San Giovanni e Paolo Church

At the completion of the Colleoni equestrian monument in 1496, it was placed in front of the San Giovanni e Paolo church. Today, the statue with realistic dimensions and one suspended horse leg still stands as a great feat of the combination of art and engineering. However, this was not its intended location. In his will, Bartolomeo Colleoni stated that his statue should stand in front of the Piazza San Marco (Hanson, 2012).

Sources:
Hanson, E. J. (2012). Inventing the sculptor: Leonardo da Vinci and the persistence of myth (Doctoral dissertation, Washington University). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs),765. doi: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7PN93MQ

Parent Map

da Vinci and the Renaissance Map

Coordinates

Latitude: 45.437433500000
Longitude: 12.338034500000

Timeline of Events Associated with San Giovanni e Paolo Church

Date Event Manage

Da Vinci's sketch and measurements of waking horse's suspended leg
1496

Colleoni Equestrian Statue Monument Inauguration

After being chosen as the winner of the Colleoni equestrian statue monument, Verrocchio spent five years working on the statue until he died in 1488. By this time, Da Vinci no longer lived in Venice, as he had moved to Milan in 1482 to work for Lodocivo Sforza, the Duke of Milan. As such, the state of Venice handed off the Colleoni monument project to Da Vinci's competitor, Alessandro Leopardi, who was a sculptor and architect (Kulenovic and von Platten). Using Verrocchio and Da Vinci's initial designs as well as his own, Leopardi finished the monument and placed his name on the statue base. Finally, the Colleoni equestrian statue monument was inaugurated in 1496 and still stands, as a feat of art and engineering, in front of the San Giovanni e Paolo church today.

Sources:
Kulenovic, R., & Von Platen, F. (n.d.). Questions Concerning the Equestrian Statue in Remembrance of the Condottiere Bartolemeo Colleoni in Venice Created in the Workshop of Andrea Del Verrocchio. Retrieved from http://www.museumldv.com/venice.htm