Andrea del Verrocchio is the teacher behind some of the great masters of Florentine art.

For Verrocchio, it’s a case of the student surpassing the master. And boy, what a student indeed. His pupil was none other than Leonardo da Vinci. For ten years, da Vinci learnt plenty about art from Verrocchio, and even lived with his teacher until the age of twenty-six. Da Vinci even contributed to his mentor’s paintings, giving him a fish in Tobias and the Angel. It wouldn’t be the only time da Vinci was credited for painting something by Verrocchio, and he wasn’t the only one contributing to his teacher. Verrocchio’s students painted plenty of images alongside their master teacher, making it so two or more artists are often attributed to any one canvas. 

Don’t let this man get outshined by da Vinci, though. This Renaissance man hailed from Florence and was a master by thirty years old. The Medici family loved him so much they flooded him with commissions. While Verrocchio’s art was loved during his life, the gremlin gatekeeper of art history, Giorgio Vasari, didn’t like him very much, so the book closed on Verrocchio. I wouldn’t believe everything Vasari says; he isn’t that great of a guy and probably falsified historical events (like the time he said Raphael died during serious lovemaking). Vasari underestimated Verrocchio. After all, Verrocchio trained the likes of da Vinci, Botticelli, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio. Verrocchio was a man admired. The Florentine poet Ugolino Verino declared, “Whatever painters have that is good they drank from Verrocchio’s spring.”

Despite not having a ninja turtle named after him, let’s not forget Verrocchio had a hand in training them and turning them into legends, and he was pretty great in his own right, too.