SAN ZANIPOLO, Equestrian Statue Of Colleoni

Venice's most important Renaissance monument sits in a very prominent position on a high pedestal to the right of the church's façade: I'm talking about the bronze statue of the leader Bartolomeo Colleoni on horseback. The statue was designed in the late 1400s by the great Florentine sculptor Verrocchio, but it took 14 years before it was made and finally installed here in San Zanipolo's square. Interestingly, one of the sculptor's aides who had seen to the pedestal and the technical aspects of fusing the statue to it tried to take credit for the entire work.

You should know that the idea of a bronze equestrian statue dated back to the times of the Roman emperors, but only returned to fashion in the second half of the fifteenth century: just a few decades before the creation of this masterpiece, Donatello had managed to create the statue of the leader Gattamelata in Padua. And while Verrocchio was working on Colleoni, in Milan Leonardo was also planning the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, although he didn't succeed....