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Verrocchio

Full Name: Andrea del Verrocchio

Nickname/Alias: Andrea di Michele di Francesco de Cioni

Achievements: He was one of the first artists to make use of casts made from living and dead subjects for his models and initial studies for works.  Verrocchio is also credited with being the first artist to give attention to unifying figures with their background, and with adapting painting methods from the earlier fresco painters to a refined approach more suitable for oil painting.  He foreshadowed the Renaissance through his use of modern elements rather than elements of antiquity ( as predecessors did)  and worked from life and nature.  His work was a major influence on the artists who studied with him, whose work defined the Renaissance.

Born: 1435; Florence, Italy

Died: 1488; Venice, Italy (Aged about 53)

Field & Discipline: Art: Painting; Sculpture

Language: Italian

Father: Michele di Francesco de Ciori (a brick and tile maker)

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Several brothers and sisters, one brother named Tommaso

Spouse: None

Children: None

Education: Apprenticed to the goldsmith Giuliano Verrocchi

Major Work:

“Madonna and Child with Saints”

Life & Times:

Andrea del Verrocchio was apprenticed to Giuliano Verrochi, a goldsmith, and took the name of his master as his own.   His sculpture and painting showed his early training, making of jewelry and other silver and gold work, in his attention to detail, delicate brushwork, finely-sculpted and intricate surface textures.

After studying with Verrocchi, Verrocchio’s history is less well documented, until he met with the de’ Medici family.  He either studied or worked under Fra Filippo [student of] Lippi*, together with Sandro [worked with or taught] Botticelli*, on a series of murals that  Lippi had been commissioned to complete for the cathedral at Prato, near Florence  (Botticelli may have studied under Verrocchio after having studied with Lippi; accounts vary).

Verrocchio was encouraged by Piero de Medici, father of [commissioned by] Lorenzo de Medici*, and following Piero’s death, was hired by Lorenzo to sculpt his tomb.  It wasn’t until the death of Donatello, the de Medici’s favorite artist, that the Medici’s coopted Verrocchio and he rose to artistic prominence.   In addition to his paintings and sculptures, Verrocchio designed costumes and decorative armor for festivals, and was made curator of the antiquities collection in the Medici palace.

Following an assassination attempt on Lorenzo’s life on April 26, 1478 (during which his brother Giuliano was killed)  Lorenzo commissioned a number of life-size wax images of himself to be placed in several churches as a way of giving thanks for his salvation.   Verrocchio supervised the production of those images, as well as the creation of terracotta busts of both brothers. 

Only two paintings can be said with certainty to have been painted by Verrocchio: “The Baptism of Christ,” and the “Madonna with Saints” at the Duomo in Pistoia.  Verrocchio, like many master painters, did not paint the entire “Madonna with Saints.”  It is believed that the angel guarding the garments of Christ, as well as part of the landscape background in the “Baptism” were painted by Leonardo [taught] da Vinci*, who studied under Verrocchio from 1470 to 1477.  Verrocchio was allegedly so impressed by Leonardo’s work that he vowed never to paint again.     

Others who studied under Verrocchio were Pietro [taught] Perugino* and Luca [taught] Signorelli*, who both studied with Piero Della Francesa before coming to Verrocchio’s studio, at about the same time as da Vinci.  Domenico [taught] Ghirlandaio* also studied with Verrocchio, and was heavily influenced by him,

Verrocchio moved to Venice in the early 1480s, and left his Florentine workshop in the hands of Lorenzo di  Credi, one of his students.  In 1483, Verrocchio was commissioned to create a large commemorative equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni to be placed in a public square in Venice.  Verrocchio sculpted the model, but caught a chill while working on the casting of the statue in 1488, and died shortly thereafter. 

Another sculptor, Alessandro Leopardi, supervised the finishing of the bronze statue, and inscribed only his name on the horse’s girth before it was installed in 1495,  but Verrocchio’s work speaks for itself.  The statue is rivalled only by another equestrian monument  (to Gattamelata, in Padua) done by Verrocchio’s old Medici family rival, [rival was] Donatello*, which served as an inspiration for the Colleoni.

Assessment: Teacher of Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Fillippo Lippi, Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino, among others.  He was a noted painter, gold- and silversmith and sculptor, and designed the equestrian statue of General Bartolommeo Colleoni which stands in the Piazza of Saints Giovanni & Paolo in Venice, Italy.   Verrocchio’s work serves as the boundary between the older Florentine school of art, and the Renaissance, which is defined by the work of his famous students.

Oneliner: Verrocchio, forerunner of Renaissance art.

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