Post #3 - Formal Analysis

     In this formal analysis, I’d like to talk about The Battle of the Nudes, an engraving by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.  Although some may find this piece rather odd and unsettling, I can’t help but be simply fascinated by the amount of detail and realism that has been incorporated into this engraving.  My initial thoughts of when I study this piece of art is overwhelming, it leaves so much to the imagination, almost as if the artist wanted his audience to build their own conclusions on it.  I feel like this could be attributed to the lack of color within it.

        Something that has really drawn my attention to this piece is the level of sophistication and extreme detail that del Pollaiuolo expresses.  There are a wide use of lines, which vary in size, depth, and width.  Each has its own purpose to highlight certain parts of the male figure or the foliage displayed in the background.  It can be clearly displayed how each figure of the fighting males is moving in a certain way to extend and contract each muscle group.  In the book, it talks about how this piece of a perfect example of classical sculpture and anatomical research, and I couldn’t agree more.  During the fifteenth century, artists were still developing and experimenting with new ways to paint, engrave, and even sculpture, but this level of anatomical experimentation takes it to an entirely new level.  One solid piece to support this would be to look at the figures in the piece that have a weapon drawn or are in the act of swinging their weapon of choice.  Now take a look at the figure in the bottom right that appears to be injured from the battle.  We can clearly see that the muscles are not as defined as the figures that are still caught in the heat of the battle.  I find this as a fascinating part of the artist’s background, since there are people today that are still having a hard time grasping the concept of human anatomy within artwork, and this was created centuries ago.  In my opinion, del Pollaiuolo was ahead of his time with highlighting pieces of human anatomy.

 

     Though this piece looks quite amazing in a picture within a book, I can only imagine what it would look like in a person.  With this being said, another thing that really stands out is the absence of color.  While this may appear to be a more tasteless piece to some, it really draws my attention and leaves me in a moment of thought.  Like I mentioned before, it really leaves a lot of emphasis on the viewer, who is left to draw their own conclusions based on the colorless battle scene.  It helps highlight the muscle definition as we can see the lighter engraves help bring out the abdominal and oblique muscles. 

            Since this piece has no sort of added color to it, it expresses different levels of aspect through the shading of the engraving.  As we can see, the foliage in the background appears to be a lot darker than the male figures fighting.  We can also depict that the figures that are standing are carved much lighter than the figures that are closer to the ground.  Since there is no use of other colors, I feel Antonio del Pollaiuolo has used other resources to highlight where our focal point should be drawn to, which has added a deeper level of aspect and depth.

 

     Another key component that has been added is the false illusion of movement.  If we were to take a few seconds to study over this engraving, it would appear as if the naked male figures in this piece are actually in motion has they are lunging their weapons at each other.  It is also noticed that all the figures in this piece appear to be the same person, or have equally as noticeable qualities.  Whether this is a symbolic meaning or if the artist simply made all the male figures appear the same, it is still highly impressive to illustrate each character so closely through different muscle tensions.  Overall, I found this as a fascinating piece and a rather refreshing change from all the commonly publicized paintings that most people think of when it comes to Renaissance Italy in the fifteenth century.