DOI chapter:
Chapter I: Verrocchio and his Place in Qattrocento Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0034
16 VERROCCHIO
Donatello mastered the muscular system and the move-
ment of joint and limb, it remained for Pollaiuolo and
Verrocchio to indicate with complete accuracy the bony
structure of the human frame. In their figures we are
conscious always, as in the well-constructed man himself,
of the skeleton beneath the flesh. Verrocchio especially
lays emphasis on the bone, and this gives to his faces and
limbs a hardness sometimes counted as a defect, but whose
value is incalculable in adding force and energy. The
intellectual and physical strength given to the face in
nature by the accentuation of well-formed bone, the in-
sipidity and weakness of one in which the bone is unde-
veloped, is obvious to all. Verrocchio chose his types from
those around him. In the typical Florentine face the
bones are strongly marked, especially the malar and
maxillary, and its attraction lies chiefly in this racial
characteristic. It is not beautiful in the strict sense of the
word, but it is interesting and impressive. Verrocchio,
better than any other Florentine artist, appreciated this
peculiai- characteristic of his compatriots, and reproduced
the type in his paintings and sculpture with special sym-
pathy. The broad cheeks, the level brows, the square
jaw, the firm muscles of mouth and chin, by which the
Tuscan physiognomy gains its strength and dignity, are
invariable characteristics in his construction of the face,
and it is significant that his Colleoni, while bearing
a superficial likeness to the portraits of the Bergamask
prince, resembles even more the austere bony face of
Dante, in which the intellectual and physical force of the
Tuscan type is concentrated.
In his construction of the nude Verrocchio lays equal
stress on the bone, and this, together with the muscular
Donatello mastered the muscular system and the move-
ment of joint and limb, it remained for Pollaiuolo and
Verrocchio to indicate with complete accuracy the bony
structure of the human frame. In their figures we are
conscious always, as in the well-constructed man himself,
of the skeleton beneath the flesh. Verrocchio especially
lays emphasis on the bone, and this gives to his faces and
limbs a hardness sometimes counted as a defect, but whose
value is incalculable in adding force and energy. The
intellectual and physical strength given to the face in
nature by the accentuation of well-formed bone, the in-
sipidity and weakness of one in which the bone is unde-
veloped, is obvious to all. Verrocchio chose his types from
those around him. In the typical Florentine face the
bones are strongly marked, especially the malar and
maxillary, and its attraction lies chiefly in this racial
characteristic. It is not beautiful in the strict sense of the
word, but it is interesting and impressive. Verrocchio,
better than any other Florentine artist, appreciated this
peculiai- characteristic of his compatriots, and reproduced
the type in his paintings and sculpture with special sym-
pathy. The broad cheeks, the level brows, the square
jaw, the firm muscles of mouth and chin, by which the
Tuscan physiognomy gains its strength and dignity, are
invariable characteristics in his construction of the face,
and it is significant that his Colleoni, while bearing
a superficial likeness to the portraits of the Bergamask
prince, resembles even more the austere bony face of
Dante, in which the intellectual and physical force of the
Tuscan type is concentrated.
In his construction of the nude Verrocchio lays equal
stress on the bone, and this, together with the muscular