Battle of the Nude Men by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, 1465–75. Engraving 42.4 x 60.9 cm. Second-state impression

 

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Worn second-state impression from Kansas, but enlarges well in two stages

 

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Andrea Mantegna, Battle of the Sea-Gods, ca 1490?

 

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Hercules and Antaeus, engraving 1490-1500, School of Mantegna

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Battle of the Nude Men by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, 1465–75. Engraving 42.4 x 60.9 cm. Second-state impression

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Worn second-state impression from Kansas, but enlarges well in two stages

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Worn second-state impression from New York; as with most engravings, reproduction on a small scale does not convey the quality of the image well. The print has been folded in four in the past.

The Battle of the Nudes or Battle of the Naked Men,^[1]probably dating from 1465–1475, is an engraving by the Florentinegoldsmith and sculptorAntonio del Pollaiuolowhich is one of the most significant old master prints of the Italian Renaissance. The engraving is large at 42.4 x 60.9 cm, and depicts five men wearing headbands and five men without, fighting in pairs with weapons in front of a dense background of vegetation.

All the figures are posed in different strained and athletic positions, and the print is advanced for the period in this respect. The style is classicizing, although they grimace fiercely, and their musculature is strongly emphasized. The two figures nearest the front of the picture space are in essentially the same pose, seen from in front and behind, and one purpose of the print may have been to give artists poses to copy. An effective and largely original return-stroke engraving technique was employed to model the bodies, with delicate and subtle effect.

Context and reception

Vasari, who praises the engraving highly, says that Pollaiuolo made other prints, but none have survived. Given the rarity of this one, Vasari may well be right, although he was writing many decades later. Alternatively he may have been referring to a number of prints after paintings or drawings of Pollaiuolo, but now universally seen as engraved by different artists to the battle, and now mostly attributed as « School of Pollaiuolo » or similar terms.

Giacobbe Giusti, School of Mantegna: Hercules and Antaeus, engraving

Hercules and Antaeus, engraving 1490-1500, School of Mantegna

As with Andrea Mantegna, the dominant Italian printmaker of the period, based mostly in Mantua, the suggestion has been made that Pollaiuolo may not have engraved the plate himself, but hired a specialist to work from his design. However this remains a minority view.^[2]Engraving was an essential skill of the goldsmith, and Pollaiuolo’s workshop produced niello engraved plaques. Estimates of the date of the engraving have varied from about 1465 to about 1489.^[3] As with most famous prints of the period, a number of direct copies were made in engraving and woodcut,^[4] including one by « Johannes of Frankfurt » in about 1490,^[5] and it was often borrowed from and imitated, for example in a drawing probably by Raphael. It is the first print to be signed with the artist’s full name (on the plaque at the left rear), as opposed to the initials or monograms used by many printmakers.^[6]

The print clearly relates to the work of Mantegna, although uncertainty about the dating of the works of both artists means that the direction of influence is unclear. Mantegna made two large engravings of the « Battle of the Sea-Gods », and he or his followers produced a number of others of male nudes fighting under various classical titles. Despite the usual attempts by art historians, including in this case Erwin Panofsky, to identify a specific subject for the engraving, it is likely none was intended.^[7] The two central figures grasp the ends of a large chain, which may suggest that the figures are to be seen as gladiators.^[8]

Vasari wrote of Pollaiuolo:

He had a more modern grasp of the nude than the masters who preceded him, and he dissected many bodies to study their anatomy; and he was the first to demonstrate the method of searching out the muscles, in order that they might have their due form and place in his figures; and of those … he engraved a battle.

On the other hand, it has been suggested that Leonardo da Vinci may have had Pollaiuolo partly in mind when he wrote that artists should not:

make their nudes wooden and without grace, so that they seem to look like a sack of nuts rather than the surface of a human being, or indeed a bundle of radishes rather than muscular nudes^[9]

A recent paper suggests that the image depicts a duel between two noblemen that has degenerated into a more widespread confrontation involving the lower classes.^[10]It is further posited that Pollaiuolo’s contemporaries would have recognised a difference in social class among combatants based on differences in armour, weapons and actions. These and other signifiers can be traced to a literary source, Giovanni da Legnano’s legal treatise ‘Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello’ from the late fourteenth century. ^[11]

States

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONIO del POLLAIUOLO: Battle of the Nudes

Terracotta plaque also by Pollaiuolo

Like most 15th-century prints, the Battle is very rare. The unique first-state impression in the print room of the Cleveland Museum of Art is generally accepted as much the finest,^[12] and about forty-nine impressions (single examples) survive of the second state,^[13] which is actually a high number for a 15th-century print. For the period, the print is very large, which has probably contributed to the small number of surviving impressions — it is clear from the worn state of the plate in many impressions that large numbers, probably running into the hundreds, were printed of the second state. There are no significant differences between the two states, so the plate was probably reworked just because it had worn out from the printing of now lost first-state impressions.^[14]

The existence of the first state was only realized in 1967, after Cleveland bought their print from the Liechtenstein collection. The best impression of the second state is in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard; it appears to be the only one printed before the plate received a scratch, and from the paper and watermark would appear to have been printed close in time to the Cleveland impression.^[15] The two woodcut copies can be shown to have been copied from the first state.^[16]

Date

Giacobbe Giusti, ANDREA MANTEGNA: Battle of the Sea-Gods

Andrea Mantegna, Battle of the Sea-Gods, ca 1490?

Although most art historians have dated the work to the period 1465-75, in 1984 the suggestion was made that the print draws directly from a Roman sculpture known to have been excavated in Rome in 1489, Three Satyrs strangled by a Serpent (now Graz in Austria). Pollaiuolo was in Rome from 1484, and this would mean the print was executed there. This suggestion remains the subject of debate.^[17]

Surviving impressions

There are fifty impressions known to have survived to 1939; their distribution gives an interesting insight into the spread of top-class old master prints. As at the census in Langdale in 2002, there are sixteen in the United States, all apparently arrived since 1890, and mostly in the period 1930-1960. Italy has nine impressions, England five, and Paris three. There were five in Germany in 1939, of which one seems definitely to have been destroyed during World War II, one other « lost » from Bremen, and one lost sight of after the war. The other impressions outside Europe are in Melbourneand Ottawa; in Europe the Albertina in Vienna, the Netherlands (3), Strasbourg (1) and Budapest have impressions. Two of the three impressions in Switzerland are the only ones in the world still in private collections.^[18]

Notes

1. Jump up^ And other variants
2. Jump up^ See Zucker:16
3. Jump up^ Langdale:51
4. Jump up^ Illus Langdale:6,7
5. Jump up^ British Museum Johannes of Frankfurt copy]
6. Jump up^ Langdale:36 – if from 1489 it is not quite the first.
7. Jump up^ The fullest account is in Levinson:66-71. See also Langdale:35, and Zucker:16
8. Jump up^ As suggested by Colin Eisler — Levinson:68-70. See also Zucker:16
9. Jump up^ Zucker:15, from which both translated quotations. (Leonardo Trans. Martin Kemp)
10. Jump up^ Ángel Arribas Gómez, « Pollaiuolo’s Battle of the Nudes as a Duel », Print Quarterly, Vol. XXXIV No.4, pp. 418-21
11. Jump up^ Giovanni de Legnano, ‘Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello’, edited by T. E. Holland, Oxford, 1917, pp. 331-50, in particular 349-50
12. Jump up^ Cleveland
13. Jump up^ Langdale:26, 71-83. See below.
14. Jump up^ Langdale:33-4
15. Jump up^ Langdale:34
16. Jump up^ Langdale:32
17. Jump up^ zucker:15-16
18. Jump up^ Langdale:26, 71-83. 46 impressions are catalogued and described in detail in an Appendix. All 50 are listed on p. 83.

References

Battle of the Naked by Antonio del Pollaiolo.

• Cleveland Museum of Art Very full Cleveland feature on the printaccessed 14 June 2014.
• Langdale, Shelley, Battle of the Nudes: Pollaiuolo’s Renaissance Masterpiece, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2002.
• Levinson; Laurie Smith Fusco in Jay A. Levinson (ed.) Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art, pp. 66–80, National Gallery of Art, Washington (Catalogue), 1973,LOC 7379624
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: « Antonio Pollaiuolo: Battle of Naked Men (17.50.99) ». In Timeline of Art History. 2000–8. [1] (October 2006)
• Zucker, MJ, in KL Spangeberg (ed), Six Centuries of Master Prints, Cincinnati Art Museum, 1993, no 16,ISBN0-931537-15-0

External links

• British Museum highlight
  s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nudes_(engraving)

https://www.britishmuseum.org/

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Tuscany, Monte Falterona, Bronze statue depicting warrior. Etruscan civilization V century b.C.

London, British Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Kouros in bronze, from Monte Falterona

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Lake of the Idols Lago degli IdoliGiacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA
Lake of the Idols following restoration
Lake of the Idols Location in Italy
Location	Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Basin countries	Italy
Surface elevation	1,380 m (4,530 ft)

Lake of the Idols (Italian: Lago degli Idoli) is a lake located in Arezzo Province, Tuscany, Italy. It is located 1,380 metres (4,530 ft) above sea level atop Monte Falterona, about 600 metres from the source of the river Arno.^[1] Situated near an ancient road linking Etruria (including Tuscany and Umbria) with the Adriatic port cities of Romagna,^[2] it is known for one of the largest archaeological finds of the Etruscan civilization; over 600 bronze statuettes of Etruscan and Roman origin, along with thousands of other figurines from Cisalpine Gaul and Umbria, were discovered within the lake.^[3]

Name

The lake was originally known as Lago della Ciliegeta (eng. Cherry Grove Lake), named for the cherrygroves that grew around the lake.^[4] The name Lago degli Idoli (eng. Lake of the Idols) was applied after 1838 and refers to the Etruscan bronze statuettes found in the lake (see History). Another name for the lake is Buca del Tesoro (eng. Treasure Hole).^[5]

History

According to Alfredo Bresciani, the lake formed approximately 6,000 years ago (4th millennia BCE), based on radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology testing done on the lake.^[6]

The lake was used in ancient times by the Etruscans. They viewed it as a « holy spring of the river-gods » because of the healing qualities of the water, which contains a high concentration of tannin.^[7] The Etruscans would throw bronze statuettes into the lake as a form of votive offering. These statuettes depicted typically people or animals.^[8] Some artifacts in the lake depicted body parts, such as heads, arms and legs,^[9] suggesting the healing power of the lake. Other artifacts found at the lake were coins (including Etruscan aes rude), and fragments of arrow bits and pottery.^[10]It is believed that the lake was popular among soldiers based on the number of arrow fragments, and more importantly, the number of statuettes found depicting Hercle, the Etruscan version of Greek divine hero, Heracles.^[11] Artifacts found at the lake are dated between mid-6th to late-4th centuries BCE.^[12]

One of these statuettes was discovered by a local shepherdess in May 1838.^[13] The statuette was probably of Hercle, now kept in the British Museum.^[14][15] News of the find spread quickly, and a team of local amateur archaeologists from nearby Stia^[16]began excavating the site in June 1838.^[13] The lake was subsequently dried following several days of fruitful excavations.^[17] Over 600 statuettes and thousands of other artifacts were discovered between 1838–1839.^[13] Many of these artifacts at the time were presented to the Archaeological Institute of Rome in 1842, but without any buyers. Ultimately they were sold to a private collector, who resold them to a number of museums, notably among them the British Museum,^[18] the Hermitage Museum and the Louvre.^[19] Over time, treasure seekers looted the lake, stripping it of whatever artifacts remained within.^[20]

Official excavations were sparse following the 1838–1839 excavations. The next excavation, in 1972, led to the discovery of three artifacts within the lake.^[21]Previously, in 1971, five artifacts in the form of bronze statuettes were accidentally recovered from the site.^[22]

The last significant excavation of the lake was done in 2003. Eight trenches were dug into the lake center.^[23] Within the trenches, among the artifacts found were bronze statuettes, fragments of bronze weaponry, « two pieces of gold foil shaped into bull-headed protomes » and « two polychromebeads« .^[24] « In addition to the objects named above, other finds include nails, spear points, ceramics (including an intact bucchero grigio miniature cup), arrows and aes rude. » These artifacts were mostly dated between the 6th–5th centuries BCE.^[25]

Following the 2003 excavations, local authorities began rehabilitating the lake. In 2007, the lake was refilled using water from a nearby spring.^[26] Vegetation surrounding the lake was replanted to mimic its original form during the Etruscan period, using pollen samples recovered from the surrounding layers of earth.^[27]

Hydrology

The lake is widely perceived to be a pond, due to lack of inflow from any bodies of water, i.e. rivers and streams. Research done at the University of Florence – Faculty of Engineering suggests that there exists an underground spring that provides a continuous stream of water to the lake.^[28] It appears that the lake is sinkhole-like, sitting atop layers of sandstone.^[29]

Cultural impact

The lake and its history was heavily incorporated into the plot of the 2013 film Neverlake.^[30][31]

References

1. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « The Lake of Idols is about 1380 metres above sea level on the southern slope of Monte Falterona (1654 metres) near to the sources of the Arno, approximately 600 metres more to the north-west (1358 metres). »
2. Jump up^ Il lago sacro: « Passava da questo zona una importante viabilità che collegava l’Etruria toscana e umbra alle zone dell’attuale Romagna e relativi porti adriatici (viabilità utilizzata anche in epoca romana e per tutto il medioevo. »
3. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, pp. 78–79: « Well in excess of 600 Etruscan and Roman bronze figurines, up to 60 cm in height, were found buried in the mud, together with thousands of other artifacts, coming from a wide area of Etruria, Cisalpine Gaul, and Umbria. »
4. Jump up^ Ferrini & Arrivo al Lago degli Idoli: « Eccoci al Lago degli Idoli, fino al 1838 Lago della Ciliegeta per le molte piante di ciliegio che qui erano presenti. »
5. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 78: « Proceeding due south for about 1 km, a little above our path, we should be able to find the little, now refilled, basin of the famous Lago degli Idoli (Lake of the Idols), once known as Buca del Tesoro (the Treasure Hole) or Lago delle Ciliegeta (the Cherry Grove Lake). »
6. Jump up^ Meyers 2008: « The volume includes an interesting archaeological discussion by Alfredo Bresciani on Carbon-14 dating and dendochronology, which have been used to determine that the lake formed naturally c. 6000 years ago »
7. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 79: « People gathered at the pond which they regarded as the holy spring of the river-gods embracing the country of Etruria. The waters of the pond, containing a high quantity of tannin, were also a strong disinfectant […] »
8. Jump up^ Salsini: For centuries, people in the area believed that if an earthquake awakened the god, they would all be drowned. The Etruscans, in fact, threw thousands of small bronze statues, depicting people and animals, into a lake, called Lake of the Idols, to keep the god happy.
9. Jump up^ Marie-Bénédicte: « […] nearly 2,000 fragments of weapons and of depictions of the human body (heads, trunks, arms, legs, etc.); and a few coins. »
10. Jump up^ Ferrini & Il lago sacro: « Tra il 1838 e 39 furono portati alla luce migliaia di reperti tra cui oltre seicento bronzetti, un migliaio di Aes Rude (la prima monetazione etrusca), circa 2000 punte da freccia e molti frammenti di ceramica. »
11. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « This is highlighted by the existence in the votive offering of Hercle of Greek manufacture. It can be hypothesized that this offering was mainly associated with « soldiers » both on account of the statuette of Hercle (god connected to heroism and also to war) and that of the Warrior, not to mention the huge quantity of arrows. »
12. Jump up^ Pancani & Tocchi 2012, p. 2: « The finds dated from the middle of the VI and the late IV century BC […] »
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Pancani & Tocchi 2012, p. 2: « The Lake of Idols was discovered by chance in May 1838, the accidental discovery of a bronze statue of Heracles was followed by more in-depth investigations in the area and the excavations, which began in June of the same year, brought to light more than 600 figurines and thousands of other artifacts. »
14. Jump up^ Perhaps this one
15. Jump up^ Ferrini & Un lago sacro: « Casualmente in quell’anno una mandriana rinvenne sulla sponda del lago una statuetta bronzea raffigurante Eracle (oggi conservata nel British Museum di Londra). »
16. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « In Stia, a company was formed by a group of local amateurs, who started a dig (1838-‘39).
17. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « A few days later, due to the formidable amount of excavated material, it was decided to dry the lake. »
18. Jump up^ 8 pieces in the British Museum
19. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 79: « In 1842, secretary E. Braun, presented the finds to scholars in the hall of the Archaeological Institute of Rome. Since no public authority considered buying any of the finds, they were at once sold to a private buyer who, in his turn, sold them to various museums including the Museums of Berlin, the British Museum, the Louvre, the Boston Museum and the Hermitage. »
20. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 79: « The extensive excavations, carried out from the summer of 2003 on-wards, demonstrated that the basin had been all but cleared of every possible interesting relic by generations of treasure hunters. »
21. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, pp. 175–176: « In 1972 three new bronze pieces were found at the same site, inspiring further excavation in the area.
22. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « In 1971, five statuettes were found by chance. »
23. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, p. 176: « Following the history and catalog of earlier excavations at the site of the Lago degli Idoli, Fedeli provides a brief account of the 2003 campaign. Based on information from the earlier work on the site, eight trenches were opened in the center of the ancient basin.
24. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, p. 176: « Several trenches yielded substantial deposits of archaeological finds—one in particular producing bronze votive statuettes, bronze heads, fragments of bronze weapons, two pieces of gold foil shaped into bull-headed protomes and two polychrome beads. »
25. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, p. 176: « Most of the finds are datable to sixth-fifth centuries B.C.[…] »
26. Jump up^ Ferrini & Il lago sacro: « Ultimati gli ultimi scavi, a fine 2007 la conca è stata riempita con l’acqua di una vicina sorgente. »
27. Jump up^ Caselli, p. 78: « The local authority and the Park authority have now refilled the anciend[sic] lake bed and are now replanting the origi-nal vegetation of the Etruscan period, as has been extrapolated by studying the pollen in the va-rious excavation layers. »
28. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « As to the widely debated origin of the lake, a hypothesis was recently formulated by a team of researchers and scholars of the Engineering Faculty of Florence University. Research, analyses and hydrogeological studies revealed that the lake originated from an underground spring capable of keeping up a constant flow of water.
29. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « From research conducted, it turns out that the rocks in which the lake formed consist of layers of sandstone belonging to a « pseudo-doline ». »
30. Jump up^ Keats-Shelley House 2013: « Paoletti chose a place full of charm and mystery, ‘The Lake of the Idols’, a Tuscan location renowned for many discoveries of ancient Etruscan artifacts in its depths. »
31. Jump up^ Hough 2014: « The setting is the historic « Lake of the Idols, » which was beheld by ancient Etruscans as a place of healing and mysticism. It was believed that one could escape sickness by tossing objects into the center of the waters, and for thousands of years, artifacts have been discovered at the lake. »

Sources

• Caselli, Giovanni (2004), The Casentino History Anthropology Environment, Le Balze, ISBN 88-7539-035-5, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Salsini, Paul, A Tuscan Trilogy: The Flood of Florence, November 4, 1966, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Lago degli Idoli, InEtruria.it, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Pancani, Giovanni; Tocchi, Marco (November 2012), The archaeological area of Pieve a Socana (Tuscany – Italy) (PDF), Vienna: Museen der Stadt Wien – Stadtarchäologie, ISBN 978-3-200-03281-1, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Marie-Bénédicte, Astier, Lago degli Idoli, Louvre Museum, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Ferrini, Alessandro, Arrivo al Lago degli Idoli [Arriving at the Lake of the Idols] (in Italian), Il bel Casentino, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Ferrini, Alessandro, Il lago sacro [The Sacred Lake] (in Italian), Il bel Casentino, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Meyers, Gretchen E. (1 January 2008), « Review of M. Ducci, ed., Santuari Etruschi in Casentino », Etruscan Studies: Journal of the Etruscan Foundation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 11: 175–177, ISBN 978-0-9819692-1-3, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Neverlake, a new psychological thriller inspired by Shelley’s poetry, Keats-Shelley House, 20 December 2013, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Hough, Quinn Vincent (13 May 2004), Movie Review: Neverlake (2013), Critical Movie Critics, retrieved 12 June 2015

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

British Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Hermitage Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Louvre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Idols

Giacobbe Giusti, MONTE FALTERONA, ‘IL LAGO DEGLI IDOLI’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_Museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Falterona

http://www.toscana.beniculturali.it/articoli/acque-sacre-culto-etrusco-sullappennino-toscano

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreste_Casentinesi,_Monte_Falterona,_Campigna_National_Park