Andrea Del Verrocchio

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Verrocchio, Andrea Del


(properly Andrea di Michele Cioni). Born 1435 or 1436 in Florence; died Oct. 7, 1488, in Venice. Italian sculptor, painter, and jeweler of the early Renaissance.

Verrocchio studied under the jeweler Verrocchio (whose name he adopted), A. Baldovinetti, and possibly Antonio Rossellino. He was influenced by Desiderio da Settignano and A. Pollaiuolo. In 1467 he began executing commissions for the Medici, the rulers of Florence. Verrocchio’s creative work combined the realistic traditions of the Florentine quattrocento and the aristocratic refinement characteristic of the artists who worked at the court of the Medici during the last quarter of the 15th century. In his early work—the tomb of Giovanni and Piero de’ Medici (done in porphyry, colored marble, and bronze, 1472; Old Sacristry of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence)—Verrocchio achieved a harmonic quality of proportion and a graceful decorativeness of the forms. His statue David (bronze, 1473-75; National Museum, Florence), distinguished for its anatomical precision, meticulous modeling, jewel-like subtlety of finish, and sharp and elegant angularity of lines, embodied a new, aristocratically refined ideal of beauty.

Verrocchio executed a number of portraits distinguished by an accurate portrayal of the subject—for example, a bust of Giuliano de’ Medici, terra-cotta, National Gallery of Art, Washington; and Portrait of a Woman, marble, c. 1475, National Museum, Florence—and works of monumental-decorative sculpture. In the group Christ and St. Thomas (bronze, 1476-83, facade of Or San Michele in Florence) the artist created an inner significance of the images, a freedom of composition, and a natural interrelationship of the figures.

Verrocchio’s central work—the equestrian statue of B. Colleoni on the plaza of SS Giovanni e Paolo in Venice (1479-88; cast in bronze, 1490)—is a vivid embodiment of Renaissance individualism. The heroicized figure of the condottiere is executed with rigorous energy and dynamic tension. The few paintings done by Verrocchio (Madonna, c. 1470, Staatliche Museen, Berlin-Dahlem, and The Baptism of Christ, post 1470, Uffizi Gallery in Florence, executed with the help of Leonardo da Vinci, for example) are distinguished by their sharp and precise drawing, as well as a sculpture-like meticulousness in the modeling of the forms. Verrocchio was the teacher of many Italian artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi, and Perugino.


Nedoshvin, G. “Andrea Verrokkio.” Iskusstvo, 1938, no. 6.
Planiscig, L. Andrea del Verrocchio. Vienna, 1941.
Passavant, G. Andrea del Verrocchio als Maler. Düsseldorf, 1959.
Busignani, A. Verrocchio. Florence, 1966.
References in periodicals archive ?
Florence, Italy was at the epicenter of the explosion of ideas and culture that was the Renaissance, and it was there that Leonardo da Vinci became a student of the artist Andrea del Verrocchio at age twelve.
The sale could not have started better, with the Madonna and Child resting at a parapet from the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio soaring 10 times over its lower estimate to sell for $842,500.
At 16, Leonardo began his art studies as an apprentice in the workshop of the important sculptor and painter, Andrea del Verrocchio, in the city of Florence.
This Head of a woman by Andrea del Verrocchio (1470s; right) is part of 'Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance drawings' at the British Museum, London (22 April-25 July).
3) For, as was again plainly evident during the course of the Leonardo exhibitions of 2003 in New York and Paris, in terms of artistic execution alone, this is the most dazzling example of its type among the sixteen or so drapery studies in tempera on tela di lino from the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio that are presently known.
His books include The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio (1998).