Bronzed figure of Bartolomeo Colleoni, after del Verrocchio, 1496. 19th/20th Century.

64cm high - 54cm nose to tail

Bartolomeo Colleoni was a mercenary soldier for the Venetian Republic, and was ‘General in Chief’ for Venetian in the latter part of his life. At his death in 1475, he left a request that an equestrian statue of himself an should be erected in the Piazza San Marco. A competition was held, and the statue was modelled by Andrea del Verrocchio and cast in bronze after Verrocchio’s death in 1488 by Alessandro Leopardi, who was also one of the competitors for the commission initially. As no monument was permitted in the piazza, it was placed outside the Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo where it still stands today. It is regarded as the finest example of Renaissance equestrian sculpture.