The Putto with dolphin is a bronze statue of Andrea del Verrocchio, datable to around 1470 and preserved at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Andrea del Verrocchio was a Florentine sculptor of the 1400s and is also known for being a master of Leonardo da Vinci.
The work is mentioned for the first time as “the bronze child” in the list drawn up in 1495 by Tommaso Verrocchio of the work performed by Andrea for the Medici, where it is indicated for a fountain at the villa of Careggi. The sculpture was then moved to the courtyard of Michelozzo inside Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari also mentions it as coming from Careggi, commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici himself and described as “a bronze putto that chokes a fish he has had to pose”.
The winged putto holds a dolphin in its hands, stylized according to the style of the time that represented it is a big fish. From the mouth and nostrils of the dolphin came out the water of the fountain sprayed up falling. In it we perceive echoes of dynamic naturalism in soft polished forms, while the subject derives from the old, but reinterpreted in a smiling dancing putto, in precarious balance, with the mantle that sticks to the back and the wet tuft, stuck to the forehead.
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