Bartolomeo Colleoni
On Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, Bartolomeo Colleoni rises as a Renaissance bronze equestrian statue. Andrea del Verrocchio designed the rider and horse between 1480 and 1488. Nearly four metres high without its pedestal, the commanding figure turns a military leader into movement. One foreleg lifts while three legs support the horse.
Venetian authorities placed the monument here in 1496, after Colleoni’s bequest and a competition held in 1479. His will left 100,000 ducats to Venice. Because statues were forbidden in Piazza San Marco, officials redirected the planned tribute to another location. Three sculptors entered the competition: Verrocchio, Alessandro Leopardi, and Bartolomeo Vellano. Verrocchio died in 1488 before the bronze casting finished, so Leopardi completed the work and constructed its pedestal.
The rider represents Colleoni as an energetic commander rather than a literal portrait. Verrocchio’s horse balances on three legs, a technical solution that avoids placing the raised hoof on a supporting sphere. Copies later reached Szczecin, Warsaw, and Montevideo, but the original remains in Venice.
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