THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Jason Farago
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| The haunted polychrome “Bust of Christ” (1470-1483) displayed Verrocchio’s ability to imbue religious icons with psychological sensitivity.CreditYale University Art Gallery |
WASHINGTON — Probably, on a long car ride or at a lagging dinner party, you have been asked that trivial query: If you could have been born at any time and place, where and when would you choose? If you’re an artist, then at least as a practical matter you ought to consider reincarnating in Florence in the late 15th century. You could spend your whole career painting saints, carving statesmen and designing palaces, perhaps splitting the work with your colleagues. Leonardo and those other artists all worked in the same studio in Medici Florence, the studio of
Andrea del Verrocchio (circa 1435-1488). Like most of the top artists during the Renaissance’s greatest building boom, Verrocchio was a man of all trades, chiseling marble and casting bronze, painting altarpieces and designing monuments, machinery, theatrical costumes. [
More]
National Gallery of Art: "Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence" (Through Jan. 12, 2020); 6th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington; 202-737-4215; nga.gov.
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| An installation view of “Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Center, the artist’s bronze “David With the Head of Goliath” (1465). |
