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Piero del Pollaiolo, 'Faith', 1470

 


Piero del Pollaiolo's depiction of Faith draws a viewer in through detail. The seated figure remains tantalisingly close, as her foot hovers above the edge of the fictive throne she sits upon. Mapped out by complex, crisp, three-dimensional draperies, Pollaiolo celebrates his astute handling of perspective on the knees of Faith, which push into a viewer's space with surprising force. From the various artistic attributes, to the recessional niche behind the figure, Pollaiolo's panel includes diverse pictorial imagery whilst continuing to drive the central message of devotion home. 

Created for the audience chamber in the Tribunale di Mercanzia in Florence, a gathering place off the Piazza della Signoria to resolve disputes between Florentine merchants, this allegorical figure was part of a series of Virtues and is now in the Uffizi. The panel, painted in tempera, with its large size and tilted perspective indicates that it was seen from above, looming over onlookers in judgement and guidance. In this way, it also serves as a model for those below, whilst creating a sightline directly between the viewer and God through the figure of Faith, who herself looks upwards towards the heavens. However, Pollaiolo makes sure to combine strength and delicacy, particularly noticeable in the Botticellian features and elongated hands and fingers, which grasp the attributes of the cross and chalice. The figure's body seems to hover weightlessly on the throne she sits upon, and the gold, bejeweled cross and chalice again bear no weight in her hands. Equally delicate is the choice of colour palette by Pollaiolo, blending the gold objects with the draperies of Faith, alongside her yellow hair and transparent veil, behind which sits the fictive architectural niche, its coffered ceiling with gold circular details almost forming a halo above the head of the figure, one again suggesting her devout nature. However, the fact that the artist has chosen to dress Faith in a Classical, toga-like garb, as if she is imitating the scholarly Greeks, imbues her with the strength of the past which, at the time, was an instrumental part of 'The Renaissance' - a rebirth and rediscovery of Classical texts, their translation, and the accompanying inclusion of Classicised figures in artistic depictions.

There was much precedent for depictions of Faith as a model for a viewer, and series of Vices and Virtues in art before Pollaiolo - Giotto's Arena Chapel in Padua is perhaps the most well-known example, where Faith is a standing full-length figure in monochrome, stockier and with heavier draperies, yet wielding the same cross motif as Pollaiolo's graceful, idealised female figure. We might also speculate that Pollaiolo was drawing from real life to construct his attributes of Faith, including the chalices of Sienese goldsmiths such as Guccio di Mannaia. This may also be true of the fictive Kufic script carpet beneath the throne, which not only adds an element of the exotic to the panel, but implies the wide-ranging cultural knowledge of the artist, and Florence as a hub of exchange at the time. Looking back to past allegorical examples, to Byzantine elongation in the figure's hands and features, and to Classicism, but also to his contemporaries to produce public art, Pollaiolo creates a set of images that are striking and complex, despite being single, seated figures. There is a wealth of detail behind the figure of Faith, as an indomitable, monumental force of instruction to any onlooker. 

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