Pollaiolo, Antonio e Piero del

Antonio (1431 -1498) and Piero Benci (1441 c.-1496), known together as the Pollaiolo.
Both were painters: Antonio, more than his brother, excelled in the goldsmith's art and in sculpture as well. His masterpieces of goldwork are found in the Museum of Cathedral Works, while in the Bargello Museum are the Bust of a Warrior and the Hercules and Anteus forming part of the lost Labours of Hercules accomplished for Piero de’ Medici around 1460, of which an echo may be found in one of the two small panels in the Uffizi. He was one of the first great engravers (as exemplified by the extraordinary Battle of the Nudes).
Undoubtedly, thye strongly influenced the young Leonardo, as regards both style and the study of anatomy. Equally evident are the links as regards landscape and the intense dynamics of figures in space.
At Staggia di Poggibonsi is the Communion of St. Mary Magdalene transported to Heaven by the Angels, painted by Antonio while he was working in the nearby town of San Gimignano.
Of Piero, the panels of The Virtues commissioned by the Florentine Guilds in 1469 are displayed in the Uffizi. Piero is also the author of the famous Portrait of a young lady of Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan.