The studio of Andrea del Verrocchio took on a great number of apprentices. As was typical of quattrocento studio practice, they were put to work on a large variety of surfaces ranging from altarpieces to linen cabinets. Some portion of the master’s hand was in all of them. Just how much varied. He might have painted the central figures and left the backgrounds to students. He might have provided concept sketches and let able novices execute the whole job. A question remains as to what a pure Verrocchio painting might look like, so doubtful are we that one exists.
This would be of little interest outside the circle of experts who can read fifteenth-century Florentine Italian if not for the fact that one of the apprentices was the young Leonardo da Vinci. “Leonardo: Discoveries from Verrocchio’s Studio” brings together two panels, an Annunciation from the Louvre (ca. 1475–79), and a rendering of one of the miracles of St. Donatus from the Worcester Museum of Art (ca. 1475–85). Both are a little over six inches high. They are fragments of a predella under an altarpiece that is a known Verrocchio commission. The former is wholly Leonardo. The latter is a collaboration with Lorenzo di Credi.
The exhibition supplements the panels with a sampling from Verrocchio’s circle, notably more