Andrea del Verrocchio

Florentine, c. 1435 - 1488

Andrea di Michele Cione, called Verrocchio, first trained as a goldsmith and sculptor in marble and bronze, then took up painting sometime in the 1460s. While such masterpieces as the Christ and Saint Thomas at Orsanmichele in Florence or the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice qualify Verrocchio as the leading Florentine sculptor of the day, his oeuvre as a painter is much more problematic. Numerous documents refer to Andrea as a painter, and he is known to have belonged to the painters' confraternity in 1472, but the only extant picture recorded as his, the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints (called the Madonna di Piazza, still in situ in Pistoia Cathedral), was, as the recent cleaning demonstrates, almost certainly executed by his pupil and heir, Lorenzo di Credi.[1] A series of small devotional pictures, consisting mostly of half-length Madonnas, is equally problematic. While clearly in his style, these pictures in London, Berlin, and elsewhere, are disputed between the master and the various artists believed to have been his pupils--not only Credi, but also Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino, and even Leonardo da Vinci. The only painting of this type which is widely agreed to be autograph is the Virgin with the Seated Child, in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. [This is the artist's biography published in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]

[1] Gigetta Dalli Regoli, in Maestri e botteghe: pittura a Firenze alla fine del Quattrocentro, Exh. cat. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; Milan, 1992: 52, cat. 1.5, repro.

Explore Selected Works

Sculpted in clay, a toddler balances his plump body on his right foot as he raises his left leg and right arm. In ths photograph, his body is squared to us. His left hand, on our right, rests near his hip. Gazing up and to our left, his cheeks are puffed in blowing through pursed lips, and his hair falls in soft ringlets. The fingers of his raised hand are folded into a loose fist. Tipped slightly forward onto his toes, he balances on a gold-half dome.
Andrea del Verrocchio, Putto Poised on a Globe, c. 1480, unbaked clay, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.128

Putto Poised on a Globe

Andrea del Verrocchio · c. 1480 · unbaked clay ·  Accession ID  1937.1.128

This freestanding, beige, terracotta bust shows the head and shoulders of a cleanshaven man, Giuliano de' Medici, wearing a suit of armor. The bust is straight across the bottom so it rests directly on the white surface on which it is photographed. In this view, the man’s shoulders are square to us, and he looks off to our right, chin lifted. His eyes are blank, and he has a bumped, aquiline nose and rounded cheeks. His lips are closed, the corners slightly pulled back. His thick, curly hair is cut to create an angle down from his eyebrows, on either side of his forehead, to the back of his neck. His breastplate has a high collar, and, at the front center, a man’s head is sculpted in relief with his mouth wide open, head flanked by upswept wings. The yelling man’s teeth and tongue are visible, and he has wavy hair and prominent ears. The pauldrons, the armor covering Giuliano's shoulders, and the rest of the breastplate are decorated geometric shapes and curved lines that end in sharp points.
Andrea del Verrocchio, Giuliano de' Medici, c. 1475/1478, terracotta, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.127

Giuliano de' Medici

Andrea del Verrocchio · c. 1475/1478 · terracotta ·  Accession ID  1937.1.127

Cornelis Cort, The Grill of the Tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici, 1570, engraving on laid paper, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Acquisition Fund, 2022.69.2

The Grill of the Tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici

Cornelis Cort · 1570 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2022.69.2

This free-standing, painted, terracotta portrait sculpture shows the head, shoulders, and chest of a man with dark hair and a prominent nose. His face and body are angled slightly to our right in this photograph, and he looks down his crooked nose. He has peach-colored skin, which is lightly shadowed around his chin. His thin lips are set in a line, and his brow is furrowed low above his eyes. Chin-length brown hair hangs straight down the sides of his face. His garment has scarlet-red sleeves under a navy-blue tunic, and he wears a red headdress that hangs down to his shoulder over his left ear, on our right. A red scarf drapes across his chest, and the end hangs on his chest on our left. Paint losses on the surface of the sculpture allow the brown terracotta to show through in some areas.
Florentine 16th Century, Lorenzo de' Medici, possibly 1513/1520, painted terracotta, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.92

Lorenzo de' Medici

Florentine 16th Century · possibly 1513/1520 · painted terracotta ·  Accession ID  1943.4.92

Set within a gold frame, the head and chest of a young man wearing an ornate helmet and armor, facing our right in profile, is carved in relief from white marble in this vertical panel. The man has a long nose, smooth cheeks, closed bow lips, and a snub chin. Curls burst from beneath his helmet, which sweeps from up over his forehead down to the back of his neck. The lifted visor curves up and out past his nose, and is decorated with vines and flowers. The crown of the helmet spirals like a snail shell over the man’s head, and a dragon perches along the top. The dragon has a dog’s head, a scaled body, wings like a bat, a serpent-like tail, and a section of its long neck has been broken off. Two crimped ribbons flutter up and behind the man’s head from the back of the helmet, where it covers his neck. His chest is covered to his neck with a highly ornamented breast plate. At the front of the chest, an adult face with brows furrowed and mouth wide open is flanked by wings. The shoulder we can see is covered with a medallion showing a nude woman holding a cornucopia and a merman. Beneath the medallion, a row of six faces, each on its own narrow panel, fan out over the man’s upper arm. Scrolling vines, leaves, and flowers fill the remaining space around the medallion and winged head. A few pale, parchment-white veins run through the surface of the marble. The panel sits on a shallow, trapezoidal ledge and is framed in a stepped gold frame on the remaining three sides.
Florentine 15th Century, Alexander the Great, c. 1483/1485, marble, Gift of Therese K. Straus, 1956.2.1

Alexander the Great

Florentine 15th Century · c. 1483/1485 · marble ·  Accession ID  1956.2.1

Italian 15th Century, A Lady, 1475/1485, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.326

A Lady

Italian 15th Century · 1475/1485 · marble ·  Accession ID  1939.1.326

Shown from the knees up, a woman holds a baby in her lap in front of a clear blue sky in this vertical painting. The woman and baby both have smooth, pale skin with rosy cheeks and flat, disk-like halos at the backs of their heads. The woman’s body is angled to our left, and she looks down and smiles faintly at the baby she holds on her lap. Her blond hair is mostly covered by a gathered and ruffled white headdress. Her forest-green robe is lined with topaz blue, and it falls over her shoulders and across her lap over a ruby-red, long-sleeved dress. The white garment beneath the dress is visible along an open seam down the arm we can see, and the front of the dress is pleated vertically from the high waist. The woman supports the baby’s back with one hand and one of his feet with her other. He has curly blond hair, round cheeks, and delicate features. He reaches for the woman with both chubby hands. A slate-blue cloth drapes over his shoulders and is tied with twisted red fabric. A gray band across the bottom of the panel suggests they sit on the far side of a stone ledge. A ridge of trees along a hill in the deep distance is visible along the left edge of the composition, and the sky above deepens from watery blue along the horizon to azure blue across the top. The surface of the painting is cracked in some areas, especially in the sky.
Italian 15th Century, Madonna and Child, c. 1470/1480, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.1

Madonna and Child

Italian 15th Century · c. 1470/1480 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1943.4.1

Italian 15th Century, Virgin and Child with Saint John, painted terracotta, Widener Collection, 1942.9.147

Virgin and Child with Saint John

Italian 15th Century · · painted terracotta ·  Accession ID  1942.9.147

Bibliography

1997

  • Butterfield, Andrew. The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio. New Haven and London, 1997.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 671.