Identifier: verocchio00crut (find matches)
Title: Verocchio
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Cruttwell, Maud
Subjects: Verrocchio, Andrea del, 1435?-1488
Publisher: London : Duckworth New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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nd the elaborate arrangement of theVirgins coiffure, in certain forms in the construction of thechilds body, and in the general conception of the theme.The influence of Piero Pollaiuolo is perceptible in thestructure of the Virgins body and the draperies, and thepersonal touch of the artist is most striking in the curiousand mannered formation of the hands. Were no otherevidence than the peculiarities of these hands adduced torefute the attribution of the paintings to Verrocchio, itwould be sufficient, for no difference could be greater thanhis scientifically constructed, beautiful, and expressive handsand those of the paintings, with their exaggerated breadthof palm, ill-shaped nails, and peculiar curled thumb. Thelatter mannerism is that of an artist whose scientific studieshave been slight, and who (as, indeed, the anatomy of thefaces and structure of the body also proves) had but asuperficial knowledge of the human skeleton. The hand of Verrocchio, of whose beauty so much has XXIX
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Hanjstaengl, Munich MADONNA AND CHILD. PAINTER UNKNOWN. BERLIN MUSEUM Face p. 119 THE MADONNA 119 already been said, is absolutely true to nature. He hasselected the most perfect type and imitated it with thescientific accuracy he shows in all his anatomy, free fromschool conventions or mannerisms of any sort. But for itsexpressiveness it might be cast from life. Let the readercompare the hands of the Madonna here reproduced (PlateXXIX), No. 104a of the Berlin Gallery (in which, how-ever, the curve of the thumb is less exaggerated than inthe others), with those of the terra-cotta Madonna, of themarble bust, of the David, the Group of Or S. Michele, theColleoni, or indeed, of any of Verrocchios authentic work,and judge whether it be possible that he could have beenguilty of a mannerism so false to nature. There are other reasons equally strong against the accept-ance of any of these paintings as his work. In the Berlinpicture the bad construction of the Virgins body, withits long promi

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