Equestrian Statue of Colleoni

From the close of the 1470s until his death, Verrocchio devoted most of his time and energy to the planning and casting of the colossal bronze monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni. The condottiere Colleoni had bequeathed part of his wealth to the Venetian state, with the provision that a bronze equestrian statue should be erected to his memory. Verrocchio took part in the competition for the commission, and prepared a true-to-life, life-size wooden model covered with black leather. He was awarded the commission in 1480, and probably in 1486 went to Venice to supervise the statue’s execution. In 1488 Leopardi was commissioned to cast the sculpture, and it was erected in 1494.

The monument crowned Verrocchio’s career and is the most forceful of 15th-century equestrian monuments. Inspired more by Venetian precedents than by Florentine counterparts, it is a realistic depiction of a contemporary and ferocious condottiere. It differs from previous famous representations in being, typically for Verrocchio, an animated rather than a static group. The conception of the rider and horse is based on Andrea del Castagno’s fresco of Niccolò da Tolentino and on the unattributed early 15th-century equestrian monument to Paolo Savelli (d. 1405).