Download Andrea del Verrocchio (Andrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioni) By

Andrea del Verrocchio
(Andrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioni)
By Shane and Brooke
The statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni
Andrea del Verrocchio was one of the best and well-known artists in the Renaissance.
According to the Web Gallery of Art, he was the second best sculptor in the Renaissance next to
Donatello. Through his many sculptures, Verrocchio has a story behind all of them.
Verrocchio was born in Florence, Italy in 1435 and died in 1488. He only lived to be 53
years old, but in those 53 years were many sculptures of great beauty and design. Verrocchio
was 3 years old when he started sculpting little things out of mud and clay from the ground. He
started off as a goldsmith but then grew into many different things. He was a great goldsmith,
sculptor, painter, bell-caster, musician, geometrician, and a cannon caster. He was great at all of
these things and probably more that we don’t know about.
Verrocchio’s family consisted of his mother, his father, and is believed to have 2
brothers and 2 sisters. When they grew up, they were a poor family and relied on his father’s
work to help them stay alive. Then when Verrocchio began working on his sculptures, Lorenzo
de Medici’ saw him and hired him to work in his court. His father was a tile and brick maker
and eventually a tax collector. Verrocchio was more focused on his work then other people so he
never married. Most members of his family are still unknown. Verrocchio made a design for a
tomb that his father could be buried in.
Verrocchio had many great sculptures and pieces of art he made throughout his life. A
lot of them had to do with Lorenzo de Medici’s family because that is why they hired him. One
of his paintings doesn’t have to do with them, but is more of a private painting that Verrocchio
thought of. This painting is of Tobias, setting out on his journey with Raphael the Arch Angel.
This painting is now being displayed at London in the National Art Gallery.
Even though Verrocchio was a really good artist, in one of his paintings he called for help
from a fellow friend. Leonardo da Vinci and he worked on the Baptism of Christ. This was
truly a magnificent painting! After all, it was only created by some of the best artists known to
man.
Now, let me talk about some of Verrocchio’s sculptures that he designed and built so
well. Around 1465 he worked at the lavabo of the Old Sacristy in San Lorenzo, Florence. There
he worked on the funerary monument for Cosimo de Medici. Also, in the same church, he
completed the monument to Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in the Old Sacristy.
Another sculpture that was sculpted by Verrocchio was the bronze statue of Christ and
his saint. This piece took many years to build. Verrocchio was commissioned by the Florence
Trade Guilds to build this piece for the church of Orsanmichele. It took 2 years to cast all of the
bronze for this massive art piece.
To me, the most important work that Verrocchio did was the bronze statue of King
David. This statue was commissioned by Piero de Medici. I like this and think it is the most
important of his work because Verrocchio wasn’t afraid to revise other workings of other artists.
The statue of David my Michel Angelo was awesome, but Verrocchio wanted to make it seem
even better and he did. This beautiful structure can be found in Venice, Italy.
The process that my artist used most often in his sculptures made out of stone was the
simple hammer and chissle. When he sculpted his bronze statues, he had to make molds out of
metal and iron to form the pieces and then would have to put them all together by hand. In his
paintings, he liked to use really light colors and used what we call today as watercolors. He
never liked the idea of painting frescoes but still did some paintings in the form of that.
So, from Verrocchio’s paintings to his massive statues made of rock or bronze,
Verrocchio was truly and extraordinary person. He was one of the best artists of the Renaissance
and always will be.
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_del_Ve
rrocchio
http://www.wga.hu/framese.html?/bio/v/verocchi/biograph.html
http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/re
naissance/verrocchio.html