Andrea del Verrocchio

Timeline

1. c. 1448–1460Florence · Republic of FlorenceAround 1448 Andrea entered the workshop of the Florentine goldsmith Giuliano Verrocchio, from which he took the name "Verrocchio." Goldsmith training made him proficient in metal casting, chasing, and inlay, laying a solid foundation for his later bronze sculpture. In the 1450s he extensively studied Donatello's sculptures in the flourishing artistic city of Florence, gradually expanding his work from goldsmithing to large-scale sculpture and painting, displaying extraordinary talent across multiple media.
2. c. 1465–1485Florence · FlorenceAround 1465 Verrocchio established his own independent workshop in Florence and quickly became the most important court artist of the Medici family. He created an ornately decorated marble tombstone for Piero, father of Lorenzo de' Medici, and took on important commissions such as Tobias and the Angel. Around 1466 the young Leonardo da Vinci entered his workshop to train, and later masters such as Lorenzo di Credi also emerged from it, making it the most influential art training center in Florence. His masterpiece, the bronze Boy with a Dolphin, displays his fluid sense of movement and superb bronze-casting skill.
3. 1483–1488Venice · Republic of VeniceAround 1483 Verrocchio was commissioned by the Republic of Venice to create a commemorative equestrian bronze of the mercenary captain Bartolomeo Colleoni. He moved to Venice to personally supervise the modeling, but the bronze casting was not yet complete when he died in Venice in 1488. The equestrian statue was finally cast under the direction of his assistant Alessandro Leopardi and erected in 1496 in the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, regarded as the pinnacle of Renaissance equestrian sculpture, standing alongside Donatello's Gattamelata as the two classics of the genre.