Verrocchio, Andrea del

Verrocchio, Andrea del ( Andrea di Cioni) (b Florence, c.1435; d Venice, June/July 1488). Florentine sculptor, painter, and metalworker, one of the outstanding Italian artists of his period. His nickname— Verrocchio means ‘true eye’—was given to him not because of his sharpness of vision, but evidently because early in his career he worked for a family of that name. He is said to have studied in Donatello's workshop, but his main training was as a goldsmith, and delicacy of craftsmanship is one of the salient features of his work. Only one work in precious metal by him survives, however—a silver relief of the Beheading of John the Baptist (1477–80), done for the Baptistery in Florence and now in the Cathedral Museum. His major activity was as a sculptor, principally in bronze, but also in marble and terracotta, and his two most famous works rank with the statues of Donatello that inspired them among the great masterpieces of Italian sculpture, whilst also showing the great differences in approach between the two artists. Verrocchio's David (c.1475, Bargello, Florence) is more refined, but less broodingly intense than Donatello's David in the same museum, and Verrocchio's masterpiece, the equestrian statue of the condottiere Bartolommeo Colleoni in Venice (begun 1481, cast after Verrocchio's death, and unveiled in 1496), has a magnificent sense of movement and swagger, but less of the heroic dignity of Donatello's Gattamelata statue in Padua.

It is much harder to assess Verrocchio's stature as a painter, as very few works exist that can be convincingly assigned to his own hand. Nevertheless numerous paintings came from his workshop, which was the largest in Florence at this time, and he trained distinguished painters, most notably Leonardo da Vinci, who assisted his master with the Baptism of Christ (c.1470, Uffizi, Florence), one of the few paintings indisputably by Verrocchio. Leonardo took his superb craftsmanship from Verrocchio and also shared his fascination with two contrasting types—the tough old warrior (as in the Colleoni Monument) and the epicene youth (as in the David). Leonardo's enormous fame has tended to cast a shadow over Verrocchio, but nevertheless he is generally regarded as the greatest Italian sculptor between Donatello and Michelangelo.