拍品专文
In his will, the condottiere, Bartolommeo Colleoni (d.1475), bequeathed to the Venetian republic, whose troops he had commanded, part of his personal fortune, stipulating that a bronze equestrian statue should be erected in his memory in the Piazza San Marco. The commission for the work was awarded to Verrocchio. However, the monument remained unfinished at the time of the latter's death in 1488 and the task of its completion was given to Lorenzo di Credi. He in turn passed this responsibility to the bronze caster, Alessandro Leopardi, and it is his signature that is inscribed on the base of the statue, which was finally erected, contrary to the wishes of its benefactor, on the Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, in 1496.