official could turn this post into the basis for the acquisi-
tion of permanent power.
poesy (poesia) In art, a painting of a mythological or ar-
cadian character, created purely for aesthetic pleasure and
without ideological or symbolic content. The most famous
paintings of this kind are probably the “Poesy” series
painted in the 1550s by TITIANfor Philip II of Spain, de-
picting eight scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Poggini, Domenico (1520–1590) Italian sculptor,
medalist, and goldsmith
Poggini was born in Florence and worked mainly there
until he moved to the court of Pope Sixtus V in Rome
in 1585. From the 1550s he produced an interesting se-
ries of medals. As a sculptor he was more successful in
bronze than in marble. His elder brother Gianpaolo (1518–
c. 1582) was also a medalist who worked for Philip II in
Brussels and from 1559 in Madrid.
Poggio Bracciolini See BRACCIOLINI, POGGIO
Pole, Cardinal Reginald (1500–1558) English Catholic
churchman
Pole was the grandnephew of King Edward IV. He was ed-
ucated at Oxford and spent some time in Italy from 1521.
After challenging HENRY VIII’s assumption of supremacy
over the English Church he was forced into exile (1532),
and his rebuke to the king, Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis de-
fensione, was presented to Henry in 1536, causing deep of-
fense. Pole’s home at Viterbo became a center for Catholic
reformers, and his saintly character and hostility to the
English Reformation earned him a cardinal’s hat in 1536.
The infuriated Henry attainted his family (1539) and ex-
ecuted his mother (1541). Pole returned to England as
papal legate (1554) and was MARY I’s close adviser during
the Catholic reaction. He became the last Roman Catholic
archbishop of Canterbury in 1556, but clashed with Pope
PAUL IV, who deprived Pole of his authority on suspicion
of heresy. Pole died just 12 hours after Mary I.
Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio (c. 1500–1543)
Italian painter
A pupil of RAPHAEL, he spent the early part of his career in
Rome, where he became famous for the masterly mono-
chrome imitations of classical reliefs with which he deco-
rated house facades. He also worked as an assistant on
decorative works in the Vatican. He was one of the earli-
est classical landscape painters, and works such as his
fresco in the church of San Silvestro al Quirinale anticipate
the paintings of Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin.
Following the Sack of Rome (1527), Polidoro worked in
Naples and in Messina, where he was murdered.
Politian (Angelo Ambrogini) (1454–1494) Italian
humanist scholar and poet
Politian (or Poliziano) took his adopted name from his
birthplace of Montepulciano. Entering the university of
Florence at age 10, he was taught Latin by Cristoforo
LANDINO, Greek by John ARGYROPOULOS, and philosophy
by Marsilio FICINO. Lorenzo de’ Medici appointed him
tutor (1475) to his sons Piero and Giovanni. In 1480, after
a brief sojourn in Mantua, he became professor of Greek
and Latin at Florence and won a Europe-wide reputation.
He translated the Iliad into Latin hexameters, lectured on
Hellenistic Greek writers, and produced material for an
edition of the Pandects of Justinian which is still of critical
value. His prologues to his lectures were elegant poems in
Latin hexameters, published under the title Silvae, and he
even composed Greek epigrams. Unusually for a classicist,
he was also a very competent writer in the vernacular: his
pastoral drama, Orfeo, was produced at Mantua in 1480,
and he published a collection of Tuscan ballads and songs
entitled Rime. His Stanze per la giostra del Magnifico Giu-
liano, begun in 1475 but never finished, commemorates
the victory of Giuliano de’ Medici (died 1478) in a tour-
nament and Giuliano’s love for Simonetta Vespucci (died
1476).
Politian was the first Western scholar who could com-
pete with the Greek immigrants in knowledge of the an-
cient language. Evidence for Politian’s scholarship comes
from the books in his own library which were extensively
annotated with readings from his collations of manu-
scripts. He also seems to have invented the method of des-
ignating manuscripts by an individual letter (siglum)
which made for easy reference. His major scholarly publi-
cation was his Miscellanea (1489) in which he offered crit-
ical comments on a wide range of Greek and Latin texts.
As a teacher his influence was very great; his pupils in-
cluded Johann REUCHLIN, Thomas LINACRE, and William
GROCYN. His private life was marred by scandal and his
personal reputation at his death was dubious.Pollaiuolo, Antonio del (1432–1498) Italian painter,
sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith
With his brother, Piero (c. 1441–96), he ran one of the
most successful, innovative, and influential workshops in
their native Florence. It is usually assumed that their bet-
ter paintings were executed mainly or wholly by Antonio
because they reveal a mastery of the human form which
can only be matched by the bronze works of Antonio and
not in works known to have been done by Piero alone. In-
fluences visible in Antonio’s work include DONATELLO,
MANTEGNA, and ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO, under whom An-
tonio’s brother may have studied. But the most important
factor that shaped Antonio’s work was his analysis of
the human form. He was one of the first scientific artists
who practiced dissection in order to understand muscu-
lar structure, as LEONARDO DA VINCIwas to do later. His33886 6 ppooeessyy