DOI Kapitel:
Chapter IX: The Madonna
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0192
118
VERROCCHIO
Among the most important of such imitations claimed
by several of the critics as his work, is a group of panels
which, while copying superficially certain of his character-
istics, differ in essentials completely from his scientific work.
The group comprises two Madonnas in the Berlin Gallery
(Nos. 104a and 108), and the Madonna and Angels, No. 296
of the National Gallery. With this latter is connected
“ The Journey of Tobias,” also in the National Gallery,
No. 781. In all these paintings the influence of Verrocchio
is predominant, but it is combined with that of Piero Pol-
laiuolo as well as of other painters and sculptors, and with
a personal conception of form which, though in itself not
admirable, gives the paintings a certain individuality. The
imitation of Verrocchio in the three Madonnas consists in
the type of face and the elaborate arrangement of the
Virgin’s coiffure, in certain forms in the construction of the
child’s body, and in the general conception of the theme.
The influence of Piero Pollaiuolo is perceptible in the
structure of the Virgin’s body and the draperies, and the
personal touch of the artist is most striking in the curious
and mannered formation of the hands. Were no other
evidence than the peculiarities of these hands adduced to
refute the attribution of the paintings to Verrocchio, it
would be sufficient, for no difference could be greater than
his scientifically constructed, beautiful, and expressive hands
and those of the paintings, with their exaggerated breadth
of palm, ill-shaped nails, and peculiar curled thumb. The
latter mannerism is that of an artist whose scientific studies
have been slight, and who (as, indeed, the anatomy of the
faces and structure of the body also proves) had but a
superficial knowledge of the human skeleton.
The hand of Verrocchio, of whose beauty so much has
VERROCCHIO
Among the most important of such imitations claimed
by several of the critics as his work, is a group of panels
which, while copying superficially certain of his character-
istics, differ in essentials completely from his scientific work.
The group comprises two Madonnas in the Berlin Gallery
(Nos. 104a and 108), and the Madonna and Angels, No. 296
of the National Gallery. With this latter is connected
“ The Journey of Tobias,” also in the National Gallery,
No. 781. In all these paintings the influence of Verrocchio
is predominant, but it is combined with that of Piero Pol-
laiuolo as well as of other painters and sculptors, and with
a personal conception of form which, though in itself not
admirable, gives the paintings a certain individuality. The
imitation of Verrocchio in the three Madonnas consists in
the type of face and the elaborate arrangement of the
Virgin’s coiffure, in certain forms in the construction of the
child’s body, and in the general conception of the theme.
The influence of Piero Pollaiuolo is perceptible in the
structure of the Virgin’s body and the draperies, and the
personal touch of the artist is most striking in the curious
and mannered formation of the hands. Were no other
evidence than the peculiarities of these hands adduced to
refute the attribution of the paintings to Verrocchio, it
would be sufficient, for no difference could be greater than
his scientifically constructed, beautiful, and expressive hands
and those of the paintings, with their exaggerated breadth
of palm, ill-shaped nails, and peculiar curled thumb. The
latter mannerism is that of an artist whose scientific studies
have been slight, and who (as, indeed, the anatomy of the
faces and structure of the body also proves) had but a
superficial knowledge of the human skeleton.
The hand of Verrocchio, of whose beauty so much has