DOI Kapitel:
Chapter II: Biographical
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0057
BIOGRAPHICAL
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his will, where he begs the Venetian Signoria to allow Credi
to finish the statue of the Colleoni, urging that “ he is
capable of completing it.11 We may be thankful that
either the better judgment of Lorenzo himself or the
wisdom of the Signoria prevented the fulfilment of this
wish.
Impeccable in morals, industrious, faithful and amiable,
“ uomo onesto e di buona vita,” Lorenzo was but a feeble
artist, and in the history of Verrocchio his place is best
considered only from the human side, on which he was so
admirable. To him, as we have seen, Andrea confided the
executorship of his will, the care of his burial, and the dis-
pensation of his legacies. To him he bequeathed all his
possessions in Venice and his artistic properties in Florence,
with such of his goods as were not inalienable from his own
family.
To the brush of Lorenzo we owe the portrait generally
accepted as of Andrea Verrocchio in the Uffizi, Florence
(see frontispiece). The resemblance it bears to Vasari’s
engraving published in the second edition of the “ Vite,”
points certainly to its authenticity ; yet it must be allowed
that it bears also the strongest resemblance to the face of
Perugino, painted by himself in the frescoes of the Cambio,
Perugia. Credi, as we know, painted a portrait of this
artist as well as of Verrocchio ; and it is difficult to accept
without hesitation that this prosaic and bourgeois face, so
completely lacking in any sign of inspiration or energy,
represents the man who expressed in his work so much of
the fire of genius, unless, indeed, it is assumed that Lorenzo
was incapable of interpreting these qualities. It is only of
late years that the painting has borne Verrocchio’s name.
In the Inventory of the Gallery made in 1769 it was
39
his will, where he begs the Venetian Signoria to allow Credi
to finish the statue of the Colleoni, urging that “ he is
capable of completing it.11 We may be thankful that
either the better judgment of Lorenzo himself or the
wisdom of the Signoria prevented the fulfilment of this
wish.
Impeccable in morals, industrious, faithful and amiable,
“ uomo onesto e di buona vita,” Lorenzo was but a feeble
artist, and in the history of Verrocchio his place is best
considered only from the human side, on which he was so
admirable. To him, as we have seen, Andrea confided the
executorship of his will, the care of his burial, and the dis-
pensation of his legacies. To him he bequeathed all his
possessions in Venice and his artistic properties in Florence,
with such of his goods as were not inalienable from his own
family.
To the brush of Lorenzo we owe the portrait generally
accepted as of Andrea Verrocchio in the Uffizi, Florence
(see frontispiece). The resemblance it bears to Vasari’s
engraving published in the second edition of the “ Vite,”
points certainly to its authenticity ; yet it must be allowed
that it bears also the strongest resemblance to the face of
Perugino, painted by himself in the frescoes of the Cambio,
Perugia. Credi, as we know, painted a portrait of this
artist as well as of Verrocchio ; and it is difficult to accept
without hesitation that this prosaic and bourgeois face, so
completely lacking in any sign of inspiration or energy,
represents the man who expressed in his work so much of
the fire of genius, unless, indeed, it is assumed that Lorenzo
was incapable of interpreting these qualities. It is only of
late years that the painting has borne Verrocchio’s name.
In the Inventory of the Gallery made in 1769 it was