Ottaviano de' Medici, being a great lover of art, was often a patron on his own account; for him Andrea painted the Holy Family now in the Pitti Palace. It is a most charmingly natural group: the Virgin seated on the ground dances the divine child astride on her knee, he is turning his head to the infant S. John who struggles to escape from his mother's arms to get to him. The fresh youth of the Virgin and the saintly age of S. Elizabeth are well contrasted. By the time this picture was finished the siege of Florence had begun, and when the painter took it to Ottaviano, he, having other claims on his means, excused himself from buying it, and recommended Andrea to offer it elsewhere. But the artist replied, "I have laboured for you, and the work shall be always yours." "Sell it and get what you can for it," again replied Ottaviano. Andrea carried the painting home again and would never sell it to any one. A few years after, the siege being over, and the Medici re-instated, he again took the Holy Family to Ottaviano, who was so delighted that he paid him double the price for it.

Ottaviano also bought from Carlo Ginori a Madonna and S. Job, a nude half figure, which were by Andrea's hand. He it was who commissioned him to paint the portrait of Cardinal Giulio, afterwards Pope Clement VII., and it was also at his instance that the imitation Raphael was painted for the Duke of Mantua. The Duke had set his heart on obtaining the picture painted by Raphael representing Leo X. between the Cardinals Giulio and Rossi, and got a promise of it as a gift from Pope Clement. His Holiness wrote to Ottaviano desiring him to have it sent to Mantua. But Ottaviano, appreciating the treasure as much as the Duke of Mantua, determined to secure it to the house of Medici. Under the pretence of having a new frame made he gained time, and meanwhile employing Andrea del Sarto secretly to make an exact copy of it, he sent that to the Duke instead of the original. So well had Andrea imitated the great master's style that every one in Mantua, even Giulio Romano, Raphael's own scholar, was deceived, and it was only some years later that George Vasari divulged the secret and showed Andrea's monogram on the side of the panel beneath the frame. This copy is now at Naples.

The fresco at Poggio a Cajano abandoned, Andrea returned to the Scalzo, where he painted the Dance of Herodias, Martyrdom of S. John Baptist, Presentation of the Head, Allegory of Hope, and the Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias. The last was paid for August 22nd, 1523.

About this time there was a great wedding in Florence. Pier Francesco Borgherini espoused Margherita Accajuoli, and Salvi, the bridegroom's father, determined to prepare for his son's bride a wedding chamber which should be famous in all ages.

Baccio d' Agnolo had carved wonderful coffers, chairs, and bedsteads in walnut wood. Pontormo painted beautiful cabinets and cassoni, and Granacci, Francesco d' Ubertini Verdi, called Bacchiacca, and Andrea were all employed on the walls. Andrea furnished two pictures; the one tells the story of Joseph in Canaan, the other gives his life in Egypt. The style is that of Piero di Cosimo, but with greater excellence and more dignified figures. The landscape is highly finished and minute, and has a part of the story in every nook of it.

The centre group, where Joseph leaves his father and mother to go to his brethren, is very dignified, although fine enough to be a miniature. In the second Pharaoh's palace is [Footnote: Reumont (Life of Andrea del Sarto, p. 134) dates these works 1523; the style, which is very much that of Piero di Cosimo, would seem to place them earlier.] represented as a medieval Italian castle, the dresses are all Italian, and as an instance of Andrea's versatility of talent they are very interesting paintings.

During the siege of Florence, Borgherini was absent, and the picture dealer, Giovanni Battista della Palla, who prowled like a harpy to carry off treasures for the King of France, made an effort to obtain these paintings by inducing the government to confiscate them and sell them to him. But Margherita was equal to the occasion, and meeting the despoiler at her door, she poured out such a torrent of indignation, exhortation, and defiance as drove the broker away crestfallen.

On the Medici's return della Palla was imprisoned as a traitor, and beheaded at Pisa. The paintings passed into the possession of the Medici, by purchase, during Andrea's life. [Footnote: Biadi, Notizie, &c., p. 146, note 2.]



CHAPTER VII.

THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. A.D. 1525-1531.

From 1524 to 1528 the plague desolated Italy, never entirely leaving it. During this time Andrea obtained a commission through Antonio Brancacci, to paint some pictures in the convent of S. Piero at Luco in Mugello, where he retired with his wife and her relations, and his pupil Raffaelo. They spent a very pleasant summer: the nuns made much of his wife and her sisters, and he passed his time in earnest painting. The fruits of his labour are a Pieta, a Visitation, and a Head of Christ—almost a replica of the one in the SS. Annunziata.

The Pieta is full of expression and feeling, but more realistic and less dignified than that of Fra Bartolommeo, which now hangs on the same wall of the Hall of Apollo at the Pitti.

In colouring also there is a great contrast between the two, that of Fra Bartolommeo being deep, rich, and mellow, while Andrea's is more profuse, diffused, and wanting in depth of shadow.

S. John and the Virgin raise the dead Saviour, the Magdalen and S. Catherine weep at his feet; S. Peter and S. Paul at the back express their grief in the manner natural to their characters. S. Peter, in his vehemence, flings up his arms in a madness of sorrow. S. Paul, with more dignity, is half stupefied with the intensity of woe.

If those saints had been left in Fra Bartolommeo's Pieta, the two pictures would have had the very same figures, in each: but how different the composition, feeling, and expression! The Frate's group is a compact triangle; that of Andrea a scattered arrangement. The Magdalen of the Frate is overwhelmed with the very excess of love and grief, all of which is expressed intensely, yet her face is hidden; that of Andrea is a mere woman dressed in flying scarf and flowing garments, but with very little soul in her face.

The characteristics of the two painters can be well studied in these works, so near together, so similar, and yet so different.

For the three works painted at Luco Andrea was paid ninety florins in gold. The Pieta, was bought in later years by the Grand Duke Leopold, and now adorns the Pitti Palace.

The Visitation was placed in the church of the convent over a presepio. [Footnote: In 1818 it was restored by Luigi Scotti and sold.] Biadi gives the following document:—"Io Andrea d'Angiolo del Sarto, a di 11 Ottobre 1528 ho ricevuto fiorini 80 d' oro di quei larghi [i.e. of two scudi each] della Tavola dell' Altar grande e di una mezza tavola della Visitazione, da Donna Caterina della Casa Fiorentina, Badessa di Luco." [Footnote: 2 Vol. in. p, 571, note.]

Andrea was paid ten florins for the Head of the Saviour, through his assistant, Raffaello. This receipt would prove either that he went to Luco later than 1524, or that he returned there to finish the works in the year 1528.

On their return to Florence in the autumn Andrea painted a fine work for his friend, Beccuccio da Gambassi, a glass-worker. It is an apotheosis of the Madonna, with four figures beneath—S. John Baptist, Mary Magdalen, S. Sebastian, and S. Rocco; not S. Onofrio, as Bottari has named it. The predella, now lost, had portraits of the patron and his wife. Crowe and Cavalcaselle speak of six saints in this picture, four standing and two kneeling.

This description seems to point more certainly to the Sarzana Madonna, which is now in the Hall of Apollo, in the Pitti Palace. That for Beccuccio is described, with the four above-mentioned saints only, by all the Italian authors.

The tabernacle, at the corner of the convent, outside the Porta Pinti, Florence, was painted about this time. It is now quite destroyed by age and weather; a good copy by Empoli, exists, however, in the western corridor of the Uffizi. It is a charming Holy Family, with the infant S. John,—a sweet laughing face. The Madonna is a portrait of Lucrezia.

In the siege when the convent of the Ingesuate—at the corner of which it stood—was razed to the ground, this fresco, although loosened from the wall, was spared by the soldiers, who had not courage to injure it. The Grand Duke Cosimo was anxious to have it brought to Florence, and often came with engineers and architects, but they never hazarded its removal. [Footnote: Bocchi, Bellezze di Firenze, p. 482.]

The Duomo of Pisa has five saints painted by Andrea; they originally formed one large picture in five compartments, and were painted for the church of the now suppressed convent of S. Agnes; but in 1618 they were divided into five pictures, and removed to the Duomo, where S. Catherine Martyr, S. Margaret, S. Peter, and S. John the Baptist hang on each side of the altar. S. Agnes, with her lamb by her side, is placed on a pilaster towards the southern door. This and S. Margaret are especially graceful and expressive. There is much of the feeling of Correggio, but with more natural grace and less voluptuousness. The cutting and retouching had injured them greatly, but in 1835 Antonio Garazalli took off the repainting and restored them more delicately.

In 1525 Andrea had a commission to draw cartoons for painting the balustrade of the Ringhiera—a kind of wide terrace in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, from which speeches were made to the populace. His designs were very beautiful and appropriate, the compartments being emblematical of the different quarters of the city; besides which were allegories of mountains, rivers, and virtues. The designs were left unfinished at his death, and the Ringhiera was never painted.

In 1526-7 he worked at the fresco of the Last Supper, at S. Salvi, which was intended to have been done when he began the four saints there, in 1510, had not some misunderstanding between the rulers of the order prevented their continuation. [Footnote: Vasari's Lives, vol. iii. p. 224.] Even now he worked in a desultory manner, doing it bit by bit, but in the end producing a marvellous work.

The refectory is a long vaulted hall, and the frescoed table, with its life-size figures, fills the whole arch of the wall opposite the door. One's natural impulse on entering it is to exclaim, "How life-like!" There is a great and living animation in the figures; the characters of the Apostles are written on their expressive faces. Judas is not placed away alone, as in many renderings of the subject, but is next to Christ, the contrast of the two faces being thus emphasized by proximity. S. Peter, though old, has all the vehemence and intensity of his character. Add to the feeling a brilliancy of colour of which Andrea alone had the secret, for without deep shadows, and keeping up the same intensity of tone throughout, he yet obtained great harmony and full relief where others would have produced a clash and flatness. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle say with justice, "From the contemplation of the Cena, at Milan, we should say that the painter is high bred; looking at that of S. Salvi, that he is accustomed to lowly company." [Footnote: Hist. of Painting, vol. iii. chap. xvii. p. 574.] But in some subjects a rugged strength is more important than a high refinement, and in the group of humble fishermen who formed the first church this is not out of place. If he could only have spiritualised Christ, nothing would be left to be desired.

Andrea del Sarto was a member of a sacred company called the "Fraternita del Nicchio," for which he painted a standard to be carried in their processions. It is now in the Hall of the Old Masters in the Uffizi, and is a charming group of S. James, with two children dressed in white surplices—the habit of the company. The saint is caressing one, who kneels at his feet; the other has an open book in his hand. The draperies are especially graceful, and the expressions soft and pleasing.

After finishing a portrait of the Intendant of the monks at Vallombrosa, which the said monk afterwards placed in an arbour covered with vines, regardless of the injuries of wind and rain—Andrea, having some colours still left on his palette, took up a tile and called his wife to sit for her portrait, that all might see how well she had kept her good looks from her youth; but Lucrezia not being inclined to sit, he got a mirror and painted his own portrait on the tile instead. It was one of his later works, and Lucrezia kept it till her death. It is now in the room of portraits in the Uffizi, but much blackened by time; probably also from the tile not having been properly prepared. [Footnote: This portrait is given as a frontispiece.]

The next year or two were taken up in producing a number of large altar-pieces, and in painting pictures for the dealer, Giovanni Battista della Palla, who was still intent on supplying the King of France with Italian works of art. For him he painted a Sacrifice of Abraham, which Vasari thinks one of his most excellent works. The face of the patriarch is full of faith, and yet self-sacrifice; the nude figure of Isaac, bronzed in the parts which have been exposed to the sun, most tenderly expresses a trembling dread, mingled with trust in his father; the landscape is also very airy and beautiful, and a characteristic group of a servant and the browsing ass is very effective in the background.

He also painted a lovely picture of Charity with three Children for Della Palla. Both these works were done with great care, for he hoped by their means to regain the lost favour of the King of France. It was too late for this, however; and, as it happened, neither of these works reached its destination. The siege of Florence took place about this time (1529); the dealer, Battista della Palla, had his head cut off in his dungeon at Pisa, and all hope of his mediation with Francis I. was at an end. The Charity was sold to Domenico Conti, the painter, after Andrea's death, and thence passed into the hands of the Antinori family. The Sacrifice of Abraham has had more vicissitudes. Filippo Strozzi purchased and gave it to the Marchese del Vasto, who had it in his castle at Ischia many years. Later it was sent from Florence to Modena in exchange for a Correggio, and Augustus II. of Saxony becoming its purchaser, placed it in the Dresden Gallery.

This seems to have been a favourite subject with Andrea del Sarto, who repeated it five times.

1. The one done by himself for the King of France.

2. Also in France, having been purchased from the Grand Duke of Tuscany. (See Argenville.)

3. The one mentioned above, done for G. B. della Palla.

4. A smaller one, painted for Paolo da Terra Rossa; a fine painting, for which the artist asked so small a price that the purchaser was ashamed to pay it. Paolo sent it to Naples.

5. An unfinished painting of Abraham holding Isaac by the Hand, now in the possession of the Zonadari family, who obtained it from the Peruzzi.

During the siege, work was found for artists, but of an unpleasant nature. Andrea was commissioned, in 1530, to paint the effigies of some traitors on the palace of the Signoria. He dared not refuse, but remembering that his namesake, Andrea del Castagno, who had been similarly employed, gained the name of "Andrea degli Impiccati," he was anxious that the same name should not attach to himself. Accordingly he had an enclosed platform made, and giving out that his pupil, Bernardino del Buda, was going to paint the effigies, he worked at them himself secretly, till, on being uncovered, they seemed to be real persons writhing on the gibbet.

No trace of them remains now, but the studies are in the collection of drawings in the Uffizi.

A fine half-length figure of S. Sebastian, for the brotherhood of that name, which had its head-quarters in the street in which Andrea lived, was almost his last work in Florence.

The siege was now over, but the influx of soldiers from the camp brought a return of the plague, which awakened great terror in the city. Andrea's mode of life and love of good living did not conduce to his safety; he was taken ill suddenly, and gave himself up for lost. Neither Vasari nor Biadi says he was entirely deserted by his wife; they only hint that she came to his room as little as she could, having a great fear of the plague.

It is more than probable that Andrea himself kept her away from him, for his love was always unselfish, and he thought only of her good. However this be, he died, aged forty-two, on the 22nd of January, 1531, and was buried very quietly by the "Brethren of the Scalzo" in the church of the S. Annunziata. His tomb is beneath the pavement of the presbytery, on the left hand. His older biographers seem to think this unostentatious funeral a great slight to his merits, but if there were any doubts as to his illness being the plague, it would only have been a natural precaution to avoid spreading contagion by making his interment quite private.

That Andrea had not wholly neglected his own family is proved by his will, which left his property (after paying back Lucrezia's dot of 100 scudi, and the money for the improvement of the new house in Via Crocetta for her and her daughter) to his brother Domenico, with the proviso that after his death half the bequest should be given to Domenico's daughter as dot, the rest to accrue to the hospital of the Innocenti (Foundlings). [Footnote: Ricordanze nel Archivio del E. Spedate degli Innocenti di Firenze. Biadi, Notizie, p. 127.]

Lucrezia lived to a good old age, being nearly ninety when she died; she seems to have lived a very quiet life, and to have kept Andrea's paintings with great care, except a few only which she sold. The house in Via Crocetta passed many years afterwards into the possession of another painter, Zuccheri, who embellished the studio front with reliefs in stone, representing the paraphernalia of an atelier; but it is Andrea's name which lives in the house, as his memory does in the hearts of the Florentine people, and his works in the cloisters of the Florentine churches. The people of the city always seem to claim Del Sarto as especially their own. He is always nostro pittore, or nostro maestro-and indeed as a master of fresco he never was surpassed. In colouring he was in his way unique; in modelling, original and graceful; while the transparent clearness of his shadows and brilliant blending of tints in the lights render his handling incomparable. A little more refinement and aesthetic feeling would have placed him on a level with the great leaders of the Renaissance.



CHAPTER VIII.

SCHOLARS OF ANDREA DEL SARTO.

Andrea's scholars were numerous, though only a few rose to any great eminence. Of these, JACOPO CARRUCCI, "da Pontormo" (born 1494, died 1557), was by far the most talented. Left an orphan at an early age, the charge of his sister devolved on him, and he placed her with a relation while he was pursuing his art training. He studied under a diversity of masters, including Leonardo da Vinci, Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo; and finally, in 1512, he entered Andrea del Sarto's school, but did not stay long there either. Some say Andrea was jealous of his success; he, however, had generosity enough to praise and acknowledge his talent, and to show his appreciation by giving him important work to do in his own studio.

Pontormo did the predella to Andrea's altar-piece of the Annunciation for the convent of S. Gallo. His hand is to be seen also in several of his master's works. He drew public attention first by painting two figures of Faith and Charity on the escutcheon of the Medici for Andrea di Cosimo, who had obtained the commission, but did not feel equal to executing it. Michelangelo, on seeing these figures, prophesied great things for the youth, who was at that time only nineteen years of age.

The people of Pontormo, his native town, were so proud of him, that they sent for him to emblazon the arms of Pope Leo over the gate of their city.

He was next employed by one of the festal companies of the age, called the Company of the Diamond, to design cars, banners, and costumes for a triumphal procession in honour of Leo X.'s elevation to the papal chair; and he organised a very suggestive array of the ages of man, illustrated historically. He decorated the Papal Hall for Leo X.'s entrance, and later began to be employed on more serious and lasting works.

Some good frescoes of his existed in the convent of Santa Caterina, but were destroyed when the building was reconstructed in 1688.

A very charming fresco of the Visitation still exists in the court of the SS. Annunziata. It shows him as a good pure colourist, the flesh tints being especially tender; the composition is lively, full, and effective.

In 1518 he painted a fine altar-piece for the church of S. Michele Visdomini, Florence, by commission of Francesco Pucci. The Madonna, seated, is showing the Child Jesus to S. Joseph, whose face is most expressive and full of smiling admiration. S. John Baptist stands near, at the sides are S. John Evangelist, S. James, and S. Francis, the latter kneeling in ecstatic admiration.

In some cases he was placed in direct competition with his master, Andrea del Sarto, being employed by Borgherini to paint the coffers and cabinets in the same room for which Andrea did the History of Joseph; and again later at Poggio a Cajano, where the ends of the great hall were assigned to him to paint, Andrea and Francia Bigio taking the larger walls at the sides. On one end he designed an allegory of Vertumnus, with his husbandmen around him busy with their labours, and on the other Pomona, Diana, &c. Perhaps in these last he has carried his imitation of Andrea del Sarto rather too far in the matter of draperies, which are too profuse and studied. Indeed the whole works are overdone; he was so anxious to rival his master that he forced his invention, altering and labouring till all spontaneity was taken out of his work. Some of his frescoes were in the cloister of the Certosa, but they are not fair specimens of his best style, as they were done when the Florentine artists were smitten with the mania of imitating Albrecht Durer, and in these he has entirely followed the harder manner of that artist without obtaining his strength. The frescoes are all scenes from the Life of Christ, and he spent several years over them; after which he painted an altar- piece.

Giovanni Battista della Palla commissioned him to paint a picture to be sent to the King of France, and Pontormo returning wisely to his natural style, painted one of his masterpieces, the Resurrection of Lazarus. The Pitti Palace possesses a curious specimen of his work, the 11,000 martyrs crucified in a wood in the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian.

He rose to renown as a portrait painter, but lost patronage in later year by his capricious behaviour, refusing to work except for whom and when he pleased. In company with his favourite pupil, Bronzino, he did the frescoes in the Loggie of the Medici villa at Careggi; one Loggia was soon completed, to the great delight of the Duke, but Jacopo shut himself up in the second and allowed no one to see what he was doing for five years; when at length he uncovered the frescoes general disappointment was the result. He pursued much the same line of conduct in the frescoes of the roof of the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo. He kept the chapel closed with walls and planks for eleven years, no one seeing his progress except some young men who removed one of the rosettes from the ceiling to peep in on him, but he discovered their plan, and closed the holes more assiduously than ever. The composition is as confused as it is diffusive; he tried to embody the whole teaching of the Bible, but becoming overwhelmed with the vastness of his subject, fell short even of the excellence of his own previous works. He died before this work was completed, of hydropsy, and was buried in the Servite Church.

GIORGIO VASARI, better known as the chronicler of the works of other artists than for the excellence of his own, was born at Arezzo, 1512— died at Florence, 1574. His father was a painter, and the family was connected by ties of relationship with Luca Signorelli of Cortona. Among the many masters under whom he studied was Andrea del Sarto. He did not remain long under his tuition, having contrived to offend Lucrezia in some way. He painted a great many frescoes at Arezzo, where he lived in his youth with his paternal uncle Don Antonio. Don Miniato Pitti, prior of the convent of Monte Oliveti, near Siena, next employed him to adorn the portico of his church. He had the good fortune to attract the notice of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, who took him to Rome in his suite, where he gained much advantage by the study of the works of the great masters there. The Medici family, especially Andrea del Sarto's patron, Ottaviano, were his constant friends: and their palaces are profusely decorated by him. The Riccardi Palace has a room with fresco scenes from the life of Casar. While painting these Duke Alessandro gave him a salary of six crowns a month with a place at his table, and board for his servant, &c. The palace has several oil paintings by Vasari, amongst which are portraits of the Duke and his sister. After the death of Duke Alessandro and Ottaviano he wandered from city to city, painting so energetically that there are few of the principal towns which do not possess some of his works, especially Naples, Pisa, Bologna, and Arezzo. The Palazzo San Giorgio of the Farnese family, in Rome, has a large hall richly frescoed by Vasari, but the best of his works are to be seen on the walls of the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he has illustrated the battles of the Florentines, and in several other rooms of the same palace; he having continued all the later years of his life in the service of Duke Cosimo, by whom the palace was restored and decorated. His works are too numerous and not sufficiently important to catalogue or describe, his composition is overcrowded and wanting in perspective. There is generally a superabundance of flesh; muscular limbs in all attitudes form a great part of his pictures, but as the flesh tints he used were wanting in mellowness and shadow, and have turned pink with age, they compare disadvantageously with those of the more solid masters who preceded him. After all, Vasari's name and fame rest principally on the labours of his pen, not those of his brush. His "Lives of the Painters," although not a model of precision in facts or chronology, is nevertheless the mine from which all subsequent art historians quarry to obtain their information.

One of the most valuable books of the day is probably the new edition of Vasari with corrections and notes taken from the archives by Signer Gaetano Milanesi.

FRANCESCO ROSSI, DE' SALVIATI (born at Florence, 1510—died at Borne, 1563) was a great friend of Vasari; his real name was Rossi, his father being a weaver of velvets, but he obtained the name of Salviati from being the protege of the Cardinal of that name. His first master was Raffaello del Brescia, but in 1529 he, with his friend Nannoccio, entered the school of Andrea del Sarto, with whom they stayed during the siege. Becoming known by some paintings done for the friars of the Badia, Cardinal Salviati took him into his house, gave him a stipend of four crowns a month, and an apartment at the Borgo Vecchio, he painting any works the Cardinal wished. Francesco was not idle, a great number of frescoes, altar-pieces, and portraits, &c., &c., testifying to his industry. In his later years he was employed with his friend Vasari in the Palazzo Vecchio, where he painted the frescoes in the smaller Hall of Audience. These are principally scenes from the Life of Camillus. The story of the schoolmaster of Falerii is very spirited, and the Triumph of Camillus varied and pleasing in colouring. Although melancholy and suspicious, often making enemies and losing patronage by misunderstandings, Rossi and Vasari were always faithful to their first boyish friendship, often working together, but never with any spirit of rivalry. Salviati's style was bold and spirited; he was rich in invention, but perhaps a little wild in the matter of draperies and bizarre costumes. His colouring is more pleasing than that of Vasari, but is diffusive and wanting in depth.

DOMENICO CONTI never became famous, but in spite of want of genius, he was Andrea's favourite pupil. All his master's designs and cartoons came into his possession at Andrea's death, but he was unfortunately robbed of them soon afterwards. The inscription to Andrea del Sarto which once existed in the church of SS. Annunziata was put up by Conti.

JACOPO DEL CONTE (1510-1598), who in Vasari's time lived in Rome, is chiefly noted for his likenesses of several pontiffs and personages of the Papal Court. There are a few altar-pieces by him in Rome, and a Deposition in the church of the Misericordia in Florence, but he was almost exclusively a portrait painter.

ANDREA SGUAZZELLA, called NANNOCCIO, remained in France after having accompanied Andrea del Sarto thither. Cardinal Tournon took him under his patronage, and he painted a large number of works in the style of Andrea.

JACOPO, called JACONE, was another of Andrea's favourite disciples. His frescoes, of which some existed till of late years on the facade of the Palazzo Buondelmonte, in Florence, were much in Del Sarto's manner. He assisted his master in a great many of his works, while of his independent paintings many were sent to France; no doubt some of these, as well as Sguazzella's, figure under the master's name in that list of fifty works given by Argenville. He was too idle and fond of pleasure to rise to eminence, though he did some good frescoes in the Palazzo Capponi at Florence, and in the Capponi Villa at Montici, and assisted Jacopo da Pontormo in the Hall of the Medici villa at Careggi. He died in 1553, in great poverty.

PIER FRANCESCO DI JACOPO DI SANDRO was said to have had some talent. He and Domenico Conti were employed among others in decorating the court of the Palazzo Vecchio on the occasion of Cosimo de' Medici's marriage with Leonora di Toledo. There are some altar-pieces of his in the church of Santo Spirito, Florence.

SOLOSMEO, RAFFAELLO, and BERNARDINO DEL BUDA were three garzoni in Andrea's studio. They were employed in the subordinate work and manual labour, but were not trained as artists.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

1886. G. GRUYER. Fra Bartolommeo della Porta and M. Albertinelli. 1903. F. KNAPP. Fra Bartolommeo della Porta. 1922. H. GABLENTZ. Fra Bartolommeo. 1902. M. E. JAMES. Fra Bartolommeo. 1899. H. GUINNESS. Andrea del Sarto. (The Great Masters Series.) 1905. MASTERPIECES OF ANDREA DEL SARTO. (Gowan's Art Books.) 1928. F. KNAPP. Andrea del Sarto. 1864-66. CROWE AND CAVALCASELLE. A New History of Painting in Italy from the 2nd to the 16th Century. Three Volumes.

THE END