Andrea Del Verocchio Research Paper

Andrea del Verrocchio during the prime of his life was a painter, sculptor, and goldsmith. He was named Andrea di Michele Cione born in the early 1430 's to father Michele Cione and mother Gemma. His change of last name is not known, and it can not be placed to any person that took him as an apprentice for his work as painter and sculptor.1 His father was a “fornaciao,” which was attributed to people that worked with kilns, bricks and tiles. Consequently, it is believed that his father may have taught young Verrocchio to use clay and such. Verrocchio in his teens was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and this became his main career focus leading into his adulthood. His life is not clearly documented, save his artistic work, and little is known about him, but in the 1460 's, his reputation as an artist, mainly a sculptor, was renowned in Florence where the powerful Medici family commissioned him for most of his artistic career. He had a studio that focused on capturing the …show more content…
Thomas is a great example of Renaissance work as it took the humanism that Thomas Aquinas (forwarded). Thomas Aquinas claimed that the earthly and physical are as equally as important as the heavenly. Christ and Doubting St. Thomas is a prime example of both. Here are the two figures that have been not only been studied by Verrocchio from books of ancient art, but through study of how the human body works, and how the clothing works on the body. Butterfield writes: “A fundamental ideal of Renaissance art was to depict the states of the soul and actions of mind through the representation of the movements of the body.” Verrocchio made sure to depict the emotions of both figures. In Christ you can see the compassion and divine love that he is giving Thomas, and on Thomas is the face of the skeptic, but who sees the truth and is filled with the Holy Spirit. The emergence of the physical (the human figures) and heaven Holy Spirit) is depicted for all to