Piero del Pollaiuolo
1443–1496 · Early Renaissance painter from Florence, brother of Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Piero Benci, known as Piero del Pollaiuolo or Piero Pollaiolo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence around 1443 and dead in Rome by 1496. He is important for his oil portraits and for the workshop he shared with his older brother Antonio, with whom he collaborated so often that their individual contributions are hard to separate.
The brothers took their nickname from their father Jacopo's trade in poultry. Piero, the youngest, has a poorly documented training; Andrea del Castagno has been proposed as a possible master, although the chronology raises doubts. Their workshops were physically separate but close to each other.
Among his best-known works are the altarpieces for San Miniato in Florence (1467), the Coronation of the Virgin in San Gimignano (1483), his only signed and dated painting, and the profile portraits of young people and of Galeazzo Maria Sforza. He is also associated with the Virtues commissioned in 1469 for the Palazzo della Signoria, of which he painted six, while Fortitude was done by Botticelli. Around 1484 he moved to Rome, where he spent most of his remaining years.
His style combines classical influences with an interest in human anatomy, and some historians attribute to him a landscape sensibility rooted in Northern art. For much of the twentieth century his role was overshadowed by Antonio, but recent scholarship has increasingly restored his contribution.
Works (14)
Portrait of a Woman, dated 1470 and attributed to Piero Pollaiuolo, is a small panel painted in tempera. Its format is typical of fifteenth-century Italian portraiture, which focused on a single figure against a plain background. Without further documentation, it is only possible to describe its genre and technique; the sitter's identity and the original commission remain unknown.
Painted in 1500 on a poplar panel, this work treats one of the most frequently repeated subjects in religious art: the moment an angel tells Mary she will become a mother. Today it hangs in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. The available information does not clarify its original commission or composition, so close looking is the best guide.
Where to see the work
- Uffizi Gallery Florence · 7
- Gemäldegalerie Berlin Berlin · 2
- National Gallery London · 1
- Galleria Sabauda Turin · 1
- Museo Poldi Pezzoli Milan · 1
- Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City · 1
Curiosities
A luxury trade
According to the sources, poultry dealing was a luxury trade in Renaissance Florence. Benedetto Dei, a chronicler of Florentine life, counted only eight poultry suppliers in 1472, compared with forty-four goldsmith workshops. This scarcity helps explain why the father could not find room for all his sons in the same trade, and why the family nickname stood out so much.
A portrait claimed by several masters
The profile portrait of a young woman in Berlin has been attributed to each brother separately, as well as to other masters. A similar situation affects the Portrait of a Young Woman in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, which the museum now assigns to Piero while other scholars still give it to Antonio. Such cases show how hard it is to define authorship within the workshop.