g Antaeus." As you realise the suction of
Hercules' grip on the earth, the swelling of his calves with the pressure
that falls on them, the violent throwing back of his chest, the stifling
force of his embrace; as you realise the supreme effort of Antaeus, with
one hand crushing down upon the head and the other tearing at the arm of
Hercules, you feel as if a fountain of energy had sprung up under your
feet and were playing through your veins. I cannot refrain from
mentioning still another masterpiece, this time not only of movement, but
of tactile values and personal beauty as well--Pollaiuolo's "David" at
Berlin. The young warrior has sped his stone, cut off the giant's head,
and now he strides over it, his graceful, slender figure still vibrating
with the rapidity of his triumph, expectant, as if fearing the ease of
it. What lightness, what buoyancy we feel as we realise the movement of
this wonderful youth!

IX.

[Page heading: VERROCCHIO AND LANDSCAPE]

In all that concerns movement, Verrocchio was a learner from Pollaiuolo,
rather than an initiator, and he probably never attained his master's
proficiency. We have unfortunately but few terms for comparison, as the
only paintings which can be with certainty ascribed to Verrocchio are
not pictures of action. A drawing however like that of his angel, in the
British Museum, which attempts as much movement as the Hercules by
Pollaiuolo, in the same collection, is of obviously inferior quality.
Yet in sculpture, along with works which are valuable as harbingers of
Leonardo rather than for any intrinsic perfection, he created two such
masterpieces of movement as the "Child with the Dolphin" in the
courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Colleoni monument at
Venice--the latter sinning, if at all, by an over-exuberance of
movement, by a step and swing too suggestive of drums and trumpets. But
in landscape Verrocchio was a decided innovator. To understand what new
elements he introduced, we must at this point carry out our
determination to enquire into the source of our pleasure in landscape
painting; or rather--to avoid a subject of vast extent for which this is
not the place--of landscape painting as practised by the Florentines.

[Page heading: LANDSCAPE PAINTING]

Before Verrocchio, his precursors, first Alessio Baldovinetti and then
Pollaiuolo, had attempted to treat landscape as naturalistically as
painting would permit. Their ideal was to note it down with ab