Andrea del Verrocchio, as the Florentine native Andrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioni is called, heads an important workshop that numbers among its assistants Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi, and probably Perugino. (Early sixteenth-century tradition will associate Verrochio with the sculptor Desiderio da Settignano, which may explain his extraordinary technical facility. Another sixteenth-century tradition states that he trained under Donatello, with whom he has few stylistic affinities).

Verrochio had trained as a goldsmith but succeeded in making the transition to sculpture on a monumental scale, and in 1465 begins work on his major public work in Florence, the Doubting of Thomas, a life-size group.