Background , featuring three pairs of testicles. The name "Colleoni" was in Bartolomeo's day alternately spelled "Coglione", a vulgar term meaning "balls". Colleoni was born in
Solza near
Bergamo, which was then part of the
Duchy of Milan. In Bergamo Colleoni later built himself a mortuary chapel, the
Cappella Colleoni. The
Colleoni family was noble, but had been exiled with the rest of the
Guelphs by the
Visconti of Milan. Bartolomeo's father Paolo Colleoni had seized the castle of Trezzo, until he was assassinated by his cousins, probably acting on the orders of
Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan.
Career The young Colleoni trained as a soldier, first in the retinue of Filippo d'Arcello, the new master of
Piacenza. Then he entered the service of various condottieri, beginning with
Braccio da Montone, who was skirmishing in Apulia, profiting from the struggles between
Alfonso of Aragon and
Louis of Anjou during the weak sovereignty of
Queen Joan II and taking Alfonso's cause, then that of
Carmagnola. After the latter was put to death in Venice (1432), Colleoni entered the direct service of the
Venetian Republic, which represented the major phase of his career. Although
Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua was nominally commander-in-chief, Colleoni was in fact the real leader of the army. He recaptured many towns and districts for Venice from the Milanese, and when Gonzaga went over to the enemy, Colleoni continued to serve the Venetians under
Erasmo of Narni (known as Gattamelata) and
Francesco I Sforza, winning battles at
Brescia,
Verona, and on the
Lake of Garda. When peace was made between Milan and Venice in 1441, Colleoni joined the Milanese, together with Sforza, in 1443. Although well treated at first, Colleoni soon fell under the Visconti's suspicion and was imprisoned at
Monza, where he remained until the duke's death in 1447. The Milanese then proclaimed the
Golden Ambrosian Republic with Sforza as commander-in-chief, whom Colleoni served for a time, but in 1448 he took leave of Sforza and returned to the Venetians until 1451. Disgusted at not having been elected captain-general, he once more went over to Sforza (who had conquered Milan in 1450, ending the Ambrosian Republic and being recognised as the new Milanese duke) in 1452, but Venice could not do without him; by offering him greater
emoluments, the Venetians induced him to return in 1453, and in 1455 he was appointed captain-general of the Republic of Venice for life. Although he occasionally fought on his own account when Venice was at peace, he remained at the disposal of the republic in time of war until his death.
Retirement He set his residence in the
castle of Malpaga, which he had bought in 1465 and restored in the years following. Although he often changed sides, no act of treachery is imputed to him, nor did he subject the territories he passed through to the raping and robbery practiced by other soldiers of fortune. When not fighting, he devoted his time to introducing agricultural improvements on the vast estates which the Venetians had granted him, and to charitable works. At his death in 1475, at Malpaga, he left a large sum to the republic for the Turkish war, with a request that an
equestrian statue of himself should be erected in the
Piazza San Marco. The statue was modelled by
Andrea del Verrocchio and cast in bronze after his death by
Alessandro Leopardi, but, as no monument was permitted in the piazza, it was placed near the
Scuola Grande of St Mark outside the Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo. File:Bartolomeo Colleoni by Andrea del Verrocchio.jpg|
Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni by Verrocchio, located in
Venice, Italy File:Venedig-Venice-Venezia-JBU 018.JPG|Statue of Colleoni at
Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, opposite the
Scuola Grande di San Marco File:0907 Colleoni Monument in Szczecin SZN 2.jpg|Monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni at
Aviators Square,
Szczecin, Poland ==See also==