DOI chapter:
Chapter IV: Early Sculpture
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0102
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VERROCCHIO
attribution, and were it not for the influence of Pollaiuolo
and the strong resemblance in certain details to Verrocchio’s
known work—the construction of the nude, the treatment
of the draperies, &c.—it might readily be accepted as the
work of the greater artist. As it is, it offers but one proof
the more of the close tie that connected Master and
Pupil.*
The bronze David now in the Museo Nazionale is
accepted almost universally as the earliest sculpture of Ver-
rocchio, but it is certainly subsequent to the Careggi Relief,
and the “ Sleeping Youth” of the Berlin Museum, if not
to the “ Discord.” Vasari places it as one of the first works
executed after the (apocryphal) visit to Rome. “After he
had returned to Florence,” he writes, “ with money, fame,
and honour, he was ordered to make a David of bronze, in
height two and a half braccia, which completed was placed
in the Palazzo at the top of the stairs where was la catena,
to his exceeding praise.” Vasari did not know, or had for-
gotten, that the statue was originally executed for one of
the Medici, probably Piero, to decorate the Villa of Careggi,
and that it was only later bought by the Signoria and
removed to the Palazzo Vecchio. The first entry in
Tommaso’s Inventory refers to this work : “ Per un davitte
e la testa dj ghulia,” with the marginal note “ per a
Charegj.” It was sold by Lorenzo and Giuliano in 1476
to the Signoria for the price of 150 broad florins, and the
date mentioned in the document of payment has been mis-
taken by some of the earlier writers for that of its execution.
* In the Collection of M. Gustave Dreyfus, Paris, is a small bronze
plaque representing the Judgment of Paris, which from the resem-
blance of treatment to the group above mentioned in the “ Discord ”—
the youth caressing the female with the jealous protector in the middle
distance—must be classed as of the same period.
VERROCCHIO
attribution, and were it not for the influence of Pollaiuolo
and the strong resemblance in certain details to Verrocchio’s
known work—the construction of the nude, the treatment
of the draperies, &c.—it might readily be accepted as the
work of the greater artist. As it is, it offers but one proof
the more of the close tie that connected Master and
Pupil.*
The bronze David now in the Museo Nazionale is
accepted almost universally as the earliest sculpture of Ver-
rocchio, but it is certainly subsequent to the Careggi Relief,
and the “ Sleeping Youth” of the Berlin Museum, if not
to the “ Discord.” Vasari places it as one of the first works
executed after the (apocryphal) visit to Rome. “After he
had returned to Florence,” he writes, “ with money, fame,
and honour, he was ordered to make a David of bronze, in
height two and a half braccia, which completed was placed
in the Palazzo at the top of the stairs where was la catena,
to his exceeding praise.” Vasari did not know, or had for-
gotten, that the statue was originally executed for one of
the Medici, probably Piero, to decorate the Villa of Careggi,
and that it was only later bought by the Signoria and
removed to the Palazzo Vecchio. The first entry in
Tommaso’s Inventory refers to this work : “ Per un davitte
e la testa dj ghulia,” with the marginal note “ per a
Charegj.” It was sold by Lorenzo and Giuliano in 1476
to the Signoria for the price of 150 broad florins, and the
date mentioned in the document of payment has been mis-
taken by some of the earlier writers for that of its execution.
* In the Collection of M. Gustave Dreyfus, Paris, is a small bronze
plaque representing the Judgment of Paris, which from the resem-
blance of treatment to the group above mentioned in the “ Discord ”—
the youth caressing the female with the jealous protector in the middle
distance—must be classed as of the same period.