It is just here that the scientific spirit of the Florentine naturalists
was of immense service to art. This logic of sequence is to be attained
only by great, although not necessarily more than empiric, knowledge of
anatomy, such perhaps as the artist pure would never be inclined to work
out for himself, but just such as would be of absorbing interest to
those scientists by temperament and artists by profession whom we have
in Pollaiuolo and, to a less extent, in Verrocchio. We remember how
Giotto contrived to render tactile values. Of all the possible outlines,
of all the possible variations of light and shade that a figure may
have, he selected those that we must isolate for special attention when
we are actually realising it. If instead of figure, we say figure in
movement, the same statement applies to the way Pollaiuolo rendered
movement--with this difference, however, that he had to render what in
actuality we never can perfectly isolate, the line and light and shade
most significant of any given action. This the artist must construct
himself out of his dramatic feeling for pressure and strain and his
ability to articulate the figure in all its logical sequences, for, if
he would convey a sense of movement, he must give the line and the
light and shade which will best render not tactile values alone, but the
sequences of articulations.

[Page heading: "BATTLE OF THE NUDES"]

It would be difficult to find more effective illustration of all that
has just been said about movement than one or two of Pollaiuolo's own
works, which, in contrast to most of his achievements, where little more
than effort and research are visible, are really masterpieces of
life-communicating art. Let us look first at his engraving known as the
"Battle of the Nudes." What is it that makes us return to this sheet