DOI chapter:
Chapter I: Verrocchio and his Place in Qattrocento Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0037
HIS PLACE IN QUATTROCENTO ART 19
renown he had already acquired as a master of equine
anatomy.
In all his representations this truth to nature and
thorough knowledge of the organism of the form he imi-
tates is remarkable, and it may be asserted that in all
genuine work of Verrocchio no fault of construction can
be found, even the least detail of decoration borrowed
from the animal or vegetable world being scrupulously true
to nature.
The most salient characteristic of Verrocchio’s work, like
that of all the Realistic Schoo], is strength, expressed not
only by the athletic form and energy of his figures, but by
his selection of ornament, by the vitality of his line, by
the sharp precision of the least touch of his chisel and brush.
No sculptor ever gave to marble a more granite-like hard-
ness, nor to metal a more trenchant force.
His choice of ornament is in the highest degree signi-
ficant of his character. He rejects completely those of the
Donatellesque School which had become so popular in
Florentine art—the winged cherub, the smiling putto, the
hanging garland of fruit and flowers, and replaces them
with the winged griffin, the fierce Medusa head, and the
prickly acanthus. Like all the Renaissance decoration the
originals of these are to be found in antique sculpture, and
before him Donatello and Desiderio had employed them in
the decoration of their tombs and monuments. We find
the exact original of his female-faced griffin in the work of
Desiderio, and of his spinous-winged dragon in that of
Donatello. The Medusa head, originally borrowed from
the breastplates of Roman Emperors, figures on that of
Gattemelata, and the acanthus leaf had always been as
popular with the Florentine as with the antique sculptors.
renown he had already acquired as a master of equine
anatomy.
In all his representations this truth to nature and
thorough knowledge of the organism of the form he imi-
tates is remarkable, and it may be asserted that in all
genuine work of Verrocchio no fault of construction can
be found, even the least detail of decoration borrowed
from the animal or vegetable world being scrupulously true
to nature.
The most salient characteristic of Verrocchio’s work, like
that of all the Realistic Schoo], is strength, expressed not
only by the athletic form and energy of his figures, but by
his selection of ornament, by the vitality of his line, by
the sharp precision of the least touch of his chisel and brush.
No sculptor ever gave to marble a more granite-like hard-
ness, nor to metal a more trenchant force.
His choice of ornament is in the highest degree signi-
ficant of his character. He rejects completely those of the
Donatellesque School which had become so popular in
Florentine art—the winged cherub, the smiling putto, the
hanging garland of fruit and flowers, and replaces them
with the winged griffin, the fierce Medusa head, and the
prickly acanthus. Like all the Renaissance decoration the
originals of these are to be found in antique sculpture, and
before him Donatello and Desiderio had employed them in
the decoration of their tombs and monuments. We find
the exact original of his female-faced griffin in the work of
Desiderio, and of his spinous-winged dragon in that of
Donatello. The Medusa head, originally borrowed from
the breastplates of Roman Emperors, figures on that of
Gattemelata, and the acanthus leaf had always been as
popular with the Florentine as with the antique sculptors.