Verrocchio, Andrea del (ändrĕ`ä dĕl vār-rôk`kyō), 1435–88, Florentine sculptor and painter, whose real name was Andrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioni. He was a leading figure in the early Renaissance, and his workshop was a center for the training of young artists in Florence. A virtuoso metalworker, Verrocchio was primarily concerned with the spirited rendering of movement and the elaboration of detail. Many of his paintings are lost. Of the remaining panels, his hand is evident in the Baptism of Christ (Uffizi), assisted by Leonardo da Vinci. In the Pistoia altarpiece he was aided by Lorenzo di Credi. Other attributions are Tobias and the Angel (National Gall., London), two paintings of the Madonna and Child (National Gall., London; Berlin), and a Crucifixion with Saints (Argiano). Most of Verrocchio's achievements in sculpture have survived. His earlier work includes the bold group Incredulity of St. Thomas (Orsanmichele). In 1472 he designed the tombs of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici (San Lorenzo). In the same period he created the graceful Boy with a Dolphin and a lithe portrayal of David (Bargello). He went to Venice (c.1480) to work on the equestrian monument of the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni. Verrocchio designed a massive figure of the commander, which was not cast until after the sculptor's death. Examples of his bronze work are in the Metropolitan Museum, and there are two portrait busts of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Bibliography

See his complete sculptures, paintings, and drawings, ed. by G. Passavant (1969).

Verrocchio, Andrea del

Bartolomeo Colleoni, bronze statue by Andrea del Verrocchio, 1483–88; in Campo di …

(credit: Brogi—Alinari from Art Resource, New York)

(born 1435, Florence—died 1488, Venice) Italian sculptor and painter. Little is certain about his early life. His most important works were executed in his final two decades under the patronage of the Medici in his native Florence. His reputation as a master spread early, and many well-known artists studied at his studio, including Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino; the young Leonardo probably painted an angel and part of the distant landscape in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ (c. 1470). Verrocchio's reputation as one of the great relief sculptors of the Renaissance was established with his cenotaph in the cathedral at Pistoia; while it remained unfinished at his death and was later changed by others, the relief's arrangement of figures into a dramatically unified composition anticipates the Baroque sculpture of the 17th century. His bronze statue of the military officer Bartolomeo Colleoni (commissioned 1483, erected in Venice 1496) is one of the greatest equestrian statues of the Renaissance.