DOI chapter:
Chapter I: Verrocchio and his Place in Qattrocento Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0033
HIS PLACE IN QUATTROCENTO ART 15
seems to have been chiefly due to the scientific training
introduced by Verrocchio, who took the lead as pioneer
and innovator of the new methods. By his labours the
last restrictions imposed on the artist by imperfect know-
ledge and skill were removed, and the hand became free
to interpret all that the mind conceived, even the most
subtle and evanescent visions.
The scarcity of work that can be placed in Verrocchio’s
early years is not surprising when the multiplicity of the
processes employed by him and his perfection in the
technicality of each is considered. We know him to have
attained proficiency in painting, in sculpture in marble
and clay, in goldsmith’s work, in practical architecture,
and in the difficult craft of metal casting. To acquire so
thorough a mastery in so many different branches of art
in an age so comparatively inexperienced, many years
must have been passed in experiment and study.
The science and thoroughness of Verrocchio’s work in all
its different branches is the keynote to his character and
to his influence on Florentine art. In no authentic work
is there any sign of hesitation or imperfect knowledge
where the construction of the human form is concerned.
Were no other test but that of feeble or faulty anatomy
employed in deciding questions of authenticity it would
be sufficient ground for rejection. Even in the earliest
work known to us—the Baptism of the Accademia—the
nude, though stiff in movement, is constructed with admir-
able science and truth.
The progress made by Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio in the
special study of anatomy is their best claim to the high
place they hold in the development of art. Giotto
realised the solidity of form beneath the drapery,
seems to have been chiefly due to the scientific training
introduced by Verrocchio, who took the lead as pioneer
and innovator of the new methods. By his labours the
last restrictions imposed on the artist by imperfect know-
ledge and skill were removed, and the hand became free
to interpret all that the mind conceived, even the most
subtle and evanescent visions.
The scarcity of work that can be placed in Verrocchio’s
early years is not surprising when the multiplicity of the
processes employed by him and his perfection in the
technicality of each is considered. We know him to have
attained proficiency in painting, in sculpture in marble
and clay, in goldsmith’s work, in practical architecture,
and in the difficult craft of metal casting. To acquire so
thorough a mastery in so many different branches of art
in an age so comparatively inexperienced, many years
must have been passed in experiment and study.
The science and thoroughness of Verrocchio’s work in all
its different branches is the keynote to his character and
to his influence on Florentine art. In no authentic work
is there any sign of hesitation or imperfect knowledge
where the construction of the human form is concerned.
Were no other test but that of feeble or faulty anatomy
employed in deciding questions of authenticity it would
be sufficient ground for rejection. Even in the earliest
work known to us—the Baptism of the Accademia—the
nude, though stiff in movement, is constructed with admir-
able science and truth.
The progress made by Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio in the
special study of anatomy is their best claim to the high
place they hold in the development of art. Giotto
realised the solidity of form beneath the drapery,