Colleoni, having long held the baton of the Republic, desired that after death his portrait, in his habit as he lived, should continue to look down on the scene of his old splendour.

By an ingenious quibble the Senators adhered to the letter of his will without infringing a law that forbade them to charge the square of S.Mark with monuments.

They ruled that the piazza in front of the Scuola di S.Marco, better known as the Campo di S.Zanipolo, might be chosen as the site of Colleoni's statue, and to Andrea Verocchio was given the commission for its erection.
Andrea died in 1488 before the model for the horse was finished.

The work was completed, and the pedestal was supplied by Alessandro Leopardi.

To Verocchio, profiting by the example of Donatello's "Gattamelata," must be assigned the general conception of this statue; but the breath of life that animates both horse and rider, the richness of detail that enhances the massive grandeur of the group, and the fiery spirit of its style of execution were due to the Venetian genius of Leopardi.