the great influence which he exerted on contemporary painters. Both Luca Signorelli and Sandro Botticelli owed much to his example, and in his admirable drawing of the nude, he may claim to be the precursor of Michel Angelo himself.
Antonio was born in 1431, and was some twelve years older than his brother Piero, who became his assistant in most of his works. These two brothers, whose lives and labours were so closely bound together, derived their surname of Pollaiuolo from their grandfather, who kept a poulterer's shop. Their father, Jacopo d'Antonio Benci, also surnamed del Pollaiuolo, was one of the goldsmiths employed by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and is said to have executed a wonderful quail in the ornamental work of one of the Baptistery gates. Antonio was apprenticed to his father, but, in 1459, opened a large and handsome shop of his own in the Cow-market, and soon acquired the reputation of being the first metal-worker in Florence. He probably received his first instruction in painting from Andrea del Castagno, whom Vasari mentions as Piero's teacher, and was strongly influenced by Donatello, while both brothers adopted the technique of Alessio Baldovinetti, and followed him in the use of new oil glazes and varnishes. From 1460 to 1480, Antonio executed a large number of works in bronze and silver, including the famous relief of the Baptist's Birth, for the silver retable of the Baptistery, and supplied cartoons of twenty subjects from the life of the Baptist for the wonderful vestments of embroidered brocade still preserved in the Opera del Duomo. These designs show a rare talent for composition, while both his paintings
