Donatello and Verrocchio Terracottas Unveiled at Florence's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence presents 'Donatello e Verrocchio. Capolavori riscoperti', an exhibition featuring two terracotta sculptures from the Peter Silverman and Kathleen Onorato collection. The show runs until February 26, 2016. A terracotta bust of Saint Lawrence, attributed to Donatello (Florence, 1386–1466) by Francesco Caglioti, is displayed beneath the famous cantorie of Santa Maria del Fiore. The bust's provenance was traced by Caglioti in a 2014 article in the journal Prospettiva, from the pieve of Borgo San Lorenzo through Stefano Bardini to Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein in 1889, and finally to the Silverman collection in 2003. The attribution remains debated among critics. The second work is a terracotta relief of the Beheading of the Baptist attributed to Verrocchio (Florence, 1435–Venice, 1488), shown for the first time in Italy after a 2010 exhibition in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is displayed opposite the silver altar of the Baptistery in the Sala del Tesoro. Alessandro Vezzosi highlights the complexity of Verrocchio's workshop and the possible involvement of young Leonardo da Vinci. Monsignor Timothy Verdon, director of the museum, calls it a unique opportunity to rediscover 15th-century Florentine sculpture.