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The equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni is a Renaissance sculpture in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy, created by Andrea del Verrocchio in 1480–1488. Portraying the condottieroBartolomeo Colleoni (who served for a long time under the Republic of Venice), it has a height of 395 cm excluding the pedestal. It is the second major equestrian statue of the Italian Renaissance, after Donatello's equestrian statue of Gattamelata (1453).
In 1475, the Condottiero Colleoni, a former Captain General of the Republic of Venice, died and by his will left a substantial part of his estate to the Republic on condition that a statue of himself should be commissioned and set up in the Piazza San Marco. In 1479 the Republic announced that it would accept the legacy, but that (as statues were not permitted in the Piazza) the statue would be placed in the open space in front of the Scuola of San Marco. A competition was arranged to enable a sculptor to be selected. Three sculptors competed for the contract, Verrocchio from Florence, Alessandro Leopardi from Venice and Bartolomeo Vellano from Padua. Verrocchio made a model of his proposed sculpture using wood and black leather, while the others made models of wax and terracotta. The three models were exhibited in Venice in 1483 and the contract was awarded to Verrocchio. He then opened a workshop in Venice and made the final wax model which was ready to be cast in bronze, but he died in 1488, before this was done.
He had asked that his pupil Lorenzo di Credi, who was then in charge of his workshop in Florence, should be entrusted with the finishing of the statue, but the Venetian state after considerable delay commissioned Alessandro Leopardi to do this. In 1496, the statue was erected on a pedestal made by Leopardi in the Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo, where it stands today.[1][2]
ヴェロッキオはこの彫刻を、ドナテッロのガッタメラータ像、ローマの マルクス・アウレリウスの古代像、ヴェネツィアのサン・マルコの馬像、パヴィアにあった古代末期の作品であるレジゾーレ（現在は失われている）、パオロ・ウッチェロのジョン・ホークウッド卿の葬儀記念碑のフレスコ画、アンドレア・デル・カスターニョのニッコロ・ダ・トレンティーノ騎馬像に基づい て制作した。
彼が直面した主な問題は静力学の問題だった。馬が脚を上げて動いている様子を表現すると、ブロンズ像の重量が比較的細い3本の脚だけで支えられるため、安定性に問題が生じる可能性があった。ドナテッロはパドヴァの記念碑で、上げた脚を球体の上に置くことでこの問題を部分的に解決していた。ヴェロッキオは、馬を3本の脚で支えることでこの問題を解決した最初の人物だった。
コレオーニが意図した場所に設置されたわけではないが、美術史家のパッサヴェントは、実際の設置場所での見栄えの良さを強調し、「この像の壮大な動きの感覚は、現在の設置場所で非常に有利に発揮されている」[ 3 ]、彫刻としては「19世紀がそれまで目指していた、あるいは可能だと考えていたものをはるかに凌駕している」[ 4 ]と記している。彼は、人間と馬の両方が同様に素晴らしく、一体となって彫刻を構成していると指摘している。
ヴェロッキオはコッレオーニに会ったことはまずなく、この彫像はコッレオーニ本人の肖像ではなく、「圧倒的な力とエネルギーに満ち溢れた」強大で冷酷な軍司令官というイメージを表現したものである。[ 5 ]これは、パドヴァにあるドナテッロ作のガッタメラータ傭兵隊長の彫像とは対照的で、その彫像には「落ち着いた指揮官の雰囲気」が漂っており、ヴェロッキオの努力はすべて「動きと緊張感、エネルギーの表現に注がれている」。[ 6 ]
In 1909 an electrotype copy of the statue was made for the cast and copy sculpture collection of what would become the National Museum in Szczecin, Poland.[7] That copy was moved to Warsaw in 1948, where it was eventually installed outside the Academy of Fine Arts as an inspiration to students.[8] In 1992 the City of Szczecin petitioned for the return of the copy, which was granted in 2001, and in 2002 it was installed in Szczecin's Plac Lotników (Airmen's Square) and unveiled by the President of Szczecin and Colleoni's descendant, lawyer Guardo Colleoni. A condition of the return of the copy to Szczecin was that a copy of that copy be made to remain outside the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where a bronze copy of the electrotype copy stands today.
Another copy of the statue stands in Montevideo, Uruguay, in front of the School of Architecture of the University of the Republic.[9][10]
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