XVI
ANDREA VERROCCHIO
1435-1488
Andrea di Cione, surnamed Verrocchio from his first master, the goldsmith Giuliano Verrocchio, was the contemporary and rival of Antonio Pollaiuolo. Like that master, Andrea was a goldsmith and sculptor in the first place, and only painted pictures occasionally; and, like his own great pupil Leonardo, he studied mathematics and geometry, and became an accomplished musician. This talented and many-sided artist was the son of an oven-maker, named Michele di Cione, who afterwards joined the Guild of Stone-cutters, and in his old age held a small office in the Customs. Andrea's mother, Madonna Gemma, died when he was a child, leaving a large family, one of whom, a sister named Tita (Margherita), came to live as a widow in her brother's house, and whose children Andrea treated as if they were his own. The artist himself, the youngest of the family, was born in 1435, and at seventeen had the misfortune to kill one of his companions, a lad named Antonio, who was employed in the woollen trade, by throwing a stone which struck him on the temples, when at play together outside the Porta della Croce. He was tried for this accidental murder
