for its own sake as the Florentine, and the problems of
movement have little interest for him, whereas in the most
characteristic work of Pollaiuolo it is evident that the scenes are
chosen to display the muscles in tense prominence, and the limbs in
violent action or unusual posture.[32] With precisely the same interests
in the human structure and its movements, it is no wonder that
Signorelli caught so much of his style and mannerisms. The influence of
Antonio Pollaiuolo was stronger than any other in the development of
his actual work, and is visible in all his paintings up to the last in
greater or less degree, but only less important is that of Donatello, to
whom Antonio himself owed so much. Forty years before the birth of
Signorelli, Donatello had been able to carve the human form with
absolute perfection of anatomy, and not only that, but to endow it with
freedom of limb and overflowing life. It is easy to suppose the
impression his statues must have made on the youth, whose spirit was so
much akin to his own in exuberant energy, and who had the same
uncompromising love of realism. The two artists had much in common in
their confident self-reliance, and almost arrogant buoyancy of nature,
which was the true Renaissance expression, and the outward sign of its
immense strength. Signorelli caught and revived the very essence of
Donatello's spirit--the love of bodily life in its most hopeful and
vigorous manifestations. It is significant that the swaggering posture
which became such a special feature of his painting, should have
originated with Donatello. Donatello was, before all things, a realist,
and it was probably the habitual attitude of the cavalry soldier of the
day, accustomed to straddle over the broad back of his war-horse, but
there is little doubt that it was adopted by Signorelli from the "S.
George" of Or San Michele, and perhaps half-unconsciously signified to
him--what that statue so well embodies--the confident spirit of youth
and strength. In his portrait of Pippo Spana, now in S. Apollonia,
Florence, Andrea di Castagno also imitated and emphasised it, as also
did Botticelli in his carved background of the "Calumny," and Perugino
in many of his paintings. But Botticelli's painted statue and Perugino's
"S. Michael" and "Warriors" of the Cambio seem to spread their legs
because they are too puny to bear the weight of the body in any other
manner, while with Signorelli, the attitude became the keynote