No, no, the above quote was not referring to the oeuvre shown here. Instead, it was how Giorgio Vasari described the craft of Andrea del Verrocchio who was the teacher, yes, the teacher of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. Of course, Leonardo - and calling him just "Da Vinci" is actually quite gauche - went on to achieve greater fame.

But whether Andrea's paintings and sculptures really were hard and crude is a matter de artibus and in matters de artibus just as de gustibus non est disputandum.

In any case Andrea was one of the most commercially successful artists of Renaissance Italy. Even if his work was "hard and crude" at least he completed his jobs on time, while Leonardo would remind his employers - who were wondering when the picture would be finished that they had already paid for - that men of genius were doing the most when they were doing the least.

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