VERROCCHIO's DOUBTING OF THOMAS II

VERROCCHIO'S DOUBTING OF THOMAS   II 

Two other notes must be made with regard to Verrocchio's Doubting of Thomas (1467-83.)

The first has to do with the actual casting of the figures. One of the things that is painfully obvious when you see the statues in the museum location (where they are presently) is that they were not meant to be bronze sculptures seen in the round. To place two statues within the tight strictures of the niche on Via Calzaiuoli, Verrocchio had to reduce the weight of the figures and reduce the volume of the figures. So he made molds for both of them in such a way that kept the feet and heads whole but eliminated all the bulk of the back of the figures. Essentially they have no backs! They just have heads, fronts, and feet. They were never meant to be seen from the back!

They are shells of bronze with stanchions also made of metal and the weight of the shell rests on bases formed from the feet, the drapery, and the plinths under the feet.  Because Verrocchio wanted to give the impression that the statues were whole bodies, he makes sure that the backs are concealed in the niche opening and he makes sure that the viewer sees ringlets of hair on the figures' heads, 

drapery that looks complete,

 and sandals that are delicately ornate set on whole feet, 

so that within the niche the whole body of each figure seems to stand next to the whole body of the other. 

When seen from the side, however, in reality, they are mere slivers of themselves.

Was Verrocchio producing these optical illusions to emphasize the visual and tangible evidence that was required in the Mercanzia court by the merchants who had commissioned his statue group?

Without tangible and visible proof, the statues seem to be lifesize full people who inhabit the niche

together. He has made them look real and complete. Beware the artist's power to seduce and trick,

he seems to be saying. But the beauty of his art is that he convinces the viewers in the street that his

Thomas and Christ are meeting and that Christ lifts up his robe to show Thomas not only the nail holes in his hands but the spear wound in his chest. As viewers we have no doubt that each of these persons

has a complete body under their drapery and their exchange is real, as real as the meeting of real people in the street below.

The second thing to note about the statue grouping is that Verrocchio was probably aware of the

examples of artistic presentations of this subject before his.

Here are a few of them:

Venice, San Marco, mosaic, 11th century: Doubting of Thomas

In this version, Christ sits on a throne and lifts up his right arm. Thomas dives in from the left and bends over to examine the hole in Christ's chest. Thomas holds a scroll which reads, "Dominus meus et deus meus." But the drapery is so stylized that it is hard to read them as real figures.

Monreale, Sicily, 12-13th centuries, Doubting of Thomas:

Not likely that Verrocchio saw this example, but it shares similarities with the Venetian example which he might have seen.

14th century fresco, Incredulity of Thomas

Signorelli, Doubting of Thomas, 1477, Basilica della Santa Casa, Loreto (Signorelli had certainly seen the Venetian example and his Thomas bends in the same manner. )

But the most likely candidate for Verrocchio's predecessor is Duccio's rendering of the scene

on the Altarpiece for Siena Cathedral, produced between 1309 and 1311:

In Duccio's version,Thomas comes in from the left, lifts up his right hand to reach the wound, Christ raises his right hand to expose it, and around them stand all the apostles who were described as being in the original scene.The bystanders in the Verrocchio version take the place of the apostles in Duccio's version, and the doubting then is witnessed by all the people walking past on Via Calzaiuoli, witnesses who might have been called to testify in the actual trials of the Mercanzia court itself.