Bust Of A Youth - School Of Verrocchio

The round-faced smoothness of adolescence in this lifelike bust of an unknown youth does not conceal the personality never lacking in the Florentine character during the Renaissance. Verrocchio, the sculptor of the great equestrian figure of Colleone in Venice, was signally gifted in translating this strength of personality into stone or bronze and imparted some of his ability to his pupils, whose portrait-sculpture as a whole has never been surpassed in its lively appreciation of the sitter's individuality. This bust cannot be definitely ascribed to one particular member of Verrocchio's following, but it shows the high quality characteristic of his immediate school, although some critics hold it to be a work of an artist influenced rather by Mino da Fiesole than by the less suave, more rigorous, and greater master. The bust was long owned by the Ricasoli family in Florence.