ANTONIO ( 1429-98 ) ,:end PI Krim I 1443.91i ) Italian art of the Florentine Naturalistic School (early Re naissanee). Antonio, the elder, goldsmith and painter, was born in Florence in 1429. Antonio became celebrated as a niellist rind metal-worker. The paneled decoration for the altar of San Gio vanni and the altar candelabra exhibit fidelity to nature and mastery of design. Deep study of antique sculpture. added to a thorough knowledge of anatomy. obtained from dissection, rendered him one of the first draughtsmen of Florence, and caused his final adoption of painting as a profes sion. llis early use of the oil medium Was proba bly due to the influence of Castagno or Baldovi netti, but whether received from these masters direct or from his brother Pietro, who was a student of the latter artist, is an unsettled ques tion. In this vehicle are executed the "I lereniea and the Hydra" and the "Hercules and Ant(eus," both in the Uffizi.
Pietro became his brother's associate, and it is difficult to distinguish their work. As many • pictures were the combined work of both, it may • be concluded that in such eases Antonio fur nished the design. while Pietro executed it in
Their masterpiece is the large "Martyr dom of Saint Sebastian" (1475) in the National gallery, London. It exhibits the severe and plastic treatment of Antonio—an accuracy and sureness in drawing that. is not found in the works assigned to Pietro 's hand, such as the "Coronation of the Virgin" 11m:11, at San Ohnigniano, signed by Pietro, in which the draw ing is noticeably defective. The general handling of the color in l'ietro's work would point to him as being responsible for that portion of the "Saint Sebastian." The "Saint Christopher and ' the Infant Christ." in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is probably a work executed wholly by the elder lorother. Of their Madonnas there are good examples in the National Gallery, Lon don, and in the Berlin Museum. in 1480 An told() was called to Rome by Pope Innocent where he was employed upon monumental work until his death in 1493. Pietro (lied in Florence I in 1496.