Andrea del Verrocchio, c.1435-1488, was a Florentine goldsmith, perspectivist, sculptor, carver, painter and musician - the list is Vasari 's. According to Vasari he 'studied science in his youth, especially geometry'( Vasari, Le Vite, Testo III.533). He was a craftsman skilled in work in silver, bronze, marble terracotta, wood, tempera and oil (see Rubin, and Wright, Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s), and the master of Leonardo da Vinci. He was responsible for the ball on the dome of Florence cathedral, the David commissioned for the Palazzo della Signoria and now in the Bargello Museum in Florence, the Christ and St. Thomas for Orsanmichele in Florence, and the bronze, porphyry, marble and pietra serena tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in San Lorenzo.
Ruskin refers to Verrocchio's equestrian statue in Venice:
I do not believe that there is a more glorious work of sculpture existing in the world than that equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleone. ( Works, 11.19)
Ruskin bought the Verrocchio workshop painting of the Virgin adoring the Infant Christ:
I bought it for a hundred pounds, out of the Manfrini Palace at Venice and consider it an entirely precious painting, exemplary for all time ( Works, 30.193)
In 1879 Ruskin told Prince Leopold that the painting provided the answer to the question 'What do you want to teach us about art?'. This was because of its lessons of reverence and because 'it was perfect in all ways -- in drawing, in colouring; on every part the artist had worked with the utmost toil man could give. ( Works, 30.31).