Low life in high society: a group of comic‐grotesque drawings by Verrocchio*

Abstract

This article examines a group of drawings of comic‐grotesque subjects (morris dancers, drinkers, and the Henpecked Husband) attributed to Verrocchio. Discussion of these unusual works has previously focused on their attribution, and their relationship to Leonardo's grotesques. The present study interrogates their function and meaning. It considers their derivation from northern European imagery, and how this might have interfaced with contemporary Florentine artistic interests, from ideas on variety and invention to the depiction of the figure in movement. It also explores the idea of the drawings as visual counterparts to ‘low style’ vernacular poetry from the circle of Lorenzo the Magnificent, offering a new reading of them in relation to the broader context of fifteenth‐century Florentine vernacular culture, both visual and literary.