The Putto with Dolphin is a bronze statue by Andrea del Verrocchio, datable to around 1470 and kept in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Andrea del Verrocchio was a Florentine sculptor of the 1400s and is also known for having been the 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 works performed by Andrea for the Medici, where it is indicated as a spindle for a fountain at the villa of Careggi. The sculpture was then moved to Michelozzo's courtyard inside Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari also mentions it as coming from Careggi, commissioned by Lorenzo de 'Medici himself and described as "a bronze putto who chokes a fish which he has made to pose". The winged putto holds a dolphin in his hand, stylized according to the style of the time which represented him as a big fish. Water from the fountain came out of the mouth and nostrils of the dolphin, splashing upwards and falling. In it we perceive echoes of dynamic naturalism in soft smooth shapes, while the subject derives from the ancient, 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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