l-f-.fles: 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF 
 THE GREAT ARTISTS 
 
 BARTOLOMMEO DI PAOLO 
 
 AND 
 
 MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI 
 ANDREA D'AGNOLO 
 
ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OIF 
 THE GREAT ARTISTS. 
 
 The following volumes, each illustrated with from 14 to 20 Engravings, 
 are now ready, price y. 6d. : — 
 
 ITALIAN, &-C. 
 FRA ANGELICO, By Catherine M. Philltmore. 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. By Leader Scott. 
 LEONARDO DA VINCL By Dr. J. Paul Richter. 
 MICHELANGELO. By Charles Clement. 
 RAPHAEL. From J. D. Passavant. By N. D'Anvers. 
 TITIAN. By Richard Ford Heath, M.A., Oxford. 
 TINTORETTO. By W. RoscoE Osler. From researches at Venice. 
 VERNET AND DELAROCHE. By J. RuuTZ Rees. 
 
 TEUTONIC. 
 
 HOLBEIN. From Dr. A. WoLTMANN. By Joseph Cundall. 
 THE LITTLE MASTERS of GERMANY.' By W. B. Scott. 
 REMBRANDT. From Charles Vosmaer. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. 
 RUBENS. By C. W. Kett, M.A., Oxford. 
 
 VAN DYCK AND HALS. By Percy R. Head, LincDln College, Oxford. 
 FIGURE PAINTERS of HOLLAND. By Lord Ronald Gower, F.S. A^. 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 HOGARTH. By Austin Dobson. 
 REYNOLDS. By F. S. Pulling, M.A., Oxford. 
 GAINSBOROUGH. By G. M. Brock-Arnold, M.A., Oxford. 
 TURNER. By W. Cosmo Monkhouse. 
 
 WILKIE. By J. W. Mollett, B.A., Brasenose College, Oxford. 
 LANDSEER. By Frederick G. Stephens. 
 
 The following volumes are in preparation : — 
 
 VELAZQUEZ. By Edwin Stowe, M.A., Oxford. 
 GIOTTO. By Harry Quilter, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 ALBRECIIT DURER. By Richard Ford Heath, M.A., Oxford. 
 CORREGGIO. By M. Compton Heaton. 
 
 ' An Edition de luxe, containing 14 extra plates from rare engravings in thoc 
 .British Museum, and bound in Roxburgh style, may be had, price loj. 6^/. 
 
" The whole ivorld without Art would be one great wilderness." 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 SCRIBNER AND WELFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON, 
 
 1881 
 
 BY LEADER SCOTT, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A NOOK IN THE APENNINES." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN the following lives of Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea 
 del Sarto, I have endeavoured as much as possible 
 to keep before me the object of the series, which is to 
 bring the Great Masters in an appreciable form before 
 the minds of those who are interested in art ; and to give 
 a human interest to the men whose works have become 
 built in to the very walls of that great fabric, the Re- 
 naissance. Continental travel is, in these days, rendered 
 so easy, that it is very desirable the study of art should 
 no longer be an enigma ; nor the walk through the 
 galleries a weariness to the unlearned tourist. 
 
 It helps us greatly, in comprehending a work, to have 
 a clear idea of the kind of man who produced it what 
 were his characteristic and leading trains of thought, and, 
 chiefly, what were the times in which he lived. M. Taine 
 {Lectures on Art, chap. i. p. 33), truly says: "Just as 
 there is a physical temperature (zone) which by its varia- 
 tions determines the appearance of this or that species 
 of plant, so is there a moral temperature, which by its 
 variations determines the appearance of this or that 
 species of art." 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo, a monk living in an age of extra- 
 ordinary religious fervour, shows in his works earnest 
 thought, intense religion, and a schooled imagination, 
 which keeps his designs within the bounds of an austere 
 rule, and his handling within the bonds of the traditions 
 of his school. 
 
 Andrea del Sarto, on the contrary, living in times 
 when classicism began to quench religion, and courtly 
 patronage to debase the higher aims of art, displays a 
 more fearless imagination, and a daring of colour and 
 handling which defies tradition. His subjects are neces- 
 sarily religious, because he worked for churches and con- 
 vents, but their spirit is distinctly secular. His graceful 
 women in flowing garments, wreathed scarfs, and wavy 
 hair, are no longer spiritualised saints, but women of the 
 Medici age, with a late classic idealisation. 
 
 In giving a popular rendering of the subjects, however, 
 I have tried to make the lives authentic by always going 
 to original Italian sources, by a personal study of such 
 paintings as were within reach, and by never giving a 
 positive date which cannot be verified by documentary 
 evidence. 
 
 Sincere thanks are due to Sig. Gaetano Milanesi, the 
 custodian of the archives of Florence, for much kind 
 information. 
 
 Flokence, October, 1880. 
 
 Leader Scott. 
 
CONTENTte. 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 PAOK 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE RENAISSANCE 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE "bottega" of cosimo roselli. a.d. 1475 — 1486 ... 8 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GARDEN AND THE CLOISTER. A.D. 1487 — 1495 14 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SAN MARCO. A.D. 1496 — 1500 20 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ERA BARTOLOMMEO IN THE CONVENT. A.D. 1504 — 1509 .... 28 
 
 CHAPTER VI. ! 
 
 ALBERTINELLI IN THE WORLD. A.D. 1501 — 1510 33 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONVENT PARTNERSHIP. A.D. 1510—1513 41 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CLOSE OF LIFE. A.D. 1514—1517 48 
 
 CHAPTER IX. ' 
 
 I'ART I. — SCHOLARS OF FRA BARTOLOMMEO 57 
 
 PART II. — SCHOLARS OF MABIOTTO ALBERTINELLI 59 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO 36 
 
viii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ANDREA. DEL SARTO. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PACT? 
 
 YOUTH AND EARLY WORKS. A.D. 1487 — 1511 . . ' 72 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE SERVITE CLOISTER. A.D. 1511 — 1512 . 81 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE AND MARRIAGE. A.D. 1511 — 1516 85 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WORKS IN FLORENCE. A.D. 1511 — 1515 91 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOING TO FRANCE. A.D. 1518—1519 98 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANDREA AND OTTAVIANO DE' MEDICI. A.D. 1521 — 1523 .... 103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. A.D. 1525 — 1531 107 
 
 CHAPTER VI IT. 
 
 .SCHOLARS OF ANDREA DEL SARTO 115 
 
 WORKS BY FRA BAETOLOMMEO 122 
 
 WORKS BY ALBERTINELLI 124 
 
 WORKS BY ANDREA DEL SARTO 125 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 130 
 
 INDEX 131 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 FRA BA.RTOLOMMEO. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Portrait of Fea Baetolommeo Frontispiece. 
 
 Enthronement of the V'iegin 18 
 
 Savonarola as Peter Martyr ^ • 25 
 
 The Virgin with St. Jeeome and St. Zenobio. Br Albeetinelli 36 
 
 St. Maek 42 
 
 Madonna and Saints 44 
 
 Salvatoe Mundi 52 
 
 PlETA 55 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Portrait of Andrea del Saeto Frontispiece. 
 
 The Pauable of the Vineyard 83 
 
 The Bieth of the Viegin 90 
 
 Madonna del Sacco 93 
 
 The Fotte Saints 95 
 
 Saint Agnes 108 
 
 Group from the Last Supper Ill 
 
 The Sacrifice of Abraham 112 
 
 F B 
 
FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 TT seems to be a law of nature that progress, as well as 
 time, should be marked by periods of alternate light and 
 darkness — day and night. 
 
 This law is nowhere more apparent than in the history of 
 Art. Three times has the world been illuminated by the full 
 brilliance of Art, and three times has a corresponding period 
 of darkness ensued. 
 
 The first day dawned in Egypt and Assyria, and its works 
 lie buried in the tombs of prehistoric Pharaohs and JSTinevite 
 kings. The second day the sun rose on the shores of many- 
 isled Greece, and shed its rays over Etruria and Rome, and 
 ere it set, temples and palaces were flooded with beauty. 
 The gods had taken human form, and were come to dwell 
 with men. 
 
 The third day arising in Italy, lit up the whole western 
 world with the glow of colour and fervour, and its fading 
 rays light us yet. 
 
 F B B 
 
2 
 
 FKA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 The first period was that of mythic art ; the world like a 
 child wondering at all around tried to express in myths the 
 truths it could not comprehend. 
 
 The second was pagan art which satisfies itself that in 
 expressing the perfection of humanity, it unfolds divinity. 
 The third era of Christian art, conscious that the divine lies 
 beyond the human, fails in aspiring to express infinitude. 
 
 Tracing one of these periods from its rise, how truly this 
 similitude of the dawn of day is carried out. See at the first 
 streak of light how dim, stiff, and soulless all things appear ! 
 Trees and objects bear precisely the relation to their own 
 appearance in broad daylight as the wooden Madonnas of the 
 Byzantine school do to those of Raphael. 
 
 Next, when the sun — the true light — first appears, how it 
 bathes the sea and the hills in an ethereal glory not their 
 own ! What fair liquid tints of blue, and rose, and glorious 
 gold ! This period which, in art, began with Giotto and 
 ended with Botticelli, culminated in Fra Angelico, who flooded 
 the world of painting with a heavenly spiritualism not 
 material, and gave his dreams of heaven the colours of the 
 first pure rays of sunshine. 
 
 But as the sun rises, nature takes her real tints gradually. 
 We see every thing in its own colour ; the gold and the 
 rose has faded away with the truer light, and a stern realism 
 takes its place. The himian form must be expressed, in all 
 its solidity and truth, not only in its outward semblance, but 
 the hidden soul must be seen through the veil of flesh. And 
 in this lies the reason of the decline ; only to a few great 
 masters it was given to reveal spirituality in humanity — the 
 others could only emulate form and colour, and failed. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate art apart from religion ; as 
 truly as the celestial sun is the revealer of form, so surely is 
 the heavenly light of religion the first inspirer of art. 
 
 Where would the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Etruscan paint- 
 ings and sculptures have been but for the veneration of the 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE EENAISSANCE. 
 
 3 
 
 mystic gods of the dead, which both prompted and preserved 
 them] 
 
 What would Greek sculpture have been without the deified 
 personifications of the mysterious powers of nature which 
 inspired it 1 and it is the fact of the pagan religion being 
 both sensuous and realistic which explains the perfection of 
 Greek art. The highest ideal being so low as not to soar 
 beyond the greatest perfection of humanity, was thus within 
 the grasp of the artist to express. Given a manly figure with 
 the fullest development of strength ; a female one showing 
 the greatest perfection of form; and a noble man whose 
 features express dignity and mental power; — the ideal of 
 a Hercules, a Venus, and a Jupiter is fully expressed, and the 
 pagan mind satisfied. The spirit of admirers was moved more 
 by beauty of form than by its hidden significance. In the 
 great Venus, one recognises the woman before feeling the 
 goddess. 
 
 As with their sculpture, without doubt it was also with 
 painting. Mr. Symonds, in his Renaissance of the Fine 
 Arts, speaks of the Greek revival as. entirely an age of 
 sculpture ; but the solitary glance into the more perishable 
 art of painting among the Greeks, to be seen at Cortona, 
 reveals the exquisite perfection to which this branch was also 
 brought. It is a painting in encaustic, and has been used as 
 a door for his oven by the contadino who dug it up — yet it 
 remains a marvel of genius. The subject is a female head — a 
 muse, or perhaps only a portrait ; the delicacy and mellowness 
 of the flesh tints equal those of Raphael or Leonardo, and a 
 lock of hair lying across her breast is so exquisitely painted 
 that it seems to move with her breath. The features are of 
 the large-eyed regular Greek type, womanly dignity is in 
 every line, but it is an essentially pagan face — the Christian 
 soul has never dawned in those eyes ! "With this before us, 
 we cannot doubt that Greek art found its expression as much 
 in colour as in form and that the same religion inspired both. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 In an equal degree Renaissance Art has its roots in 
 Christianity ; but the religion is deeper and greater, and has 
 left art behind. 
 
 The early Christians must have felt this when they ex- 
 pressed everything in symbols, for these are merely suggestive, 
 and allow the imagination full play around and beyond them ; 
 they are mere stepping-stones to the ideal which exists but 
 is as yet inexpressible. 
 
 " Myths and symbols always mark the dawn of a religion, 
 incarnation and realism its full growth." So after a time when 
 the first vague wonder and ecstasy are over, symbols no longer 
 content people ; they want to bring religion home to them in 
 a more tangible form, to humanize it, in fact. From this 
 want it arises that nature next to religion inspires art, and 
 finally takes its place. For it follows as a matter of course 
 that as art is a realistic interpreter of the spiritual, so it is 
 more easy to follow nature than spirituality, nature being the 
 outward or realistic expression of the mind of God. 
 
 It was a saying of Buffalmacco, who was not one of the 
 most devout painters of the fourteenth century, " Do not let 
 us think of anything but to cover our walls with saints, and 
 out of disrespect to the demons to make men more devout." 
 And Savonarola, though he has been accused of being one of 
 the causes of the decline, thus upheld the sacred influences of 
 art ; when he exclaimed in one of his fervent bursts of 
 eloquence, " You see that Saint there in the Church and 
 say, ' I will live a good life and be like him.' " If these were 
 the feelings of the least devout and the religious fanatic, how 
 hallowed must the influences of Christian painting have been 
 to the intermediate ranks. Mr. Symonds beautifully ex- 
 presses the tendency of that time : " The eyes of the wor- 
 shipper should no longer have a mere stock or stone to 
 contemplate ; his imagination should be helped by the 
 dogmatic presentation of the scenes of sacred history, and 
 his devotion quickened by lively images of the passion of our 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 5 
 
 Lord The body and soul moreover should be recon- 
 
 ciled, and God's likeness should be once more acknowledged 
 in the features and limbs of men." i 
 
 The school of Giotto was the first to feel this need of the 
 soul. He, taking his ideas from nature, clothed the soul in 
 a thin veil ; the Italians call his school that of poetic art ; 
 it reached sentiment and poetry, but did not pass them. 
 Yet the thirteenth century was sublime for the expression of 
 the idea ; one only has to study the intense meaning in the 
 works of Giotto, and Orcagna, Duccio, and the Lorenzetti of 
 Siena to perceive this. The fourteenth century, on the con- 
 trary, rendered itself glorious for manifestation of form. 
 " Artists thought the veil of ideality a poor thing, and 
 wished to give the solidity of the body to the soul ; they stole 
 every secret from nature ; the senses were content, but not 
 sentiment." ^ 
 
 The artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of 
 whom we have to speak, blended the two schools, and bec^-me 
 perfection as far as they went. Michelangelo drew more 
 from the vigorous thirteenth-century masters, and Raphael 
 from the more sensuous followers of Masaccio and Lippi. 
 The former tried to put the Christian soul into his works, 
 but its infinite depth was unattainable. As his many un- 
 finished works prove, he always felt some great overwhelming 
 meaning in his inmost soul, which all his passionate artistic 
 yearnings were inadequate to express. Eaphael tried to bring 
 realism into religion through painting, and to give us the 
 scenes of our Lord's and the Apostles' lives in such a human- 
 ized aspect, that we should feel ourselves of his nature. 
 But the incarnation of religion in art defeated its own ends ; 
 sensuousness was introduced in place of the calm, unearthly 
 spirituality of the earlier masters. Compare the cartoon of 
 S. Paul preaching at Athens, in which he has all the majesty 
 
 1 Symonds' Renaissance of the Fine Arts, chap. i. p. 11. 
 
 2 Purismo nelV Arte, da Cesare Guasti. 
 
6 
 
 FKA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 of a Caesar in the Forum, with the lowly spirit of the 
 Apostle's life ! In truth, Eaphael failed to approach nearer 
 to sublimity than Fra Angelico, with all his faulty drawing 
 but pure spirit. 
 
 After him, artists loved form and colour for themselves 
 rather than for the spiritual meaning. Miss Owen ^ accuses 
 Raphael of having rendered Art pagan, but this seems 
 blaming him for the weakness of his followers, who took for 
 their type his works rather than his ideal. The causes of 
 the decline were many, and are not centred in one man. As 
 long as Religion slumbered in monasticism and dogma, Art 
 seizing on the human parts, such as the maternity of the 
 Madonna, the personifications of saints who had lived in the 
 world, was its adequate exponent. The religion awakened 
 by the aesthetic S. Francis, who loved all kinds of beauty, 
 was of the kind to be fed by pictures. But when Savonarola 
 had aroused the fervour of the nation to its highest point, 
 when beauty was nothing, the world nothing, in comparison 
 to the infinity of God ; — then art, finding itself powerless to 
 express this overwhelming infinity, fell back on more earthly 
 founts of inspiration, the classics and the poets. 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici and Pope Nicholas Y. had fully as 
 much to do with the decline as Savonarola. The Pope in 
 Rome, and Lorenzo in Florence, led art to the verge of 
 paganism ; Savonarola would have kept it on the confines of 
 purism ; it was divided and fell, passing through the various 
 steps of decadence, the mannerists and the eclectics, to rise 
 again in this nineteenth century with what is after all its true 
 aim, the interpretation of nature, and the illustration of the 
 poetry of a nation. 
 
 But with the decadence we have happily nothing to do ; 
 the artists of whom we speak first, Fra Bartolommeo and 
 Albertinelli, belong to the culmination of art on its rising 
 side, while Andrea del Sarto stands as near to the greatest 
 ^ Art Schools of Medieval Christendom, edited by Ruskiu. 
 
THOUGHTS ON THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 7 
 
 artists on the other side, and is the last of the group before 
 the decline. On Era Bartolommeo the spirituality of Fra 
 Angelico still lingered, while the perfection of Raphael 
 illumined him. Andrea del Sarto, on the other side, had 
 gathered into his hands the gleams of genius from all the 
 great artists who were his elder contemporaries, and so blend- 
 ing them as to form seemingly a style of his own, distinct from 
 any, has left on our walls and in our galleries hundreds of 
 masterpieces of colour, as gay and varied as the tints the 
 orientals weave into their wondrous fabrics. 
 
 It might be said with truth that Fra Bartolommeo painted 
 for the soul, and Andrea del Sarto for the eye. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE "BOTTEGA" op COSIMO EOSELLI. 
 
 A.-D. 1475—1486. 
 
 AMONGST the thousand arteries in which the life blood 
 of the Renaissance coursed in all its fulness, none were so 
 busy or so important as the "botteghe" of the artists. ,In 
 these the genius of the great masters, the Pleiades of stars 
 at the culmination of art in Florence, was either tenderly 
 nursed, or sharply pruned into vigour by struggling against 
 discouragement and envy. In these the spirit of awakened 
 devotion found an outlet, in altarpieces and designs for church 
 frescoes which were to influence thousands. Here the spirit 
 of poetry, brooding in the mysterious lines of Dante, or 
 echoing from past ages in the myths of the Greeks, took form 
 and glowed on the walls in mighty cartoons to be made 
 imperishable in fresco. Here the spirit of luxury was 
 satisfied by beautiful designs for ornaments, dress stuffs, 
 tapestries, vases and "cassoni," &c., which brought beauty 
 into every life, and made each house a poem. The soul, the 
 mind, and the body, could alike be supplied at those fountains 
 of the beautiful, the art-shops or schools. 
 
 Whilst Michelangelo as a youth was drawing from the 
 cartoons of the Sassetti chapel in the school of Domenico 
 Ghirlandajo, Cosimo Roselli was just receiving as a pupil a 
 
THE "BOTTEGA" of COSIMO EOSELLI. 
 
 9 
 
 boy only a little behind him in genius. A small, delicate- 
 faced, spiritual-eyed boy of nine years, known as Baccio 
 della Porta, who came with a roll of drawings under his arm 
 and high hopes in his soul, no doubt trotting along manfully 
 beside Cosimo's old friend, Benedetto da Majano, the sculp- 
 tor, who had recommended his being placed in the studio. 
 
 By the table given in the note ^ it will be seen that Baccio 
 was the son of Paolo, a muleteer, Avhich no doubt was a 
 profitable trade in those days when the country roads were 
 mere mule-tracks, and the traffic between different towns 
 was carried on almost entirely by horses and mulepacks. 
 There is some doubt as to the place of Baccio's birth, which 
 occurred in 1475. Yasari gives it as Savignano near Prato ; 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle 2 assert it was Suffignano, near 
 Florence, where they say Paolo's brothers, Jacopo and 
 Giusto, were contadini or peasants. 
 
 But on consulting the post-office authorities we find no place 
 called Suffignano near Florence ; it must therefore have been a 
 village near Prato called Soffignano, which from similarity of 
 sound Vasari confused with the larger place, Savignano. This 
 is the more probable, for Rosini asserts that " Benedetto da 
 Majano, who had bought a podere near Prato, knew him and 
 took him into his affections, and by his means placed him 
 with Cosimo." ^ 
 
 It is certainly probable that Paolo's wife lived with his 
 
 1 Pietro, a Genoese, came in 1400 to the parish of S. Michele, at 
 Montecuccioli in Mugello ; he was a peasant, and had a son Jacopo, who 
 was father of Paolo, the muleteer ; and three other sons, Bartolo, Giusto, 
 and Jacopo, who had a podere at Soffignano, near Prato. Paolo married 
 first Bartolommea, daughter of Zanobi di Gallone, by whom he had a son, 
 Bartolommeo, known as Baccio della Porta, born 1475. The first wife 
 dying, Paolo married Andrea di Michaele di Cenni, who had four sons, 
 Piero, Domenico, Michele, and Francesco ; only Piero lived to grow up, 
 and he became a priest. [Favoured by Sig. Ifilancsi.] 
 
 2 Vol. iii. chap. xiii. p. 427. 
 
 * Rosini, Storia della Pittura, chap. xvii. p. 47. 
 
10 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 family during his wanderings, because it is the true Italian 
 custom, and Baccio was in that case born in his uncle's house ; 
 for it is not till 1480 that we find Paolo retired from trade 
 and set up in a house of his own in Florence at the gate 
 of S. Pier Gattolini, now the Porta Eomana. 
 
 The friendship begun at Prato must have been con- 
 tinued in Florence, for in 1480 Paolo not only owned 
 that house at the gate of S. Pier Gattolini, but was the 
 proud possessor of a podere at Brozzi, which yielded six 
 barrels^ of wine. He is a merciful man too, for among his 
 possessions are two mules disutili e veccM (old and useless). 
 At this time Baccio was six years old, and his three step- 
 brothers quite babies.i Paolo, as well as his mules, had earned 
 his repose, being certainly old, if not useless, and was anxi- 
 ous for his little sons to be placed out in the world as early 
 as possible. Thus it came that in 1484 Baccio was taken 
 away from his brothers, who played under the shadow of the 
 old gateway, and was put to do the drudgery of the appren- 
 ticeship to art. He had to grind colours for Cosimo— who, as 
 we know, used a great deal of colour, having dazzled the 
 eyes of the Pope with the brilliancy of his blue and gold in 
 the Sistine Chapel some years before— he had to sweep out 
 the studio, no doubt assisted by Mariotto Albertinelli, a boy 
 of his own age, and to run errands, carrying designs for 
 inspection to expectant brides who wanted the chests painted 
 to hold their wedding clothes, or doing the messenger between 
 his master and the nuns of S. Ambrogio, who paid Cosimo 
 their gold florins by the hand of the boy in 1484 and 1485.2 
 
 Whether his age made him a more acceptable means of 
 communication with the nuns, or whether Pier di Cosimo, the 
 elder pupil, already displayed his hatred of womankind, I 
 know^ not ; perhaps the boy already showed that innate 
 devotion and especial fitness for sanctity which marks his 
 ^ Archives of Florence, Portate al Castato, 1480-1. 
 ^ Note to Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. iii. chap. xiii. p. 429. 
 
THE "BOTTEGA" of COSIMO EOSELLI. 
 
 11 
 
 entire art career. Truly everything in his youthful life 
 combined to lead his thoughts to higher things. The first 
 fresco at which he assisted was in this solemn cloister of St. 
 Ambrogio, and the subject the Miracle of the Sacrament; 
 the saintly air of the place, the calm faces of the white- 
 hooded nuns, must all have had an influence in inspiring his 
 youthful mind with the spirit of devotion. 
 
 Baccio's fellow-students were not many, but they formed 
 an interesting group. Pier di Cosimo was the head man, and 
 eldest of all ; with such ties was he bound to his master and 
 godfather, that he was known better as Cosimo' s Peter than 
 by his own patronymic of Chimenti. He was at this time 
 twenty-two years of age, his registry in the Florentine Guild 
 proves his birth in 1462, as the son of Lorenzo, son of Piero, 
 son of Antonio, Chimenti. 
 
 Being the eldest of five brothers, it is difficult to conceive 
 how a member of a large family grew up developing such 
 eccentricities as are usually the fruit of isolation. 
 
 In the studio Piero was industrious and steady, working 
 earnestly, whether he was assisting his master's designs or 
 carrying out his own fancies of monsters, old myths, and 
 classic fairy stories. No doubt the two boys, Mariotto and 
 Baccio, found little companionship in this abstracted young 
 man always dreaming over his own ideas. If they told him 
 an anecdote, he would look up vacantly at the end not having 
 heard a word ; at other times every little noise or biu-st of 
 laughter would annoy him, and he would be immoderately 
 angry with the files and mosquitos, 
 
 Piero had already been to Rome, and had assisted Cosimo 
 in his fresco of Christ jyreaching on Lake Tiberias ; indeed 
 most judges thought his landscape the best part of that 
 work, and the talent he showed obtained him several com- 
 missions. He took the portraits of Virginio Orsini, Rubeito 
 Sanseverino and Duke Valentino, son of Pope Alessandro VI. 
 He was much esteemed as a portrait painter also in Florence, 
 
12 
 
 FEA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 and from his love of classical subjects, and extreme finish of 
 execution, he ranked as one of the best painters of " cassoni," 
 or bridal-linen chests. 
 
 This fashion excited the indignation of Savonarola, who in 
 one of his sermons exclaimed, "Do not let your daughters 
 prepare their 'corredo' (trousseau) in a chest with pagan 
 paintings ; is it right for a Christian spouse to be familiar 
 with Yenus before the Virgin, or Mars before the saints ? " 
 
 Thus Piero being a finished painter, was often Cosimo 
 Roselli's substitute in the instruction of the two boys, for 
 Cosimo having come home from Rome with some money, lived 
 at his ease ; but still continued to paint frescoes in company 
 with Piero. 
 
 Another pupil was Andrea di Cosimo, whose peculiar 
 branch of art was that of tjp- grotesque. He no doubt drew 
 designs for friezes and fountains, for architraves and door 
 mouldings, in which distorted faces look out from all kinds of 
 writhing scrolls ; and lizards, dragons, snakes, and creeping 
 plants, mingle according to the artist's fancy. Andrea was 
 however often employed in more serious work, as the records 
 of the Servite Convent prove, for they contain the note of 
 payment to him, in 1510, for the curtains of the altarpiece 
 which Filippino Lippi had painted. These curtains were till 
 lately attributed to Andrea del Sarto, or Francia Bigio. 
 
 This is the Andrea Feltrini mentioned by Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle as working in the cloister of the Servi with 
 Andrea del Sarto and Francia Bigio between 1509 and 
 1514.^ 
 
 But Baccio's dearest friend in the studio was a boy nearly 
 his own age, Mariotto Albertinelli, son of Biagio di Bindo, 
 born October 13, 1474. He had experienced the common lot 
 of young artists in those days, and had been apprenticed to 
 a gold-beater, but preferred the profession of painter. From 
 the first these two lads, being thrown almost entirely together 
 ^ History of Painting, vol. iii. chap. xvii. p. 546. 
 
THE "BOTTEGA" of COSIMO ROSELLT. 
 
 13 
 
 in the work of the studio, formed one of those pure, lasting 
 friendships, of which so many exist in the annals of art, and 
 so few in the material world. They helped each other in the 
 drudgery, and enjoyed their higher studies together; but 
 they did not draw all their inspirations from the over- 
 coloured works of Cosimo— although Mariotto once reproduced 
 his red-winged cherubim in after life '—nor from the hard 
 and laboured myths of Piero. 
 
 They went to higher founts, for scarcely a trace of these 
 early influences are to be found in their paintings. Vasari 
 says they studied the Cose di Leonardo. The great artist 
 had at this time left the studio of Yerocchio, and was fast 
 rising into fame in Florence, so it is most probable that 
 two youths with strong artistic tendencies would study, not 
 only the sketches, but also the precepts, of the great man. 
 Besides this there were two national art-schools open to 
 students in Florence: these were the frescoes of Masaccio 
 and Lippi in the Carmine, and the Medicean garden in the 
 Yia Cavour, then called Via Larga. 
 
 1 In tlie ' Trinity ' in the Belle Arti, Florence. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GARDEN AND THE CLOISTER. 
 A.D. 1487—1495. 
 
 THE two boys left the studio of Cosimo Roselli at an 
 early age. There had been trouble in the house 
 of Paolo the ex-muleteer, and Baccio's already serious mind 
 had been awed by the. sight of death. His little brother, 
 Domenico, died in 1486 at seven years of age. His father^ 
 Paolo, died in 1487 ; thus Baccio, at the age of twelve or 
 thirteen, was left the head of the family, and the supporter 
 of his stepmother and her babes. This may account for his 
 leaving Cosimo so young, and setting up his studio with 
 Mariotto as his companion, in his own house at the gate of 
 S. Pier Gattolini ; this partnership began presumably about 
 the year 1490. 
 
 Conscious that they were not perfected by Cosimo's teach- 
 ing, they both set themselves to undergo a strict discipline in 
 art, and, friends as they were, their paths began to diverge 
 from this point. Their natural tastes led them to opposite 
 schools— Baccio to the sacred shrine of art in the shadowed 
 church, Mariotto to the greenery and sunshine of the Medici 
 garden, where beauty of nature and classic treasures were 
 heaped in profusion ; whose loggie ' glowed with the finest 
 forms of Greek sculpture, resuscitated from the tombs of 
 ages to inspire newer artists to perfection, but alas ! also to 
 debase the aim of purely Christian art. 
 
 ^ Arched colonnades. 
 
THE GARDEN AND THE CLOISTER. 
 
 Baccio's calm devotional mind no doubt disliked the 
 turmoil of this garden, crowded with spirited youths; the 
 tone of pagan art was not in accordance with his ideal, and 
 so he learned from Masaccio and Lippi that love of true form 
 and harmonious composition, which he perfected afterwards 
 by a close study of Leonardo da Vinci, whose principles of 
 chiaroscuro he seems to have completely carried out. With 
 this training he rose to such great celebrity even in his early 
 manhood, that Rosini ^ calls him " the star of the Florentine 
 school in Leonardo and Michelangelo's absence," and he 
 attained a grandeur almost equal to the latter, in the S. 
 Mark and SS. Peter and Paul of his later years. 
 
 Meanwhile Mariotto was revelling in the Eden of art, 
 drawing daily beneath the Loggie — where the orange-trees 
 grew close to'the pillars — from the exquisite statues and "torsi," 
 peopling the shades with white forms, or copying cartoons by 
 the older masters, which hung against the walls. 
 
 The custode of all these treasures was Bertoldo, an old 
 sculptor, who boasted of having been the scholar of Dona- 
 tello, and also heir to his art possessions. He could also 
 point to the bronze pulpits of San Lorenzo, which he finished, 
 as proof of his having inherited a portion of his master's 
 spirit. Bertoldo, having doubtless rendered to Duke Cosimo's 
 keeping his designs by Donatello, which were preserved in 
 the garden, obtained the post of instructor there ; but his 
 age may have prevented his keeping perfect order, and the 
 younger spirits overpowered him. There were Michelangelo, 
 with all the youthful power of passion and force which he 
 afterwards imparted to his works, and the audacious 
 Torrigiano, with his fierce voice, huge bulk, and knitted 
 brows, who was himself a discord like the serpent in Eden. 
 Easily offended, he was prompt in offering outrage. Did any 
 other young man show talent or surpass him, revenge deep 
 and mean as that of Bandinelli to Michelangelo was sure to 
 ^ Eosini, Storia della Pittura, chap. xvii. p. 48. 
 
16 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 follow, the envied work being spoiled in his rage. Then 
 there were the fun-loving Francesco Granacci, and the witty 
 E-ustici, as full of boyish pranks as they were of genius — 
 what could one old man do among so many 1 — and now comes 
 the impetuous Mariotto to add one more unruly member to 
 his class. 
 
 How well one can imagine the young men — in loose blouses 
 confined at the waist, or in buff jerkins and close-fitting hose, 
 with jaunty cloaks or doublets, and little red or black caps, 
 set on flowing locks cut square in front — passing beneath the 
 shadows of the arches among the dim statues, or crossing the 
 garden in the sunshine amid the orange-trees, under the 
 splendid blue Italian skies. 
 
 We can see them painting, modelling, or drawing large 
 cartoons in charcoal, while old Bertoldo passes from easel to 
 easel, criticising and fault-finding, detailing for the hundredth 
 time Donatello's maxims, and moving on, heedless or deaf to 
 the irreverent jokes of his ungrateful pupils. 
 
 Then, like a vision of power and grandeur, Lorenzo il 
 Magnifico enters with a group of his classic friends. Politian 
 and the brothers Pulci admire again the ancient sculptures 
 which are to them as illustrations of their readings, and 
 Lorenzo notes the works of all the students who were 
 destined to contribute to the glory of the many Medicean 
 palaces. How the burly Torrigiano's heart burns within 
 him when the Duke praises his compeer's works ! 
 
 Sometimes Madonna Alfonsina, the mother of Lorenzo, 
 and widow of Piero, walked here, and she also took an 
 interest in the studies of the youths. Mariotto especially 
 attracted her by his talent and zeal. She commissioned him 
 to paint some pictures for her to send as a present to her 
 own family, the Orsini of Rome. These works, of which the 
 subjects are not known, passed afterwards into the possession 
 of Csesar Borgia. She also sat to Mariotto for her own portrait. 
 It is easily imagined how elated the excitable youth became 
 
THE GARDEN AND THE CLOISTEE. 
 
 17 
 
 at this notice from the mother of the magnificent Lorenzo. 
 Ae had dreams of making a greater name than even his 
 master, Cosimo, whose handiwork was in the Sistine; of 
 excelling Michelangelo, of whose genius the world was be- 
 ginning to talk ; and, as adhering to a party was the only- 
 way to success in those days, he became a strong Pallesco,^ 
 trusting wholly in the favour of Madonna Alfonsina. 
 
 He even absented himself almost constantly from the 
 studio, which Baccio shared with him, and worked at the 
 Medici palace,^ but, alas! in 1494 this brilliant aspect of 
 his fortunes changed. 
 
 Lorenzo being dead, Piero de' Medici was banished, the 
 great palace fell into the hands of the republican Signoria, 
 and all the painters were left without patronage. 
 
 Mariotto, very much cast down, bethought himself of a 
 friend who never failed him, and whose love was not affected 
 by party ; and, returning to the house of Baccio, he set to 
 work, most likely in a renewed spirit of confidence in the com- 
 rade who stood by him when the princes in whom he trusted 
 failed him. Whatever his frame of mind, he began now to 
 study earnestly the works of Baccio, who, while he was seeking 
 patronage in the palace, had been purifying his genius in the 
 Church. Mariotto imbibed more and more of Baccio's style, 
 till their works so much resembled one another that indifferent 
 judges could scarcely distinguish them apart. It would be 
 interesting if we could see those early pictures done for 
 Madonna Alfonsina, and compare them with the style formed 
 after this second adherence to Fra Bartolommeo. What his 
 manner afterwards became we have a proof in the Salutation 
 (1503), in which there is grand simplicity of motive combined 
 with the most extreme richness of execution and fullest 
 har-mony of colour. 
 
 1 The Palleschi were the partizans of the Medici, so called because they 
 took as their standard tlie Palle, or Balls, the arms of that family. 
 
 ^ This break is signified by Baldinucci, Opere, vol. iv. p. 84, and by 
 Vasari, who says that after the exile of Piero he returned to Baccio. 
 
J8 
 
 TEA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 This second union between the friends could not have been 
 so satisfactory to either as the first pure boyish love, when 
 they had been full of youthful hopes, and felt their hearts 
 expand with the dreams and visions of genius. Now instead 
 of the mere differences between two styles of art, there 
 were differences which much more seriously affected their 
 characters; they were daily sundering, one going slowly 
 towards the cloister, the other to the world. Albertinelli 
 had gained a greater love of worldly success and luxury. 
 
 Baccio's mind, always attuned to devotion, was now inten- 
 sified by family sorrows, which no doubt brought him nearer 
 to heaven. Thus softened, he had the more readily received 
 the seeds of faith which Savonarola scattered broadcast. 
 
 Yet though every word of the one was a wound to the 
 other, this strangely assorted pair of friends did not part. 
 Rosini well defined their union as " a knot which binds more 
 strongly by pulling contrary ways."^ 
 
 So when Albertinelli, while colouring with zeal a design of 
 Baccio's, would inveigh against all monks, the Dominicans in 
 particular, and Savonarola especially, his friend would argue 
 that the inspired prophet was not an enemy, but a purifier and 
 reformer of art. Probably Baccio was at the Duomo on that 
 Sunday in Lent, 1495, and reported to Mariotto those won- 
 drous words of Savonarola, that " Beauty ought never to be 
 taken apart from the true and good," and how, after quoting 
 the same sentiments from Socrates and Plato, the preacher 
 went on to say, " True beauty is neither in form nor colour, 
 but in light. God is light, and His creatures are the more 
 lovely as they approach the nearer to Him in beauty. And 
 the body is the more beautiful according to the purity of the 
 soul within it." Certain it is that this divine light lived ever 
 after in the paintings of Era Bartolommeo. 
 
 He frequented the cloisters of San Marco, where even 
 Lorenzo de' Medici used to go and hear the prior expound 
 1 Storia della Pittura, chap. xvii. p. 48. 
 
THE GARDEN AND THE CLOISTER. 
 
 19 
 
 Christianity near the rose tree. There were Lorenzo di 
 Credi and Sandro Botticelli, both middle-aged men, of a high 
 standing as artists ; there were the Delia Kobbias, father and 
 son, and several others. Sandro, while listening, must have 
 taken in the inspired words with the scent and beauty of the 
 roses, whose spirit he gives in so many of his paintings. 
 
 Young Baccio, on the contrary, feasted his eyes on the 
 speaker's face, till the very soul within it was imprinted on 
 his mind, from whence he reproduced it in that marvellous 
 likeness, the year after the martyrdom of Savonarola. 
 
 This is the earliest known work of Fra Bartolommeo, and 
 is a faithful portrait ; the deep-sunk eye-socket, and eye like 
 an internal fire, showing the preacher's powerful mind ; the 
 prominent aquiline nose and dilating vehement nostril 
 bespeaking his earnestness and decision ; the large full mouth 
 alone shows the timorousness which none but himself knew 
 of, so overpowered was it by his excitable spii-it. The hand- 
 ling is Baccio's own able style, but Sig. Cavalcaselle thinks 
 the influences of Cosimo Boselli are apparent in the low tone 
 and clouded translucent colour ; he signed it " Hieronymi 
 Ferrariensis, a Deo missi prophetse effigies," a legend which 
 expresses the more than reverence which Baccio cherished 
 for the preacher. This portrait has only lately been 
 identified by its present possessor, Sig. Ermolao E-ubieri, 
 who discovered the legend under a coat of paint. Its vicissi- 
 tudes are traceable from the time when Sig. Averardo (or, 
 as Vasari calls him, Alamanno) Salviati brought it back from 
 Ferrara, where no doubt it had been in the possession of 
 Savonarola's family. Salviati gave it to the convent of San 
 Vincenzo at Prato, from which place Sig. Rubieri purchased 
 it in 1810. The likeness of the reformer in the Belle Arti of 
 Florence has been supposed to be this one, but it is more 
 likely to be the one done by Fra Bartolommeo at Plan di 
 Mugnone in after years, when he drew the friar as S. Peter 
 Martyr, with the wound on his head. 
 
 c 2 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 t 
 
 SAN MARCO, 
 
 A.D. 1496—1500. 
 
 ADRE MARCHESE, himself a Dominican, speaks thus 
 
 of his convent : — " San Marco has within its walls the 
 
 Renaissance, a compendium in two artists. Era Angelico, 
 the painter of the ideal, Era Bartolommeo, of form. The 
 first closes the antique Tuscan school. He who has seen Era 
 Angelico, has seen also Giotto, Cimabue, &c. The second 
 represents the modern school. In him are almost comprised 
 Masaccio, Lorenzo di Credi, Leonardo, Buonarroti, and Andrea 
 del Sarto." 
 
 The first. Era Angelico, " sets himself to contemplate in God 
 the fount and architype of the beautiful, and, as much as is 
 possible to mortal hands, reproduces and stamps it in those 
 works which a sensual mind cannot understand, but which to 
 the heavenly soul speak an eloquent language. Era Bar- 
 tolommeo, with more analysis, works thoughtfully 
 
 he ascends from the effect to the cause, and in created things 
 contemplates a reflection of spiritual beauty." 
 
 It is true the Dominican order has been as great a patron 
 of arts as the Eranciscan of literature. It united with 
 Niccolo Pisano to give form to national architecture. It had 
 sculptors, miniaturists, and glass painters. As a building 
 San Marco has been a shrine of art ; since the time that 
 Michelozzi, with the assistance of the Medici, built the convent 
 
SAN MARCO. 
 
 21 
 
 for Sant' Antonino, and Era Angelico left the impress of his 
 soul on the walls, a long line of artist monks has lived within 
 its cloisters. With San Marco our story has now to deal, for it 
 is impossible to write Fra Bartolommeo's life without touch- 
 ing on the well-known history of Savonarola. The great 
 preacher's influence in these years, from 1492 to 1497, entered 
 into almost every individual in Florence, either to draw them 
 to devotion, or to stir them up to the greatest opposition. 
 
 The artists, whose minds were probably the most impres- 
 sional, were his fervent adherents. He has been accused of 
 being the ruin of art, but " this cry has only arisen in our 
 time ; the silence of contemporaries, although not friendly to 
 him, proves that he was not in that century so accused." ^ 
 The only mention of anything of artistic value is a 
 "tavoliere"^ of rich work, spoken of by Burlamacchi and 
 Benivieni, in a " Canzone di un Piagnone sul bruciamento 
 delle Yanita." Savonarola himself was an artist and 
 musician in early life, the love of the beautiful was strong 
 within him, only he would have it go hand in hand with 
 the good and true. His dominant spirit was that of reform ; 
 as he tried to regenerate mind, morals, literature, and state 
 government, so he would reform art, and fling over it the 
 spiritual light which illumed his own soul. 
 
 It was natural that such a mind should act on the devo- 
 tional character of Baccio. What could he do but join when 
 every church was full of worshippers, each shrine at the street 
 corners had a crowd of devout women on their knees before 
 it — when thousands of faces were uplifted in the vast expanse 
 of the Duomo, and every face burned with fervour as the 
 divine flame from the preacher lit the lamp of each soul — 
 when in the streets he met long processions of men, women, 
 and children, the echoes of whose hymns (Laudi) filled the 
 narrow streets, and went up to the clear air above them ? 
 
 1 Gino Capponi, Storia della Republica di Firenze, lib. vi. chap. ii. 
 ^ A chess or draught board. 
 
22 
 
 FKA BAKTOLOMMEO, 
 
 Then came that strange carnival when there were no 
 maskers in the city, but white-robed boys went from house to 
 house to collect the vanities for the burning — when the 
 flames of the fires, hitherto saturnalian, were the flames of a 
 holocaust, wherein each one cast the sins and temptations, 
 even the pretty things which, though dear to himself, with- 
 drew him from God. And when the white-robed boys came 
 to the studio of the friends at the gate of S. Pier Gattolini, 
 with what sighs and self-immolation Baccio looked for the 
 last time at some of his studies which he judged to come 
 under the head of anatliemata, and handed them over to the 
 acolytes. How Mariotto's soul, warm to Pagan art, burned 
 within him at this sacrifice ! And how he would talk more 
 than ever against the monks, and hang up his own cartoons 
 and studies of the Greek Venus in the studio for Baccio's 
 behoof ! 
 
 In these years we have no notice of authentic works done 
 by the youthful partners, though biographers talk of their 
 having commissions for madonnas, and other works of art. 
 
 In 1497 Francesco Valori, the grand-featured, earnest 
 admirer of Savonarola, became Gonfaloniere in the time of 
 Piero de' Medici's exile,^ and the friar's party was in the 
 ascendent. liosini ^ says that belonging to a faction was a 
 means of fame, and that the Savonarola party was powerful, 
 giving this as a reason for Baccio's partisanship ; but this we 
 can hardly believe, his whole life proved his earnestness. He 
 was much beloved in Florence for his calm upright nature 
 and good qualities. He delighted in the society of pious and 
 learned men, spent much time in the convent, where he had 
 many friends among the monks ; yet with all he kept still 
 faithful to his early friend Mariotto, whose life was cast so 
 differently. Savonarola's faction was powerful, but the Medici 
 had still adherents who stirred up a strong party against him. 
 
 ' Oino Capponi, Storia della Jiepublica di Firenze, lib. vi. chap. xi. 
 p. "I'i^. ^ Storia della PiUura, cLap. xvii. p. 48, 
 
SAN MARCO. 
 
 23 
 
 His spirit of reform at length aroused the ire of the Pope, 
 who forbade him to preach. He disobeyed, and the sermons 
 on Ezekiel were scenes of tumult ; no longer a group of rapt 
 faces dwelling on his words, but frowns, murmurs, and 
 anathemas from a crowd only kept off him by a circle of armed 
 adherents round his pulpit. 
 
 At length, on June 22nd, the excommunication by Pope 
 Alessandro YI. (Borgia) fell like a thunderclap, and the 
 Medicean youths marched in triumphant procession with 
 torches and secular music to burlesque the Laudi ; no doubt 
 Albertinelli was one of these, while Baccio grieved among 
 the awestruck friars in the convent. 
 
 In 1498 Savonarola again lifted up his voice ; the church 
 was not large enough, so he preached beneath the blue sky on 
 the Piazza San Marco; and Fra Domenico Buonvicini da 
 Pescia, in the eagerness of partisanship, said that his master's 
 words would stand the ordeal of fire. Then came that 
 tumultuous day of April 7th, the " Sunday of the Olives," 
 when the Franciscans and Dominicans argued while the fire 
 burnt out before them, when Savonarola's great spirit quailed 
 within him, and the ordeal failed ; a merciful rain quenching 
 the fiames which none dared to brave save the undaunted 
 Fra Domenico himself. 
 
 There was no painting done in the studio on that day we 
 may be sure. Baccio was one of the surging, conflicting 
 crowd gathered beneath the mingling shadows of Orcagna's 
 arches and Arnolfo's great palace, and at eventide he was 
 one of the armed partisans who protected the friar back to 
 his convent, menaced not only by rains from heaven, but by 
 the stormy wrath of an angry populace, defrauded of the 
 sight they came to see. 
 
 The next day was the one which determined the painter's 
 future life. 
 
 There was in the city a curious process of crystallisation 
 of all the particles held in solution round the fire the 
 
24 
 
 FKA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 previous day. Tlie Palazzo Yecchio attracted about its doors 
 the " Arrabiati." The " Compagnacci " assembled, armed, by 
 the Duomo. The streets were full of detached parties of 
 Piagnoni, treading ways of peril to their centre, San Marco. 
 
 Passions raged and seethed all day, till at the hour of 
 vespers a cry arose, "a San Marco," and thither the multitude 
 - — 500 Compagnacci, and 300 Palleschi — rushed, armed with 
 picks and arquebusses, &c. They killed some stray Piagnoni 
 whom they found praying by a shrine, and placed guards at 
 the streets which led to the convent ; then the assault began. 
 
 The church was dimly lighted. Savonarola and Fra 
 Domenico kneeled on the steps of the altar, with many 
 worshippers around them, singing tremulous hymns ; amongst 
 these were Francesco Valori, Ridolfi, and Baccio della Porta, 
 but all armed, as Cronaca tells us. They still sang hymns when 
 the doors were attacked with stones ; then leaving the priests 
 and women to pray for them the men rushed to the defence. 
 
 Old Yalori, with a few brave friends, guarded the door ; 
 others made loop-holes of the windows and fired out ; some 
 went up the campanile, and some on the roof. Baccio fought 
 bravely among the rest. The Palleschi were almost repulsed, 
 but at length succeeded in setting fire to the doors. The 
 church was filled with smoke ; a turbulent crowd rushed 
 wildly in. Savonarola saw his people fall dead beside him on 
 the altar steps, and, taking up the Sacrament, he fled to the 
 Greek library, where the messengers of the Signoria came and 
 arrested both himself and Fra Domenico. It was in the fierce 
 fight that ensued when the enemies poured in, laying hands 
 sacrilegiously on every thing sacred, that Baccio made the yow 
 that if he were saved this peril, he would take the habit — a 
 vow which certainly was not made in a cowardly spirit, he 
 fighting to the death, and then espousing the losing cause.^ 
 
 Then came that sad 23rd of May, the eve of the Ascension, 
 
 1 Gino Capponi, lib. vi chaps, i. and ii., and Padre Marcbese, San 
 Marco, p. 147 et seq. 
 
SAN MARCO. 
 
 25 
 
 when three martyrs went calmly to their death beneath the 
 shadow of the old palace, amidst the insults of an infuriated 
 crowd, and Arno's yellow waters received their ashes. ^ 
 
 After the death of Savonarola the party had many de- 
 faulters ; but Baccio, the Delia Robbias, Credi, Cronaca, and 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Savonarolo as Peter Martyr. By I''ra Bartolommeo. 
 In the Accademia delle Belle Arli, Florence. 
 
 many other artists, were faithful, and even showed their 
 grief by abandoning for a time the arts they loved. "It almost 
 seemed as if with him they had lost the sacred flame from 
 which their fervid imagination drew life and aliment." ^ 
 While all these events had been taking place, Baccio had 
 
 ^ Capponi, chap. ii. p. 253. * Marchese, San Marco, lib. iii. p, 261. 
 
26 
 
 FRA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 worked as often as his perturbed spirit would allow, at a 
 great fresco of the Last Judgment, in a chapel of the 
 cemetery of S. Maria Nuova. A certain Gerozzi, di Monna 
 Venna Dini, gave him the commission, and as far as he had 
 gone, the painter had given entire satisfaction. This fresco, 
 his first as far as is known, shows Baccio's style as fully as 
 his later ones. We have here his great harmony of form, 
 and intense suggestiveness in composition. The infinity of 
 heaven is emblematised in circles of saints and cherubim 
 around the enthroned Christ. The cross, a link between 
 heaven and earth, is borne by a trinity of angels ; S. Michael, 
 as the avenging spirit, stands a powerful figure in the fore- 
 ground dividing the saved from the lost ; the whole composi- 
 tion forming a heavenward cross on an earthly foundation. 
 There are no caves and holes of torture with muscular 
 bodies writhing within them ; but in the despairing figures 
 passing away on the right, some with heads bowed on clasped 
 hands, others lifting up faces and arms in a vain cry for 
 mercy, what suggestions there are of infinite remorse ! — ■ 
 more dignified far than the distorted sulJerers in the torture 
 pits of previous masters. These are just indicated by two 
 demons, and a subterranean fire behind the unblest souls. 
 Miss Owen,! speaking Mr. Eusk'in's sentiments, calls this a 
 great falling off from Giotto and Orcagna's conceptions ; but 
 though theirs may be more powerful and terrible, a greater 
 suggestion of Christian religion is here. 
 
 They, and later, Michelangelo, flung Dante's great 
 struggling soul in tangible forms upon the walls, and 
 embodied his poem, awful, grand, and earnest, with all the 
 human passion intensified into human suffering. Fra 
 Bartolommeo shows the Christian spirit ; his faces look 
 beyond the present judgment, and, instead of wrath, mercy 
 is the predominating idea. It is like the difference in spirit 
 between the Old Testament and the New. 
 
 ^ Art Schools of Christendom, edited by Prof. Ruskin. 
 
SAN MAECO. 
 
 27 
 
 The painter's reverence of Fra Angelico, and estimation of 
 the divinity of art, is shown by Fra Angelico being placed 
 among the saints of heaven on the right of the Saviour. 
 
 Leonardo's instructions for shading ofl: a light sky will 
 occur to any one who studies the finely gradated tints mingling 
 with the clouds around the celestial group. But grand as the 
 fresco is, and interesting as it must have been to the artist at 
 this time, when thoughts of Savonarola mingled with every 
 stroke, he felt he was not fulfilling his true mission in the 
 world. Drawn more and more to the convent, hallowed to 
 him by the memory of the martyr-friar, he was also more 
 attuned to thoughts of retirement by family bereavements — 
 one young brother, Piero, only being left to him out of the 
 whole circle. The reluctance to leave this youth alone may 
 have deferred for a time his taking the monastic vows ; but 
 having placed him under the guardianship of Santi Pagnini, 
 a Dominican, he consigned the Last Judgment to Mariotto to 
 finish, and leaving his worldly goods to his brother, took the 
 habit in the convent of S. Domenico, at Prato, on July 26th, 
 1500, two years after first making the resolution. His year 
 of probation over, he took the final vows and became Fra 
 Bartolommeo, 
 
 A document in S. Marco proves that he was possessed of 
 worldly goods when he entered,^ among which were the house 
 of his father in S. Pier Gattolini, and the podere at Brozzi. 
 Having once given himself up to monasticism, Fra Barto- 
 lommeo would offer no half-service, his brushes were left 
 behind with all other worldly things, and here closes Baccio 
 della Porta's first artistic career. 
 
 His sun was set only to rise again to greater brilliance in 
 the future as Fra Bartolommeo, a name famous for ever in the 
 annals of art. 
 
 ' Rosiui, Storia della Pittura, chap, xxvii. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO IN THE CONVENT. 
 
 A.D. 1504—1509. 
 
 FOUE years had passed, and the monk had never touched 
 a pencil, but his mission in art was not fulfilled, and 
 events were working towards that end, for the spirit of art 
 once awakened could not die either in that convent or in 
 that age. 
 
 His friend, Mariotto, kept him au courant in all the gossip 
 of art, and told him of the great cartoons of Leonardo and 
 Michelangelo, which he too went to see. They might have 
 inspired him afresh, or perhaps in advising Albertinelli he 
 himself felt impelled to paint, or possibly the visits of Eaphael 
 in 1504 influenced him. 
 
 Padre Marchese takes the conventional view, and says that 
 Santi Pagnini, the oriental scholar and lover of art, came 
 back to S. Marco in 1504 as prior, and used not only his 
 entreaties, but his authority, to induce Fra Bartolommeo to 
 recommence painting. However this may be, it is certain 
 that when Bernardo del Bianco, who had built a beautiful 
 chapel in the Badia from Eovezzano's designs, wished for an 
 altar-piece worthy of its beauty, which he felt no hand could 
 execute so well as that of the Frate — he yielded to per- 
 suasion, and the Vision of S. Bernard was begun. The 
 
IN THE CONVENT. 
 
 29 
 
 contract is dated 18th November, 1504 ; a part payment of 
 sixty florins in gold was made 16th of June, 1507.^ 
 
 This picture, now in the Belle Arti of Florence, is so much 
 injured by re-painting that some parts seem even crude. 
 The saint is on his knees writing, while the vision of the 
 Yirgin and Child stands poised in air before him; she 
 inspires his pen, and the infant Christ gives His blessing on 
 the work. There is great spirituality and ecstasy in St, 
 Bernard's face, his white robe contrasts well with two saints 
 behind him, which carry out Fra Bartolommeo's favourite 
 triangular grouping, and with a rich harmony of colour 
 balance his white robe. 
 
 The Yirgin is drawn with great nobility and grace, 
 her drapery admirably majestic, yet airy, and a sweet, 
 infantile playfulness renders the Child charming. The 
 angels beneath the Virgin's feet are lovely, but the group 
 of seraphs behind are the least pleasing of all. They are of 
 the earth, earthy, and seem reminiscences of the Florentine 
 maidens the artist met in the streets. Possibly this is the 
 part most injured by the restorer's (?) hand. The colouring 
 of the two saints behind S. Bernard — one in a green robe 
 with bronze-gold shades, and the other blue and orange — is 
 very suggestive of Andrea del Sarto, and seems to render 
 probable Rosini's assertion that the Frate " taught the first 
 steps of this difficult career to that artist who alone was 
 called ' senz' errori. ' " 
 
 Having once retaken the brush, Fra Bartolommeo re- 
 covered his former skill and fame ; a beautiful specimen of 
 this period is the Meeting of Christ with the Disciples of 
 Emmaus (1506), a fresco in a lunette over the door of the 
 refectory at S. Marco ; in which he combines a richness of 
 colouring rarely obtained in fresco, with a drawing which is 
 almost perfect. Fra ]Sriccol6 della Magna, who was prior in 
 that year, and left in 1507 to become Archbishop of Capua, 
 ^ Padre Marchess, Memorie, &c., document, iii. voL ii. p. 594. 
 
30 FEA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 sat for one of the saints. Contemporory with this may be 
 dated also the figure of the Virgin, painted for Agnolo Doni, 
 now in the Corsini gallery in Rome. Giovanni de' Medici 
 also gave him a commission. 
 
 Meanwhile the iS. Bernard was not paid for. Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo priced it at 200 ducats, and the convent being the 
 gainer by his works, took his own valuation. Bernardo 
 offered only eighty ducats ; the Frati were indignant, and 
 called in the Abbot of the Badia as umpire ; he being unable 
 to move Bernardo, retired from office; then a council of 
 friends was resolved on, in which Mariotto was for the 
 painter, and Lorenzo de Credi for the purchaser ; but this 
 also failed. 
 
 It was next proposed to submit the question to the Guild of 
 Druggists {arte degli speziali), which included at that time also 
 doctors and painters ; but the convent, refusing lay judg- 
 ment, took the offer of Francesco Magalotti, a relative of 
 Bernardo, who priced it at 100 ducats, and the monks had to 
 be satisfied. The dispute ended July 17th, 1507.^ 
 
 All writers agree as to the fact of Fra Bartolommeo's 
 friendship with Raphael, but very few are decided as to its 
 date. Raphael was in Florence in 1504, but then Fra 
 Bartolommeo had not re-commenced painting, and would 
 have no works in the convent to excite his admiration of 
 the colouring. Padre Marchese, following Rosini and Padre 
 Luigi Pungeleoni, asserts that this intimacy was during 
 Raphael's second visit in 1506, when he might have seen the 
 newly-finished fresco of The Disciples at Emmcms. It is 
 undoubted that their intercourse was beneficial to both. 
 Raphael studied anew Leonardo's principles of colour under 
 Fra Bartolommeo's interpretation of them, and the Frate 
 improved his knowledge of perspective and harmony of 
 composition. It is said they worked together at some 
 
 1 Rosini, Storia delta Pittura, chap, xxvii. p. 245, and Padre 
 Marchese, Memorie, Sec, vol. ii. pp. 42 to 45. 
 
IN VENICE. 
 
 pictures, of which one is in France, and another at Milan ; 
 but there is not sufficient evidence to prove this. 
 
 It is also thought that Fra Bartolommeo helped in the 
 composition of Raphael's famous Madonna del Baldacchino, 
 which is truly very much in his style. 
 
 The year 1508 marks the Frate's first acquaintance with 
 the Venetian school, which was not without its influence 
 upon him. Frequent interchange of visits took place between 
 the Dominicans in the different parts of Italy; and Fra 
 Bartolommeo took the opportunity then offered him of going 
 to visit his brethren at Venice. 
 
 His namesake, Baccio di Monte Lupo, a sculptor who 
 had fled from Florence after the death of Savonarola, and 
 who had fought side by side with Baccio in the siege of 
 S. Mark's church, was in Venice at that time, working on 
 the tomb of Benedetto da Pesaro in the church of the 
 Frati, and he was only too delighted to show the beauties 
 of the Queen of the Adriatic to an artistic mind. Tintoretto 
 was not yet born; Titian was only just rising into fame, 
 though his style had not yet become what it was after 
 Giorgione's influence; but Fra Bartolommeo must have 
 found much that was sympathetic in the exquisite works 
 of Giovanni Bellini and his school, and much to admire in 
 the glorious colouring of Giorgione. 
 
 Father Dalzano, the vicar of the monastery of S. Peter 
 Martyr at Murano, gave the Florentine monk a commission 
 for a picture of the value of seventy or 100 ducats. Not having 
 time to paint this during his stay, he promised to execute it 
 on his return to Florence, and the vicar paid him in advance 
 twenty-eight ducats in money and colours ; the rest was to 
 be raised by the sale of some MS. letters from S. Catherine 
 of Siena, which a friend of Father Dalzano near Florence 
 held in possession. 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo, having brought home from the Venetian 
 school a new impulse for painting, and wishing to diffuse the 
 
32 
 
 FRA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 religious influence o£ art more widely, desired to enlarge 
 his atelier and school at San Marco, His only assistants in 
 the convent were Fra Paolino of Pistoja, and one or two 
 miniaturists, who were only good at missals. Fra Paolino 
 (born 1490) took the vows at a very early age, and was 
 removed to Florence from Prato with Fra Bartolommeo. 
 He was the son of a painter, Bernardino di Antonio, but 
 though he learned the first principles from him, his real art 
 was imbibed from the Frate, under whom, together with 
 Mariotto, he worked for years. 
 
 But this youthful scholar was not enough for Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo' s new energies. He pined for his old friend, 
 Mariotto, who could follow out his designs in his own style 
 so closely, that an unpractised eye could not see the difference 
 of hand ; and such was his influence on the rxilers of the 
 order, that they allowed a most unique partnership to be 
 entered into. 
 
 The parties were, Albertinelli on one side, and the 
 convent and Fra Bartolommeo on the other. The partners 
 to provide the expenses, and the profits to be divided between 
 the convent and Mariotto; the vow of poverty not allowing 
 Fra Bartolommeo as an individual any personal share. This 
 began in 1509 and lasted till 1512. The inventory of the 
 profits and the division made when the partnership was 
 dissolved, given entire by Padre Marchese,"" are very interest- 
 ing. The two artists had separate monograms to distinguish 
 the pictures which were specially their own, besides which 
 the monk signed his with the touching petition, " orate pro 
 pictore,'' his friend merely Latinising his name ; the works 
 painted together were signed by the combined monograms. 
 Before setting a hand to anything else, the Frate fulfilled his 
 engagement to the Venetian prior, for whom he painted the 
 Eternal in Heaven, surrounded by saints and angels ; but of 
 this we will speak later. 
 
 ' Padre Marchese, Memo:~ie, kc, vol. ii. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ALBERTINELLI IN THE WORLD. 
 A.D. 1501—1510. 
 
 DURING the interval between the second and third 
 partnership of this incongruous pair of friends, the 
 life of Albertinelli had been very different from that of the 
 Frate. So distressed was he at losing Baccio that he was 
 quite wild for a time. His passions being unruled, that of 
 grief took entire possession of him. In his despair he vowed 
 to give up painting ; he declared that he would also become a 
 monk, if it were not that he now hated them more than 
 ever ; besides, he was a Pallesco, and could not desert his 
 party. 
 
 After a time, however, he calmed down, and, looking on 
 his friend's unfinished fresco of the Last Judgment as a 
 legacy from him, began to work at it as a kind of obligation 
 till the occupation wove its own charm, and he steadily 
 devoted himself to art again, much to the satisfaction of 
 good Gerozzi Dini, who was in great perturbation, and 
 declared there was not another hand but his in Florence 
 which could finish it ; and also to the relief of Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo himself, who, having received money on account, 
 was troubled in conscience lest it should remain unfinished. 
 There remained only some figures to put in the terrestrial 
 
 F B D 
 
34 FKA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 group, all the celestial portions having been finished by the 
 Frate ; but they are very well drawn figures, with a good 
 deal of expression in them. Several are likenesses, amongst 
 whom are Dini and his wife, Bugiardini, the painter's pupil, 
 and himself. Most of these are now destroyed by the effects 
 of damp. 
 
 Mariotto left Fra Bartolommeo's house in S. Pier 
 Gattolini, and took a room in Gualfonda — now Yia Yal 
 Fonda — a street leading towards the fortress, built by the 
 Grand Duke Oosimo on the north of the city ; and here in 
 time quite a school grew up under his tuition. Giuliano 
 Bugiardini was his head assistant rather than pupil ; Francia 
 Bigio, then a boy, Yisino, who afterwards went to Hungary, 
 and Innocenzio da Nicola, besides Piero, Baccio's brother, 
 were all scholars. Albertinelli's Bottega in Yal Fonda gave 
 some noble paintings to the world, works independently his 
 own, though Fra Bartolommeo's influence is traceable in most 
 of them. The finest of these is the Salutation, dated 1503 — 
 ordered for the Church of S. Martino, and now the gem of 
 the hall of the Old Masters in the TJffizi Gallery — a work 
 which alone has been able to mark him for all time as a 
 great master. 
 
 So simple is the subject, and yet so grand the proportions, 
 and in the figures there is such majesty of maternity and 
 dignity of womanhood ! A decorated portico, with the heavens 
 behind it, forms the background to the two noble women, 
 in one of whom is expressed the gracious sympathy of an 
 elder matron with the awful, mysterious joy of the younger. 
 
 The colouring, perfectly harmonised, is the most masterly 
 blending of a subdued tone with soft yet brilliant richness, 
 and shows a deep study of the method of Leonardo. 
 
 The predella has an Annunciation, Nativity, and Circmn- 
 cision ; all showing the same able style, but more injured by 
 time than the picture. 
 
 Another charming painting of this period is the Nativity 
 
ALBEETINELLI IN THE WORLD, 
 
 35 
 
 at the Pitti, a round, on panel. The Madonna is not quite 
 so noble as that of the Salutation, but the limbs of the child 
 are beautifully rounded. There is a pretty group of three 
 angels singing in the sky; the landscape is as minute in 
 detail as those his old fellow-pupil Piero used to paint in 
 Cosimo's studio. 
 
 In 1504-5 Fra Bartolommeo called upon him for a 
 deed of friendship, which proves that, whatever biographers 
 (building up theories on a word or two in Yasari) may say of 
 his want of steadiness, the friend who knew him best had 
 supreme trust in him. Santi Pagnini, having been removed 
 to Siena as prior, Fra Bartolommeo made Mariotto guardian 
 and instructor of his young brother Piero, signing a contract 
 that Mariotto was to have the use and management of all 
 estates and possessions of Piero, which included several poderi 
 in the country, as well as the house at the Porta Eomana 
 Gattolini). In return Albertinelli was to keep 
 Piero in his house, teach, clothe, and provide for him, not, 
 however, being obliged to give him more than " sette (seven) 
 soldi" a month. Albertinelli was also to have a mass said 
 yearly in the Church of S. Pier Gattolini for the soul of 
 Paolo the muleteer, and to use two pounds of wax candles 
 thereat.i The contract was signed from 1st January, 1505, 
 and was to last till 1st January, 1511. It appears that this 
 brother Piero was a great trouble to the Frate, being of a 
 bizarre disposition, and addicted to squandering money ; he 
 sold some possessions for much less than their worth,^ which 
 probably accounts for the singular contract of guardianship. 
 He did not show enough talent to become a painter, and took 
 priests' orders later. 
 
 About this time Fra Bartolommeo recommenced work, and 
 while he was painting the triptych for Donatello's Madonna 
 (the miniature Nativity and Circumcision in the Uffizi), 
 
 ^ Padre Marchess, Memorie, vol. ii. pp. 36, 37. 
 
 ' Private communication from Sig. G. Milanesi. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 TEA BAKTOLOMMEO. 
 
 Albertinelli was at work in the convent of the Certosa, at a 
 Cfudfixion in fresco. The painting is extant in the chapter- 
 house, and is a very fair and unrestored specimen of his best 
 st7le. The Virgin and Magdalen are very purely conceived 
 figures; the idea of the angels gathering the blood falling from 
 the wounded hands of the crucified Saviour is very tender; there 
 is a great brightness of colouring, and a greenish landscape 
 almost Peruginesque in feeling. Some of his pupils worked 
 with him at the Certosa, and nearly brought their master 
 izto trouble. 
 
 They were not more content with convent fare than was 
 Davide Ghirlandajo, when the only delicacy supplied him at 
 Vallombrosa was cheese; and to revenge themselves, they 
 stole round the cloister after the circular sliding panels by 
 which the rations were sent into the monks' cells were filled, 
 aad feasted on the meals made ready for the good brothers. 
 Great confusion ensued in the convent, the monks accusing 
 each other of the theft ; but when they found out the real 
 calprits, they made a compromise, promising double rations if 
 tie artists would hasten their work and leave them their 
 daily dole in peace. 
 
 The fresco is dated 1506. The same year produced the 
 £ne picture now in the Louvre, which Avas painted for the 
 church of S. Trinita on the commission of Zanobio del 
 Maestro. 
 
 The Madonna stands on a pedestal, with S. Jerome and 
 S. Zenobio in front, while episodes from their lives are 
 brought in like distant echoes in the background.^ 
 
 The nuns of S. Giuliano employed him to paint two 
 pictures, both of which are now in the Belle Arti. One is 
 an altarpiece ; the Madonna enthroned, with the Divine Child 
 in her arms. Fra Bartolommeo's idea of an angel-sustained 
 canopy is here, but the angels hold it up from the outside 
 
 1 S. Zenobio was the first bishop of Florence, and is the patron saint 
 of that city. 
 
See page 36. 
 
 THE VIRGIN, ST. JEROME, AND ST. ZENOBIO. BY ALEERTINELLI. 
 In the Louvre, Paris. 
 
ALBEETINELLI IN THE WORLD. 
 
 37 
 
 instead of the inside. Before her are S. John the Baptist, 
 S. Julian, S. Nicholas, and S. Dominic, The S. Julian has a 
 great similarity to the S. Michael of Perugino, and the S. 
 John, by its good modelling, shows the result of his studies 
 from the antique in the Medici garden. 
 
 For the same church he did the curious conventional 
 painting of the Trinity on a gold ground. The subject 
 is inartistic, because unapproachable ; the attempt to paint 
 that which is a deep spiritual mystery degrades both the art 
 and the subject ; the latter because it lowers it to human 
 grasp, the former ■ because it shows its powerlessness to 
 shadow forth the infinite. There is beautiful painting in the 
 heads of the angels, at the foot of the Cross, but the brilliancy 
 of the gold ground is overpowering to the colours, albeit 
 he has balanced it by reproducing Cosimo Roselli's red- 
 winged cherubs. Nothing but Fra Angelico's delicate tints 
 can bear such a background. No doubt Piero, Baccio'tj 
 brother, helped to lay on this gold, for one of the stipu- 
 lations in the contract with Mariotto was that he was to 
 "metter d' oro ed altre cose di mazoneria " (to put on gold 
 and other articles of emblazonment). 
 
 It has been a great subject of conjecture at what part of 
 his life Albertinelli took the rash step of throwing up his 
 art and opening a tavern at Porta S. Gallo. Some say it 
 was in his despair at Fra Bartolommeo having taken the 
 vows, but this is. disproved by his having at that time finished 
 the Last Judgment, and taken pupils in Val Fonda. Others 
 assert that it was at the breaking up of the last partnership 
 in 1513, but there is no hiatus in his work at that time, 
 existing paintings being dated in 1513 and the following 
 years till his death, three years after. 
 
 Vasari, though not to be depended on in regard to dates — 
 chronology not being his forte — is generally right in the 
 gossip and stories of the lives near his own time, and it is 
 by collateral evidence from his pages that we are able to fix 
 
38 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 with more certainty 1508 or 1509 as the time of this episode 
 in Albertinelli's life. In 1507 we find him as an artist 
 helping to value his friend's picture, and mediating between 
 the convent and Bernardo del Bianco.^ Now, in the ' Life of 
 Andrea del Sarto,' we read that Francia Bigio, Albertinelli's 
 pupil, made the acquaintance of Andrea while studying the 
 Cartoons in the Hall of the Council (this was from 1506 to 
 1508), and as their friendship increased, Andrea confided to 
 Francia Bigio that he could no longer endure the eccentricities 
 of Piero di Cosimo, and determined to seek a home for him- 
 self, and that Francia Bigio being also alone — his master 
 Mariotto Albertinelli having abandoned the art of painting— 
 they determined to share a studio and rooms. ^ The first 
 works the partners undertook were the frescoes of the Scalzo 
 and the Servi, which were begun in 1509. Thus the date is 
 tolerably certain, especially as a gap occurs in Albertinelli's 
 works at this time. 
 
 Sig. Gaetano Milanesi's researches in the Archives have 
 thrown a new light on Mariotto's motives, which were not 
 entirely connected with art ; it was not that he was dis- 
 couraged by adverse criticism, nor wholly that, as time 
 divided him from his friend, he felt he could produce no great 
 work away from his influence, but it was partly that he had 
 married a wife named Antonia, whose father kept an inn at 
 S. Gallo. It is possible the tavern came to him by way of 
 dot, and the above reasons making him discontented with art 
 for a time, might have induced him to carry on the business 
 himself. Sig. Milanesi says a document exists of a contract 
 in which Mariotto's name is connected with a tavern, but 
 that he has never been able to retrace it since the first time 
 he found it. It is his opinion that the whole story arose 
 from the fact of the wife's family possessing this wine shop, 
 and his connection with it in that way. 
 
 ^ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. iii. chap. xvii. p. 544. 
 2 Vasari, vol. iii. p. 182, 
 
ALBERTINELLI IN THE WORLD. 
 
 39 
 
 But though AJbertinelli passed off his pseudo-hostdom with 
 'bravado, talking very wittily about it, the artistic vein was too 
 strong within him to be subdued ; he soon gave up the flask and 
 returned to the brush, for in 1509, when his quondam pupil, 
 Francia Bigio, was busy at the Servi, we again find Mariotto's 
 hand in a painting of the Madonna. The Virgin, holding a 
 pomegranate in her hand, supports with the other the Child, 
 who stands on a parapet, and clings to the bosom of his 
 mother's dress for support, in a truly natural way ; the infant 
 Baptist stands by. The painting, signed, and dated 1509, 
 is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, but has been 
 injured by repainting. In spite of this, Messrs. Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle believe they perceive Bugiardini's hand in it. 
 
 In 1510 Albertinelli began one of his masterpieces, the 
 Annunciation for the company of S. Zenobio, now in the Belle 
 Arti. All his zeal for art was reawakened, he flung himself 
 con amove into this work, which, though in oil on panel, was 
 painted on the spot where it was intended to be placed, that 
 the lights might be managed with the best effect. He was 
 imbued with Leonardo da Yinci's principle, that the greatest 
 relief and force are to be combined with softness, and wishing 
 to bring this combination to a perfection which never before 
 had been reached, he depended greatly on the natural light 
 to further his design.^ 
 
 The picture, although a great work of art, and the most 
 laboured of all his paintings, failed to satisfy the artist. He 
 tried various experiments, painting in and painting out, but 
 never reaching his own ideal. According to Leonardo, he 
 was proving himself .a good artist, one of his principles being, 
 " when his (an artist's) knowledge and light surpass his work 
 so that he is not satisfied with himself or his endeavours, it 
 is a happy omen." ^ 
 
 The work as it stands is a noble one, though darkened by 
 
 ^ Vasari, vol. ii. p. 469. 
 
 ^ Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting. 
 
40 
 
 FEA BAKTOLOMMEO. 
 
 time having brought out the black pigments used in the shades. 
 The background is an intricate piece of architecture with 
 vaulted roof, showing that he too had profited by Raphael's 
 instructions in perspective to Fra Bartolommeo. 
 
 The Virgin is a tender sweet figure ; indeed no artist has 
 given more gracious dignity to womanhood than Albertinelli, 
 although his detractors say his life showed no great respect 
 for it. Above, the Almighty is seen in a yellow light with a 
 circle of angels and seraphs around. It is strange how the 
 realistic painters stopped at nothing, not even the represen- 
 tation of the eternal in a human form. Is not this the reason 
 why art ceased about this time to be the interpreter of 
 religion, and found its true mission in being the interpreter 
 of nature] Who can draw one soul? How much more 
 impossible then to depict the incomprehensible soul in which 
 all others have their being ? The utmost we can do is to give 
 the indication of the spirit in the expression of a face, and 
 that so imperfectly that not two beholders read it alike. 
 Study Perugino and Raphael, see how they raise human 
 nature and etherealize it till we see the divinity of soul in 
 the faces of their saints and martyrs. But the moment they 
 try to depict the Almighty, or even his angels, they fall at 
 once below humanity. 
 
 But to return to the Annunciation of Albertinelli. His 
 impetuous temper betrayed him even here; he fell into a 
 dispute with his patrons, who refused to pay the price he 
 asked. The usual "trial by his peers" was resorted to, 
 Perugino, Granacci, and Ridolfo Ghirlandajo were called into 
 council to value it according to its merits. 
 
 On completing this picture the events we have related in 
 the last chapter took place, Fra Bartolommeo returned from 
 Venice with his enterprise renewed, and the convent partner- 
 ship was commenced. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONVENT PAETNEBSHIP. 
 A.D. 1510—1513. 
 
 WE now come to the studio of S. Marco, where the two 
 friends, who had dreamed together as boys, and 
 worked together as youths, now laboured jointly as men, 
 bringing to light some of the finest works of art that remain 
 to us. During these three years Albertinelli's star seems 
 merged in that of his senior, his hand is to be recognised in 
 the lower parts of a few altarpieces ; but it is always diflELcult 
 to distinguish the two styles. 
 
 It was a very busy atelier, for they had many patrons. 
 Bugiardini was still Mariotto's head assistant, and Era 
 Paolino, and one or two other monks, worked under Era 
 Bartolommeo, besides pupils of both, among whom were 
 Gabriele Rustici and Benedetto Cianfanini, 
 
 The studio was on the part of the convent between the 
 cloister and Via del Maglio,^ and we can quite picture its 
 interior. There stands the lay figure on which Era Bar- 
 tolommeo draped the garments that take such majestic folds 
 in his works ; ^ there are several casts and models in different 
 parts of the room ; grand cartoons in charcoal hang on the 
 walls, like those we see to this day in the XJffizi and Belle 
 
 ^ Padre Marchese, Memorie, vol. ii, p. 69, 
 
 2 Fra Bartolommeo was the inventor of the jointed lay figure. 
 
42 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 Arti. So many of these masterly sketches are the Frate'a 
 and so few are Mariotto's that we may presume the former 
 was in most instances the designer. And to what perfection 
 he carried design ! Not a figure was drawn except its lines 
 b irmonised with the geometric rhythm in the artist's mind, 
 \iis groups fall by nature into kaleidoscopic figures of circles, 
 triangles, ellipses, crosses, &c. Not a cartoon was sketched in 
 which the lights and shadows were not as gradated and finished 
 as a painting, although they were merely drawn with charcoal. 
 
 The following was the method of work in the " bottega." 
 The panels were prepared with a coating of plaster of Paris, 
 over which, when dry, a coat of under colour, ground in oil, 
 was passed. The preparing of the panels fell to the work of 
 one of the monk scholars, Fra Andrea,^ Then the master 
 made his sketch in white, or "sgraffito" {i.e. graven on the 
 plaster), as in the architectural lines of the pictures of patron 
 saints in the Uffizi, and the Marriage of S. Catherine in the 
 Pitti Palace ; he also put in the shadows in monochrome. 
 But the assistants, who were skilled artists, were ' called to 
 put broad level tints of local colour on the buildings, 
 
 ^ m, &c., the master himself finishing the faces. No 
 ^7 r\ doubt Albertinelli was often deputed to the study 
 ^^L/ of the lay figure and its drapery. Where he 
 assisted, the monogram, a cross with two rings and 
 the joint names, marked the work, as on a panel of 
 1510 in Vienna, and another at Geneva. 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo only imitated Leonardo in his intense 
 force and soft gradations ; the general thinness of colour is 
 opposed to his system. He followed him, however, in his 
 method of painting his shadows with the brush, instead 
 of " hatching " them ; he used the same yellowish ground, 
 
 1 The books of the convent have a note of payment to Fra Bartolommeo 
 for 20th March, 1512, "per parte di lavoro di Fra Andrea converso per 
 mettere d'oro, et ingessare alle tavole nella bottega in diversi lavori" 
 (Padre Marchese, Memorie, lib. ii. chap. ili. p. 70). 
 
See page 43. 
 
 ST. MARK. BY FRA I^.ARTOLOMMKO. 
 In the Pitti Palace, Florence. 
 
CONVENT PAKTNERSHIP. 
 
 43 
 
 and "sfumato,"^ i.e. the imperceptible softening of the 
 transition in half-lights and shadows ; it was effected by glazes, 
 and is not adapted to a thin substance. The great mistake 
 in Fra Bartolommeo's system was the preparing his paintings 
 like cartoons, and using asphaltum or lamp-black for outlines 
 and shadows ; this in process of time destroys the super-colour, 
 and gives a general blackness to the painting. 
 
 The same kind of talk went on here as in modern studios. 
 When the frame-maker came, Fra Bartolommeo would be 
 vexed to see how much -of his work was hidden beneath the 
 massive cornice, and would vow to dispense with frames 
 altogether, which he did in his S. /Sebastian and S. Mark, 
 by painting an architectural niche round the subject .like a 
 carving in relief. 
 
 The first work begun at the convent studio was the 
 picture for Father Dalgano of Venice, the subject of which 
 is the Eternal Father in Heaven, surrounded by seraphs and 
 angels. Perhaps in this we have the source of the motive of 
 Albertinelli's Annunciation. The colouring is more brilliant 
 than any of the Frate's works before his visit to Venice. 
 Vasari says that in this picture Giorgione himself could not 
 have surpassed him in brilliancy. The saints, although 
 nearly level with the ground, are given celestial rank by the 
 cherubs and clouds below them. Fra Bartolommeo was dis- 
 satisfied with his angels, which seemed merely lovely children, 
 and seeking other forms, he thought to picture them better 
 under shapes which at a distance seem only clouds, but nearer 
 are full of angels' faces, as in the S. Bernard. But this idea, 
 not having aesthetic beauty, was also abandoned. ^ 
 
 The monks of S. Pietro at Murano did not hasten to claim 
 their picture, but sent two friars to negotiate about the price ; 
 they failed to agree, and the work is now in the Church of 
 S. Romano in Lucca. 
 
 1 Eastlake's Materials for a History of Oil Painting, vol. ii. chap. iv. 
 ^ Padre Marchese, / Puristi ed Accademici. 
 
44 
 
 ERA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 Lucca lias another exquisite picture of the same year in 
 the Cathedral of S. Martino, a Madonna and Child — a lovely 
 ideal of joyful infancy — beneath a veil suspended above 
 her head by two angels. S. John Baptist and S. Stephen 
 support this airy composition like pillars, their figures show- 
 ing in strong relief against the dark shades ; the whole picture 
 is intensely soft, and yet the outlines are perfectly clear. 
 This is valued at sixty ducats in the Libri di San 
 Marco, 
 
 Next followed the Virgin and Child with fowr Saiits, in S. 
 Marco, which is so fine that it has been taken for a Raphael, 
 although, owing to the use of lamp-black, it has no"w become 
 very much darkened. 
 
 The Holy Family which he painted for Filippo di Averardo 
 Salviati, and which is now in Earl Cowper's collection at 
 Panshanger, is an almost Raphaelesque work, and attains the 
 greatest excellence in art. The composition is his favourite 
 triangle, touched in with the flowing lines of the mother 
 seated on the ground with the two children before her. S. 
 Joseph is in the background. The greatest softness of flesh 
 tints must have been perceptible when new, for, ia spite of 
 the abrasions produced by time, the delicate tones brought out 
 by transparent glazes fused one over another are apparent." 
 The landscape with an echo subject of the flight into 
 Egypt is thought by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to be by 
 Albertinelli, 
 
 In 1510 the partners had a large order from Giuliano da 
 Gagliano, who, on the 2nd November, 1510, and 14th 
 January, 1511, paid, in two rates, the sum of 154 ducats. 
 The picture, which is Era Bartolommeo's own painting, 
 unfortunately cannot be traced. 
 
 In 1511 a long list of works are enumerated — a Nativity, 
 valued two ducats, a Christ bearing the Cross, and ar Annun- 
 ciation, sold to the Gonfaloniere for six ducats — pictures 
 v/hich are dispersed in England, Pavia, &c. ; but the master- 
 
CONVENT PARTNEESHIP. 
 
 45 
 
 piece of the time is the Marriage of S. Catherine, now in the 
 Louvre. The Florentine government bought it for 300 
 ducats in 1512, to present to Jacques Hurault, Bishop of 
 Autun, who came to Florence as envoy of Louis XIL He 
 left it to his cathedral at Autun, from whence, at the Revo- 
 lution, it passed to the Louvre.^ Before it was sent away, 
 Fra Bartolommeo made a replica of it, which is now in the Pitti 
 Palace. There is his favourite canopy supported by angels ; 
 in this case they are beautifully foreshortened. The Virgin 
 is seated on a pedestal, holding by one arm an exquisitely 
 moulded child Jesus of about four years old, who is espousing 
 S. Catherine of Siena, kneeling at His feet on the left. A 
 semicircle of saints group on each side of the Virgin, and 
 two angels, with musical instruments, are at her feet; the 
 upturned face of one is exquisitely foreshortened. The S. 
 George in armour is a powerful figure; and in S. Bartho- 
 lomew, on the left, is the same grand feeling which he 
 afterwards brought to perfection in S. Mark. The grace 
 of the Virgin's figure is not to be surpassed ; if Raphael's 
 Madonnas have more sentiment, this has more dignified 
 grace. He has remembered Leonardo's precept, " that the 
 two figures of a group should not look the same way " ; the 
 contrast of the fiowing lines in these two forms is very 
 lovely. The same contrast of lines, and yet balance of form, 
 is carried out in the two S. Catherines who form the 
 pyramid on each side of her, and in the varied characters 
 of the encircling group of saints. The deleterious use of 
 lampblack has spoiled the colouring ; it, moreover, hangs in 
 a bad light at the Pitti Palace. 
 
 The original subject at the Louvre diifers only in a few 
 particulars from this — the Virgin's hand is on the child's 
 head instead of his arm, and there are trifling differences 
 in the grouping of the saints, the semicircle being more 
 
 1 Padre Marchese, Memorie, lib. iii. ch. iv. p. 77. Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle, History of Painting, vol. iii. chap. xiii. p. 452. 
 
46 
 
 FEA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 rigidly kept. In this the flesh is thin and uncracked, seem- 
 ing imbedded in the surrounding colours ; the lake draperies 
 are laid so thinly on the light ground, that the sketch can 
 be seen through the colour.^ 
 
 There is a fine painting in the church of S. Caterina 
 of Pisa, in the chapel of the Mastiani family, Michele 
 Mastiani having given the commission, and paid thirty 
 ducats, in October, 1511, It represents the Madonna and 
 Child seated on a base ; the action is quiet and yet vivacious ; 
 she is supported on each side by S. Peter and S. Paul, 
 figures as large as life, and even more noble than the ones 
 in Eome. The colouring has been much injured by a fire 
 in the seventeenth century, but is robust and harmonious. 
 It is dated 1511. 
 
 On the 26th of November, 1510, Fra Bartolommeo had a 
 commission from Pier Soderini, then Gonfaloniere, to paint 
 a picture for the Council Hall. This was an unfortunate 
 order; for Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci had both 
 been commissioned, neither of them finishing the works. Fra 
 Bartolommeo' s forms the third uncompleted painting; it 
 exists still in the form of a half prepared picture, the design 
 being only shadowed in monochrome, and this in spite of 
 the payment on account of 100 gold ducats in October, 
 1513.2 The reason of this is difficult to assign, but it 
 might lie in the fact that in 1512 Pier Soderini was deposed 
 and exiled by Giuliano de' Medici, who assumed the govern- 
 ment. Another reason may have been the failure of Fra 
 Bartolommeo's health after his journey to Rome. 
 
 1 Eastlake, Materials for a History of Oil Painting, vol. ii. chap. iv. 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle speak of the two paintings as unconnected with 
 each other, and mention the Pitti one as having unaccountably returned 
 there after having been given to some bishop. Is it not possible that the 
 gift to' a bishop refers to the painting in the Louvre, and that the other 
 is the replica spoken of by Vasari, vol. ii. p. 452 ? 
 
 " See Padi-e Marchese, Memorie, docunienti 5 and 6, vol. ii. p. 603. 
 
CONVENT PARTNERSHIP. 
 
 47 
 
 In 1512 Santi Pagnini came back from Siena as prior of 
 S. Marco, and he having no love for Albertinelli, and perhaps 
 a too jealous affection for the artist Monk, caused the part- 
 nership to be dissolved, much to Mariotto's sorrow. The 
 stock, of which a full list is given by Padre Marchese, was 
 divided, each taking the pictures in which they had most to 
 do. The properties — amongst which were the lay figures, 
 easels, casts, sketches, blocks of porphyry to grind colours 
 on, (fec.^ — were to be left for Fra Bartolommeo's use till his 
 death, when they were to be divided between his heirs and 
 Albertinelli. 
 
 Mariotto retiu-ned disheartened to paint in his solitary 
 studio. A specimen of this period is the Adam and Eve, now 
 at Castle Howard, which is said to have been sketched in by 
 Pra Bartolommeo. Eve stands beneath the serpent-entwined 
 tree, hesitating between the demon's temptations and Adam's 
 persuasions; the feeling and action are perfectly expressed, 
 the landscape is minute, but has plenty of atmosphere and 
 good colouring. In the same collection is a Sacrifice of 
 Abraham, in his best style. The drawing of the father, 
 reluctantly holding his knife to the throat of the boy, is 
 extremely true. Munich possesses a fine Annunciation. 
 Characteristic saints support the composition on each side, 
 the nude S. Sebastian being a markworthy study ; an angel 
 at his side presents the palm of martyrdom. The picture has 
 suffered much from bad cleaning. 
 
 In March, 1513, Albertinelli was commissioned by the Medici 
 to paint their arms, in honour of Leo X.'s elevation to the 
 papacy. He made a fine allegorical circular picture, in 
 which the arms were supported by the figures of Paith, 
 Hope, and Charity. 
 
 ^ Padre Marchese, vol. ii. pp. 184, 185. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CLOSE OF LIFE. 
 A.D. 1514— 1517. 
 
 IT is probable that the dissolution of partnership marked 
 the time of Fra Bartolommeo's visit to Eome. Fra 
 Mariano Fetti, once a lay brother of S. Marco, who had 
 gone over to the Medici after Savonarola's death, and had 
 kept so much in favour with Pope Leo X. as to obtain the 
 office of the Seals (del Piombo),^ was pleased to be considered 
 a patron of art ; and welcoming Fra Bartolommeo to Rome, 
 he gave him a commission for two large figures of S. Peter 
 and S. Paul for his church of S. Silvestro. . The cartoons 
 of these pictures are now in the Belle Arti of Florence ; they 
 are grand and majestic figures, admirably draped. S. Peter 
 holds his keys and a book ; S. Paul rests on his sword. In 
 executing them in colour, he made some improvements, especi- 
 ally in the head and hand of S. Peter, but he did not remain 
 long enough in Rome to finish them. "The colour of the 
 first (S. Peter) is reddish and rather opaque, the shadows of 
 the head being taken up afresh, and the extremities being 
 by another painter. The head of the second (S. Paul) is 
 
 1 An office for appending seals to papal documents. Fra Mariano Fetti 
 was elected to it in 1514, after Bramante, the architect ; Sebastiano del 
 Piombo succeeded liim. 
 
CLOSE OF LIFE. 
 
 49 
 
 corrected . . . but the tone is transparent, and the execution 
 exclusively that of Fra Bartolommeo. Whoever may have 
 been employed on the S. Peter, we do not fancy Kaphael to 
 have been that person," This is the opinion of Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle,^ who, however, seem to have little faith in any 
 works of the Frate at Eome. Against this we have the 
 chronicles of quaint old Yasari and Eosini ; besides Baldinucci 
 (ch, iv. p. 83), who says, " Eaphael gave great testimony of his 
 esteem when, in after years, he employed his own brush in 
 Eome to finish a work begun by Fra Bartolommeo in that 
 city and left imperfect." 
 
 His reason for leaving it imperfect was that of ill-health, 
 the air of Eome not agreeing with him. It seems he brought 
 home irmlaria, which never entirely left his system, the low 
 fever returning every year, and being only mitigated by a 
 change to mountain air. He was well enough at times to 
 resume painting, but never in full health again. That very 
 summer he was sent to the Hospice of Sta. Maria Madda- 
 lena in Plan di Mugnone, " dove pure non stette in ozio," ^ 
 where he did not remain idle. The Hospice stands on a 
 high hill, just the place for Eoman fever to disappear as if 
 by magic for a time, and the patient, relieved of his lassitude, 
 set to work with energy, aided by Fra Paolino and Fra 
 Agostino. Many of his frescoes still remain, one of which 
 is a beautiful Madonna, on the wall of the infirmary, which 
 has since been sawn away from the wall and placed in the 
 students* chapel in San Marco, Florence.* 
 
 He returned to Florence for the winter, and with renewed 
 vigour produced his San Sebastian, a splendid study from 
 the nude, which shows the influence upon him of Michel- 
 angelo's paintings in Eome, The picture was hung in San 
 
 1 History of Painting, vol, iii. chap. xiii. p. 460. 
 
 2 Kosini, Storia dclla Piltura, chap, xxvii, p. 245. 
 
 ' A document of the Hospice records these paintings, and dates them 
 10th of July, 1514. Padre Marchese, Memorie, &c., vol. ii. p. 610. 
 F B K 
 
50 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 Marco, but its influence not proving elevating to the sensuous 
 minds of the Florentines, it was removed to the chapter- 
 house, and Gio Battista della Palla, the dealer who bought 
 so many of the best pictures of the time, purchased it to send 
 to the King of France. Its subsequent fate is not known, 
 although Monsieur Alaffre, of Toulouse, boasts of its pos- 
 session. He says his father bought three paintings which, 
 in the time of the Revolution, had been taken from the 
 chapel of a royal villa near Paris,^ one of which is the 
 S. Sebastian. In design and attitude it corresponds to the 
 one described by Vasari, the saint being in a niche, sur- 
 rounded by a double cornice. The left arm is bound ; the 
 right, with its cord hanging, is upraised in attitude of the 
 faith, so fully expressed in the beautiful face. Three arrows 
 are fixed in the body, which is nude except a slight veil 
 across the loins ; an angel, also nude, holds the palm to him. 
 Connoisseurs do not think this painting equal in merit to the 
 other works of Fra Bartolommeo. It is true it may have 
 been overrated at the time, for the Frate's chief excellence 
 lay in the grandeur of his drapery ; the test of authenticity 
 for a nude study from him would lie more in the colouring 
 and handling than in form. 
 
 In the early part of 1515 Fra Bartolommeo went to pay 
 his old friend Santi Pagnini, the Oriental scholar, a visit at 
 the convent of San Romano, in Lucca, of which he was now 
 prior, passing by Pistoja on February 17th to sign a con- 
 tract for an altar-piece to be placed in the church of San 
 Domenico — a commission from Messer Jacopo Panciatichi. 
 The price was fixed at 100 gold ducats, and the subject to 
 be the Madonna and Child, with SS. Paul, John Baptist, 
 and Sebastian. On his arrival at Lucca he was soon busy 
 with his great work, the Madonna della Misericordia, for 
 the church of San Romano. The composition of this is full 
 and harmonious. A populace of all ages and conditions, 
 * Padre Marchese, Memorie, &c., vol. ii. note p. 119. 
 
CLOSE OF LIFE. 
 
 51 
 
 grouped around the throne of the Madonna, beg her prayers ; 
 she, standing up, seems to gather all their supplications in 
 her hands and oft'er them up to heaven, from which, as a 
 vision, Christ appears from a mass of clouds in act of benedic- 
 tion. Amongst the crowd of supplicants are some exquisite 
 groups. Sublime inspiration and powerful expression are 
 shown in the whole work. On his return he stayed again 
 at Pistoja, where he painted a fresco of a Madonna on a 
 wall of the convent of San Domenico ; this, which has since 
 been sawn from the wall, is at present in the church of the 
 same convent, and though much injured, is a very light and 
 tender bit of colouring and expression. It would seem that 
 the altar-piece for the same church, spoken of above, was 
 never finished, as no traces of it are to be found. 
 
 In October, 1515, we again find him at Pian di Mugnone; 
 no doubt the summer heats had induced a return of his fever. 
 Here, again improving in health, he painted a charming An- 
 nunciation in fresco, full of life and eagerness on the part 
 of the angel, and joy on the Virgin. He did not remain 
 long, for before the end of the autumn he returned to visit 
 the home of his youth and see his paternal uncle, Giusto, at 
 Lastruccio, near Prato. We can imagine the meeting between 
 him and his relatives, and how the little Paolo, son of Vito, 
 being told to guess who he was, said, " Bis Zio Bartolommeo," ^ 
 for which he was much applauded. And when all the country 
 relatives hoped to see him again soon, how the Prate said 
 that would be uncertain, because the King of France had 
 sent for him, and with what awe and family pride they 
 would have looked at him ! But instead of going to Prance 
 for the glory of art, he was returning to Plorence to sorrow. 
 His life-long friend, Mariotto Albertinelli, had been brought 
 home on a litter from La Querela, near Yiterbo, and now lay 
 on his death-bed ; and what his life had lacked in religion, 
 the prayers of his friend would go far to atone for at his death. 
 1 Padre Marchese, Memorie, &c., vol. ii, chap. vii. pp. 139, 140. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 ERA BARTOLOMMEO, 
 
 While Fra Bartolommeo had been ailing, Albertinelli had 
 also paid his visit to the great city, and seen the two great 
 rivals there. He went from Viterbo, where he had been to 
 finish colouring a work of the Frate's left unfinished, and 
 also to paint some frescoes in the convent of La Quercia, near 
 that town. Being so near Rome, he was seized with a great 
 desire to see it, and left his picture for that purpose; Probably 
 Fra Bartolommeo had given him an introdviction to his friend 
 and patron, for Fra Mariano Fetti gave Albertinelli a com- 
 mission to paint a Marriage of S. Catherine for his church, 
 which he completed, and then left Bome at once. Nothing is 
 known of the impressions made on him by the works of the 
 two great masters, and unfortunately his death occurred too 
 soon after for his own style to have given any evidence of 
 their influence. 
 
 A Giostra, at Yiterbo, proved a very strong attraction to 
 his pleasure-loving mind. This Giostra," which the trans- 
 lators of Vasari seem to find so " obscure," ^ was no doubt one 
 of those festivals revived by the Medici, in which mounted 
 cavaliers ride with a lance at a suspended Saracen's head, 
 striking it at full gallop. Desirous of appearing to advantage 
 before the eyes of her whom he had elected his queen, he 
 forgot his mature age, and rushed into the jousts with all the 
 energies of a youth, but alas ! fell ill from over-exertion. 
 Fearing the malarious air was not good for him, he had a litter 
 made, and was taken to Florence, where Fra Bartolommeo 
 placed himself at his bedside, soothing his last moments, and 
 leading him as far heavenward as he could. "When Albertin- 
 elli died, on the 5th of November, 1515, his friend followed 
 him to an honourable interment in S. Piero Maggiore. 
 
 After Albertinelli's death, the Frate soared to greater 
 heights of genius than before. 
 
 The year 1516 marks the birth of his grandest master- 
 pieces, first the picture in the Pitti Palace called by Caval- 
 ^ Vasari's Lives, vol. ii. p. 470. 
 
SALVATOR MUNDI. BY FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 In the Pitti Falacc, Florence. 
 
CLOSE OF LIFE. 
 
 53 
 
 caselle a Resurrection, but which is more truly an allegorical 
 impersonation of the Saviour. It was ordered by a rich 
 merchant, Salvadore Billi, to place in a chapel which Pietro 
 Roselli had adorned with marbles in the church of the 
 
 Annunciata." He paid 100 ducats in gold for it. 
 
 In its original state the picture was a complete allegory of 
 Christ as the centre of Religion, between two prophets in heaven, 
 and four apostles, two at each side — beneath him two angels 
 support the world. The prophets have been removed, and are 
 placed in the Tribune of the Uffizi ; thus the picture as it 
 stands loses half its meaning. The Christ is a fine nude 
 figure standing in a niche, and in it Fra Bartolommeo has 
 solved the problem of obtaining complete relief almost 
 in monochrome, so little do the lights of the flesh tints, 
 and the warm yellowish tinge of the background differ from 
 each other. All the positive colour is in the drapery of the 
 saints, one in red and green, and another in red and blue. 
 The two angels are exquisitely drawn, and contrast well in 
 their natural innocence with the sentimental pair in Raphael's 
 Madonna of the Baldacchino on the same wall of the Pitti 
 Palace. 
 
 San Marco was rich in frescoes of the Madonna and Child, 
 two of which are still in the chapel of the convent, and two 
 in the Belle Arti. Some of these are charming in expression, 
 the children clinging round the mother's neck in a true childish 
 abandon of affection. What a tender feeling these monk 
 artists had for the spirit of maternity ! Perhaps by being 
 debarred from the contemplation of maternal love in its 
 humanity, they more clearly comprehended its divinity. Look 
 at the little round-backed nestling child in Fra Angelico's 
 Madonna della Stella, imperfect as it is in form, the whole 
 spirit of love is in it. He does not give only the mother-love 
 for the child, but the child-love for the mother, which is more 
 divine, and the same feeling is seen in the Madonna of Fra 
 Bartolommeo. 
 
54 
 
 FKA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 This year, 1516, also marks a journey to a hermitage of his 
 order at Lecceto, between Florence and Pisa. Here he painted 
 a Deposition from the Cross on the wall of the Hospice, and two 
 heads of Christ on two tiles above the doors. 
 
 A great many of his works are in private collections in 
 Florence ; one of the most lovely is the Pieta, painted for 
 Agnolo Doni, and now in the Corsini Gallery at Rome. 
 
 All this time the great painting of the Enthronement of 
 the Virgin, ordered by Pier Soderini, before his exile, was still 
 unfinished. He seems to have taken it in hand again about 
 this time, but being attacked with another access of fever, 
 again left it, and the painting, shadowed in with black, remains 
 in the Ufl5.zi. Lanzi writes of it that, imperfect as it is, it 
 may be regarded as a true lesson in art, and bears the same 
 relation to painting as the clay model to the finished statue, 
 the genius of the inventor being impressed upon it. Messrs. 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle ^ call this a Conception, but 
 Yasari's old name of the Patron Saints of Florence seems 
 to fit it best. S. John the Baptist, S. Keparata, S. Zenobio, 
 &c., stand in an adoring group around the heavenly powers, 
 S. Anna above the Virgin and infant Christ forming a 
 charming pyramidal group in the midst. The whole thing is 
 one of Fra Bartolommeo's richest compositions. The centre 
 of the three monks on the left is said to be a portrait of Fra 
 Bartolommeo himself, and to be the original from which the 
 only known portrait of him is taken (see Frontispiece). Fra 
 Bartolommeo left another work also unfinished, an apotheosis 
 of a saint, which is now at Panshanger. This is supposed 
 to have been a small ideal prepared for a picture to celebrate 
 the canonisation of S. Antonino, which Leo X. had almost 
 promised the brethren of S. Marco on his triumphant entry 
 in 1515. The work, if it had been painted in the larger form, 
 would have been a perfect masterpiece of composition, " a 
 very Beethoven symphony in colour," if we may judge from 
 1 History of Painting, vol. iii. chap. xiii. p. 455. 
 
CLOSE OF LIFE. 
 
 55 
 
 the sketch at Panshanger, where a living crowd groups round 
 the bier of the archbishop, and life, earnestness, harmony, 
 and richness, are all intense. 
 
 So ill was Fra Bartolommeo in 1517 that he was ordered 
 to take the baths at San Filippo, thence he went for the 
 last time to Pian di Mugnone, where he painted a Vision 
 of the Saviour to Mary Magdalen, above the door of the 
 chapel. The two figures, nearly life-size, are at the door of 
 the cave sepulchre. Mary has just recognised her Lord, and 
 in her ecstasy flings herself forward on her knees before him. 
 The Saviour is a dignified figure semi-nude, with a white 
 veil wrapped around him. 
 
 In the Pitti Palace, a charming Pieth of Fra Bartolommeo' s 
 occupies a place near the Pieta of Andrea del Sarto, the two 
 pictures forming a most interesting contrast of style. The 
 kneeling Virgin and S. John support the head of the 
 prostrate Saviour, S. Catherine and Mary Magdalen weep at 
 his feet, the latter in an agony of grief crouches prone on 
 the ground hiding her face. The colouring is extremely rich, 
 broad masses of full-tone melting softly into deep shadows. 
 The handling in the flesh-tones of the dead Saviour, as well 
 as the modelling of form, are most masterly. It is generally 
 supposed that this was the picture which Bugiardini is said to 
 have coloured after the master's death ; but there is much 
 divergence among Italian authors both as to whether this 
 was the painting spoken of, and also as to the meaning of 
 Vasari's words, he using the phrase "finished " in one place, 
 and " coloured " in another. For charm of colouring and 
 depth of expression, the Pieth is the most lovely of all the 
 Frate's works ; therefore Bugiardini who was mediocre, could 
 not have outdone his great master. It was not coloured by 
 him. Bocchi^ says there were two other figures, S. Peter 
 and S. Paul, in the picture, where a meaningless black shadow 
 stretches across the background ; but they were erased by 
 1 Bocchi, Bcllezze di Fircnze, p. 304. 
 
56 
 
 FBA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 the antique restorer because they were "troppo deboli." Is 
 it not likely that if Bugiardini had any hand in the work, it 
 was to finish these figures 1 
 
 Eeturning in the autumn to Florence, Fra Bartolommeo 
 caught a severe cold, the effects of which were heightened by 
 eating fruit, and after four days' extreme illness he died on 
 October 8th, 1517, aged 42. 
 
 The monks felt his death intensely, and buried him with 
 great honour in San Marco. 
 
 He left to art the most valuable legacy possible — a long 
 list of masterpieces in which religious feeling is expressed in 
 the very highest language. In all his works there is not a 
 line or tint which transgresses against either the sentiment 
 of devotion, or the rules of art. He stands for ever, almost 
 on a level with the great trio of the culmination, " possessing 
 Leonardo's grace of colour and more than his industry, 
 Michelangelo's force with more softness, and Raphael's 
 sentiment with more devotion ; " yet with just the inex- 
 pressible want of that supernatural genius which would have 
 placed him above them all. His legacy to the world is a 
 series of lessons from the very first setting of his ideal on 
 paper to its finished development. The germ exists in the 
 charcoal sketches at the Belle Arti and Uffizi ; the under- 
 shadowing of the subject is seen in the Patron Saints at the 
 Uflizi. 
 
 Many of his drawings are not to be traced. Some were 
 used by Fra Paolino, his pupil, who at his death passed 
 them to Suor Plautilla Nelli, a nun in Sta. Caterina, Florence 
 (born 1523, died 1587). When Baldinucci wrote his work, 
 he said 500 of these were in the possession of Cavaliere 
 Gaburri. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 SCHOLARS OF FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 OF these, little more than the names have come down to 
 us. Vasari speaks of Benedetto Cianfanini, Gabbriele 
 Rustici, and Fra Paolo Pistojese ; Padre Marchese mentions 
 two monks, Fra Andrea and Fra Agostino. Of these, the 
 two first never became proficient, and have left no works 
 behind them. Fra Andrea seems to have been more a 
 journeyman than scholar, being employed to prepare the 
 panels and lay on the gilding. Fra Agostino assisted his 
 master, and Fra Paolo in the subordinate parts of a few 
 frescoes, especially at Luco in the Mugnone. Fra Paolo is 
 the most known, but chiefly as a far-off imitator of Fra 
 Bartolommeo, without his mellowness of execution. His 
 pictures are mostly from his master's designs, which were 
 left him as a legacy, and this ensures a good composition. 
 
 He was born at Pistoja in 1490 ; his father, Bernardino 
 d'Antonio del Signoraccio, a second-rate artist, taught him the 
 first principles of art. His knowledge of drawing caused 
 him to be noticed by Fra Bartolonmieo, when at a very early 
 age he entered the order. He was removed from Prato to 
 San Marco, Florence, in 1503 ; and here he found another 
 
58 
 
 FEA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 friend who assisted his artistic tendencies. This was Fra 
 Ambrogio della Robbia,^ who taught him to model in clay ; 
 a specimen of his work exists in the Church of Sta. Madda- 
 lena in Pian di Mugnone, where are two statues of S. 
 Domenico and Mary Magdalen by his hand. 
 
 His best work is a Crucifixion at Siena, dated 1516, which 
 has been thought to be Fra Bartolommeo's ; but though 
 that master was asked to go and paint it as a memorial of 
 a certain Messer Cherubino Ridolfo, his many occupations 
 prevented his accepting the commission, and his disciples, 
 Fra Paolo and Fra Agostino, went in his place. ^ Possibly 
 the master supplied the design, which is very harmonious. 
 The Yirgin and S. John stand on each side of the cross, and 
 Saint Catherine of Siena and Mary Magdalen are prostrate 
 before it. One or two of the female saints are pleasing, but 
 the nude figure of Christ is hard, exaggerated, and faulty in 
 drawing. 
 
 The artists got thirty-five lire for the work, though the 
 record in the archives allows that it was worth more. There 
 is an Assumption in the Belle Arti of Florence, of which the 
 design is Fra Bartolommeo's, but the colouring Fra Paolo's. 
 It was painted for the Dominican monks at Santa Maria del 
 Sasso, near Bibbiena. The colouring is hard and weak, the 
 shadows heavy, and not fused well in the half tints. Two 
 monks on the left are tolerably life-like, probably they were 
 drawn from living models ; the S. Catherine on the right is 
 very inferior. 
 
 The Belle Arti also possesses a Deposition from the Cross, 
 which Fra Bartolommeo had sketched out and left uncoloured 
 at Pian di Mugnone. In 1519 Fra Paolo finished it, and 
 it presents the usual disparity between the composition and 
 colouring, the former being good, the latter weak and crude. 
 His best known works are a Nativity in the Palazzo Borghese, 
 
 ^ Padre Marchese, Memorie, &c., lib. iii. chap. ii. p. 246. 
 * Padre Marchese, Memorie, &c., lib. iii. chap. ii. p. 251. 
 
THE SCHOLARS OF MARIOTTO ALBEKTINELLI. 
 
 59 
 
 a Madonna and Child with S. John Baptist in the Sciarra 
 Colonna, also in Rome ; a Madonna and Child with S. 
 John in the Corsini Gallery, Florence, and another of the 
 same subject in the Antinori Palace. He painted also at 
 San Gimignano, Pian di Mugnone, and Pistoja, and died 
 of sunstroke in 1547. 
 
 He had as a follower a Suor Plautilla Nelli, born 1523, 
 daughter of a noble Florentine, Piero di Luca Nelli. She took 
 the vows at the age of fourteen, in the convent of S. Caterina 
 di Siena, in Via Larga (now Cavour), Florence. Her sister, Suor 
 Petronilla, in the same convent, was a writer, and her life of 
 Savonarola is still extant. Suor Plautilla taught herself to 
 paint. Legend says, that in order to study the nude for a 
 Christ, she drew from the corpse of a nun — which might ac- 
 count for the weak stiffness of her design. Fra Paolo, though 
 there is no record of his having taught her, left her as a 
 legacy the designs and cartoons of Fra Bartolommeo, one 
 of which, the Pietct, she has evidently made use of in the 
 painting in the Belle Arti. The grouping is that of the 
 Pietd, of Fra Bartolommeo, now in the Pitti, of which she 
 must have had the original sketch, for she has put in the 
 two saints in the background, which have been painted out 
 in that of the Frate, but we will give her the entire credit of 
 the colouring, which is extremely crude; the contrasting 
 blues and yellows are in inharmonious tones, the shading 
 harsh, and the whole picture wanting in chiaroscuro. The 
 Corsini Gallery, Florence, has a Virgin and Child by her. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE SCHOLAES OF MARIOTTO ALBEKTINELLI 
 
 were much more important in the annals of art, the principal 
 ones being Bugiardini, Francia Bigio, Visino, and Innocenza 
 d' Imola. 
 
 Giuliano Bugiardini should be called the assistant rather 
 
60 
 
 TEA BAETOLOMMEO. 
 
 than the scholar of Albertinelli, being older than his master. 
 He was born in 1471 in a suburb outside the Yi& Faenza, 
 Florence, and was placed in the shop of Domenico Ghirlan- 
 dajo, where his acquaintance with Michelangelo — begun in 
 the Medici Gardens — ripened into intimacy, and he was em- 
 ployed by him in the Sistine Chapel. Giuliano had that 
 happily constructed mind which, with an ineffable content in 
 its own works, will pass through life perfectly happy in the 
 feeling that in reaching mediocrity it has achieved success. 
 Not only wanting talent to produce better works, te lacked 
 also the faculty of perceiving where his own were failty, and 
 having a great aptitude for copying the works of ethers, he 
 felt himself as great as the original artists. Miclelangelo 
 was always amused with his naive self-conceit, and tept up a 
 friendship with him for many years. He even went sc far as to 
 sit to Bugiardini for his likeness, at the request of Ottaviano 
 de' Medici. Giuliano, having painted and talked nonsense 
 for two hours, at last exclaimed, to his sitter's great relief, 
 *' 'Now, Michelangelo, come and look at yourself ; I have 
 caught your very expression." But what was Michelangelo's 
 horror to see himself depicted with eyes which were neither 
 straight nor a pair ! The worthy artist looked from his 
 work to the original, and declared he could see ro differ- 
 ence between them, on which Michelangelo, shrugging his 
 shoulders, said, " It must be a defect of nature," &nd bade 
 his friend go on with it. This charming portrait was pre- 
 sented to Ottaviano de' Medici, with that of Pope Clew^nt VII., 
 copied from Sebastian del Piombo, and is now in the Louvre. 
 Bugiardini's works always take the style of other masters. 
 There is a Madonna in the Uffizi, and one in the Leipsic 
 Museum, both in Leonardo's style, with his defects exaggerated. 
 The former is a sickly woman in a sentimental attitude, the 
 child rather heavy, the colouring is bright and well fused ; 
 he has evidently adopted the method which he lad seen 
 Albertinelli use in his studio. 
 
THE SCHOLAES OF MAEIOTTO ALBERTINELLI. 61 
 
 During a stay in Bologna he painted a Madonna and Saints 
 as an altar-piece for the church of S, Francesco, besides a 
 Marriage of S. Catherine, now in the Bologna Pinacoteca. The 
 composition of this is not without merit ; the child Jesus 
 seated on his mother's knees, gives the ring to S. Catherine, 
 little S. John stands at the Virgin's feet, S. Anthony on her left. 
 The colouring is less pleasing, the flesh tints too red and raw. 
 
 A round picture in the Zambeccari Gallery, Bologna, shows 
 him in Michelangelo's style. The Virgin is reading on a 
 wooded bank, but looks up to see the infant Christ greet 
 the approaching S. John Baptist ; this is carefully, if rather 
 hardly, painted. The lights in the Saviour's hair have been 
 touched in with gold. The time of his stay in Bologna is 
 uncertain, but in 1525 he was in Florence, and draTving 
 designs for the Kinghiera with Andrea del Sarto. There 
 is a document in the archives, proving that on October 5th, 
 1526 Bugiardini was paid twenty florins in gold for his 
 share of the work. He obtained some rank as a portrait 
 painter, in spite of his failure in that of Michelangelo ; and 
 had commissions from many of the celebrities of Florence. It 
 was in original composition that his powers failed him. 
 Messer Palla Bucellai ordered a picture from him of the 
 Martyrdom of S. Catherine, which he began with the intention 
 of making it a very fine work indeed. He spent several 
 years in representing the wheels, the lightnings and fires in 
 a sufficiently terrible aspect, but had to beg Michelangelo's 
 assistance in drawing the men who were to be killed by those 
 heavenly flames ; his design was to have a row of soldiers in 
 the foreground, all knocked down in different attitudes. His 
 friend took up the charcoal and sketched in a splendid group 
 of agonised nude figures ; but these were beyond his power 
 to shade and colour, and Tribolo made him a set of models in 
 clay, in the attitudes given by Michelangelo, and from these 
 he finished the work ; but the great master's hand was never 
 apparent in it. Bugiardini died at the age of seventy-five. 
 
62 
 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO, 
 
 Of Francesco Bigi, commonly called Francia Bigio or 
 Franciabigio, so much is said in the following life of Andrea 
 del Sarto, that a slight sketch will suffice here. He was the 
 son of Cristofano, and was born in 1482. His early studies 
 were made in the Brancacci Chapel, and the Papal Hall — 
 where he drew from the cartoons in 1505-6, and the studio 
 of Mariotto Albertinelli, from which he passed to his partner- 
 ship with Andrea del Sarto in 1509. Thus it is that his first 
 style was marked by the influence of Mariotto and Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo, while in his later works he approximated more to 
 Andrea del Sarto. 
 
 Two of his early paintings were placed in the church of S. 
 Piero Maggiore, one a Virgin and Child of great beauty. The 
 infant cla^s its arms round its mother's neck — a charming 
 attitude — which suggests a playful effort to hide from the 
 young S. John, who is running towards him, by nestling closer 
 to the dearer resting place. The picture is now in the 
 Uffizi and has been long known as Raphael's Madonna 
 del Pozzo. ' No greater testimony to Francia Bigio's excellence 
 can be given than the frequency of his works being mistaken 
 for those of Raphael, but the influence of his contemporaries 
 was always strong upon him. The Annunciation, painted for 
 the same church, is also described by Yasari as a carefully 
 designed work, though somewhat feeble in manner. The 
 angel is lightly poised in air, the Virgin kneeling before a 
 foreshortened building. The picture was lost sight of in the 
 demolition of the church, but Crowe and Cavalcaselle ^ believe 
 they have discovered it in a picture at Turin, the authorship 
 of which is avowedly doubtful. They mention, however, a 
 celestial group of the Eternal Father in a cherub-peopled 
 cloud, sending his blessing in the form of a dove, with a ray 
 of glory. Surely if this be the one described by "Vasari ^ so 
 
 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Fainting, vol. iii. chap. xv. p. 501. 
 » Vol. iii. p. 500. 3 Yasari, vol. iii. p. 336. 
 
THE SCHOLAES OF MARIOTTO ALBEETINELLI. 63 
 
 minutely, he would not have omitted a part of the subject so 
 important to the picture. 
 
 In 1509 we may presumably date the partnership with 
 Andrea del Sarto, that being about the time when they began 
 to work together in the Scalzo. Francia Bigio painted some 
 frescoes in the church of S. Giobbe, behind the Servite 
 Monastery. A Visitation was in a tabernacle at the corner 
 of the church, and subjects from Job's life on a pilaster 
 within it : these have long ago disappeared. The altar- 
 piece of the Madonna and Job, which he painted in oil for 
 the same church, has been more fortunate, as it still exists in 
 the Tuscan School in the Uffizi. Though much injured, it 
 shows his earlier style. The Calumny of Apelles in the same 
 gallery is a curious picture. It is hard and dull in colouring, 
 the prevailing tone being a heavy drab ; there are several 
 nude figures, of doubtful forms as to beauty of drawing, the 
 flesh is painted in a smooth glazed style, without relief or 
 tenderness. 
 
 Francia Bigio shines more in fresco than in oil ; his hard- 
 ness is less apparent, and he gains in freedom and brilliance 
 of colouring in the more congenial medium. The finest of his 
 frescoes is, unfortunately, spoiled by his own hand, and remains 
 as a memorial of his genius and hasty temper. I allude to the 
 Sposalizio (a.d. 1513) in the courtyard of the Servite church, 
 where Andrea did his series of frescoes from the life of Filippo 
 Benizzi, The composition is grand and carefully thought out, 
 the colouring bright and pleasing; perhaps in emulating 
 Andrea's luxurious style of drapery he has gone a little too far, 
 and crowded the folds. The bridegroom is a noble figure, and 
 shows in his face his gladness in the blossoming rod. A man in 
 the foreground breaks a stick across his knees. The commenta- 
 tors of Vasari have taken this to emblematize the Roman 
 Catholic legend of the Virgin having given rods to each of her 
 suitors, and chosen him whose rod blossomed. Graceful 
 women surround the Virgin, but there is perhaps a too 
 
64 
 
 FllA BAKTOLOMMEO. 
 
 marked sentimentality about these which suggests a striv- 
 ing after Raphael's style. There is, however, a great touch of 
 nature in a mother with a naughty child, who sits crying on 
 the ground, much to the mother's distress. Francia Bigio 
 commenced this in Andrea's absence in France, which so 
 excited his former comrade's emulation that he did his 
 Visitation in great haste, to get it uncovered as soon as Francia 
 Bigio's. In fact, Andrea's works were ready by the date of the 
 annual festa of the Servites, and the monks, being anxious to 
 uncover all the new frescoes for that day, took upon them 
 to remove the mattings from that of Francia Bigio as well, 
 without his permission, for he wished to give a few more 
 finishing touches. So angry was he, on arriving in the 
 cloister, to see a crowd of people admiring his work in what 
 he felt to be an imperfect condition, that in an excess of rage 
 he mounted on the scaffolding which still remained, and, 
 seizing a hammer, beat the head of the Madonna to pieces, 
 and ruined the nude figure breaking the rod. The monks 
 hastened to the scene in an uproar of remonstrance, the frantic 
 artist's destructive hand was stayed by the bystanders, but 
 so deep was his displeasure that he refused to restore the 
 picture, and no other hand having touched it, the fresco 
 remains to this day a fine work mutilated. It shows him 
 artistically in his very best, and morally, at his worst, phase. 
 
 In 1518, while Andrea was in France, the monks of the 
 Scalzo employed Francia Bigio to fill two compartments in 
 their pretty little cloister, where Andrea had commenced his 
 Life of S. John Baptist. These are spoken of more at length 
 in the life of that master, who on his return took the work 
 again in his own hands. In 1521 Bigio competed with Andrea 
 and Pontormo, in the Medici Villa at Poggio a Cajano ; An- 
 drea's Ccesar receiving Tribute occupies one wall of the hall, 
 and Francia Bigio's Triumph of Cicero another. The subjects 
 were selected by the historian, Messer Paolo Giovio, Bishop 
 of Nocera ; it only remained for the artists to make 
 
THE SCHOLAES OF MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLL 65 
 
 the most of the chosen themes. Francia Bigio filled his back- 
 ground with a careful architectural perspective, and a crowd 
 of muscular Romans are grouped before it. This also was 
 left unfinished at the Pope's death, and Allori completed it 
 in 1582. Francia Bigio, however, did many of the gilded 
 decorations of the hall. 
 
 In the Dresden Gallery is a work, Scenes from the Life of 
 David, signed A. S., mdxxiii., and his monogram, a painting 
 very much in the style of Andrea del Sarto's Life of Joseph. 
 Reumont^ claims it as the joint work of Andrea and Francia 
 Bigio, founding his opinion on the letters A. S. before the 
 date ; but the letters mean only Anno salutis, and 
 are used in very many of Francia Bigio's signed 
 paintings. He had the commission from Gio Maria 
 Benintendi in 1523. It is one of those curious 
 pictures which have many scenes in one — a style which mili- 
 tates greatly against artistic unity. On the right is David's 
 palace, on the left Uriah's ; David is at his door watching 
 Bathsheba and her maidens bathing. In the centre is the 
 siege of Rabbah; another well-draped group represents 
 David receiving Uriah's homage. In the foreground David 
 gives wine to Uriah at a banquet. There is careful painting 
 and ingenious composition, but a less finished manner of 
 colouring than in Andrea's Joseph, which was painted about 
 the same time for Pier Borgherini. 
 
 Like Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, Francia Bigio fell off in his 
 later style, partly because his ambition failed him, and also 
 because he began to look on art as a means of livelihood — a 
 motive which is certain death to high art. 
 
 He was especially celebrated as a portrait painter, several 
 of his works having been attributed to Raphael. Among 
 these are one at the Louvre and one at the Pitti Palace, 
 both portraits of a youth in tunic and black cap, with long 
 hair flowing over his shoulders ; one in the National Gallery, 
 1 Life of Andrea del Sarto, p. 138 et seq. 
 
 F B Y 
 
66 
 
 FEA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 formerly in Mr. Fuller Maitland's collection ; the portrait of 
 a jeweller, dated A. S., mdxvi. in Lord Yarborougb's gallery ; 
 that in the Berlin Musevun, of a man sitting at a desk, dated 
 1522 ; and the likeness of Pier Francesco de Medici at 
 Windsor — all of which bear Francia Bigio's monogram, often 
 with the letters A. S. (An7io salutis) before the date. He 
 died on January 14th, 1525. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO. 
 A.D. 1483—1560. 
 
 RIDOLFO (DI DOMENICO) BIGORDI, called GHIR- 
 LANDAJO, &c., was born on the 4th of January, 1483. 
 Although not strictly a scholar, he is one of Fra Bartolommeo's 
 principal followers. When quite a child he lost his father, 
 the famous Domenico, who died of fever, on January 11th, 
 1494 ; his mother and uncle Benedetto only lived a few 
 years after ; and Ridolfo, with his three sisters and two 
 brothers, was left to the guardianship of his uncle Davide. 
 
 Ridolfo was the only one who chose the family profession, 
 and he became the fourth painter of the name of Ghirlandajo. 
 
 Davide was not a perfect artist, although a good mosaicist, 
 as his works in the cathedrals of Orvieto, Siena, and Florence 
 show, but he was for many years Ridolfo's only instructor. As 
 the boy grew up Ridolfo frequented those public schools of art 
 before spoken of, the Brancacci Chapel, and the study of the 
 cartoons in the Papal Hall. Here he secured the friendship 
 not only of Granacci and Pier di Cosimo, but of Raphael him- 
 self, with whom he visited Fra Bartolommeo in his convent. 
 
EIDOLFO GHIELANDAJO. 
 
 67 
 
 Raphael permitted Ridolfo to assist him in a Madonna for 
 Siena, and tried to persuade him to accompany him to Rome ; 
 but Ridolfo, like a true Florentine, declined to go " beyond 
 sight of the Duomo." 
 
 His first great picture was done in 1504 for the church of 
 San Gallo. The subject was Christ Bearing His Cross. His 
 uncle Benedetto had laboured on a similar picture, now in 
 the Louvre, but Ridolfo's is a great improvement on this ; the 
 composition is well balanced, full of force and animation, the 
 weeping figures of the Maries and the solicitude of S. Veronica 
 are very lifelike, although he has not entirely abolished his 
 uncle's coarseness in the scowling, low-typed men. The 
 Christ and the Virgin are, on the contrary, so refined as to 
 induce the supposition that this force of contrast was in- 
 tentional ; the landscape is rather hard and crude in tone, 
 the flesh tints smooth, and the handling similar to that of 
 Gredi. 
 
 The original is now in Palazzo Antinori, Florence, but a 
 replica, in which he was assisted by Michele, his favourite 
 pupil and adopted son, is in Santo Spirito. 
 
 Vasari speaks of a Nativity, painted for the Cistercian 
 monks of Cestello ; a beautiful composition, in which the 
 Madonna adores the holy child, S. Joseph standing near 
 her; S. Francis and S. Jerome kneel in adoration; the 
 landscape was sketched from the hills near " La Vernia " 
 where S. Francis received the stigmata. 
 
 Maselli says the picture was lost when the monastery 
 changed hands, but Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle ^ believe 
 they have found it in the Hermitage at S. Petersburg, under 
 Granacci's name. It is possible that the favourite pupil of 
 his father and Ridolfo's own friend may have assisted him. 
 The landscape is Raphaelesque, and might mark the time 
 when that master and Fra Bartolommeo influenced his style. 
 His best manner approached so nearly to that of the Frate, 
 1 History of Fainting, vol. iii. chap. xvi. pp. 523, 524. 
 
 r 2 
 
68 
 
 FKA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 that had lie continued he would have very nearly rivalled his 
 excellence. 
 
 His two masterpieces are now in the Uffizi ; they were 
 painted for the Brotherhood of S. Zenobio, 1510, to stand 
 one on each side of Albertinelli's Annunciation. One 
 is S. Zenohio (the first bishop and patron saint of Florence) 
 restoring a dead cliild to life ; the other the Funeral Proces- 
 sion of the Saint passing the Baptistery, where an elm tree, 
 which had been withered, put forth fresh leaves as the coffin 
 of the bishop touched it. A marble column, with a bronze 
 tree in relief on it, stands on the spot as a memorial of 
 this miracle. In these two works Eidolfo Ghirlandajo 
 proved the power which was in him, but they are the cul- 
 mination of his art ; he never surpassed, or indeed equalled 
 them again. His richness of colouring and deep relief 
 equalled that of the Frate, the animation and expression 
 rivalled Andrea del Sarto. In the first picture, the eagerness 
 of the crowd, the intense feeling of the mother, in whom 
 grief for the dead child seems almost greater than the hope 
 of his resuscitation, the sturdy, solid character of the Floren- 
 tines of the Republic, are all given with a masterly hand, 
 while a rich blending of colour fuses the animated crowd in 
 a harmonious unison. In the latter, grandeur and dignity 
 mark the group of ecclesiastics which surrounds the arch- 
 bishop's bier, the full solid falls of their drapery show that 
 he had well studied his father's works. 
 
 Ridolfo's brothers became monks, Don Bartolommeo lived 
 in the Camaldoline Monastery of the Angeli, which Ridolfo 
 beautified with many works. Paolo Uccelli had adorned the 
 Loggia with frescoed stories from the life of S. Benedict. 
 Ridolfo added two to the series. In one the Saint is at 
 table with two angels, waiting for S. Romano to send his 
 bread from the grotto, but the devil has cut the cord and 
 taken it. 
 
 Another is aS'. Benedict investing a youth with the habit of 
 
EIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO. 
 
 G9 
 
 the order. In the cliurch of the same monastery he painted 
 a beautiful Madonna and Child, with Angels, above the holy 
 water vase, and S. Romualdo with the Camaldolese Hermitage 
 in his Hand, in a lunette in the cloister. All these were done 
 as a brotherly gift, and after they were finished, the abbot, 
 Don Andrea Dossi, gave him a commission to paint a Last 
 Supper in the refectory, which he did, placing the portrait of 
 the abbot in the corner. 
 
 Ridolfo, like his father, regarded art rather as a means of 
 livelihood than with any aesthetic feelings, and this is pro- 
 bably the reason of his never attaining true excellence. His 
 "bottega" was really -a shop where anyone might order a 
 work of art, or of artisanship, and he gave as much atten- 
 tion to painting a banner for a procession as to composing an 
 altar-piece. He had a great many assistants, whom he called 
 on for help in various undertakings. They assisted him to 
 prepare the Medici Halls for the reception of Pope Leo X., 
 and later for the marriages of Giuliano and Lorenzo, not dis- 
 daining to paint scenes for the dramas which were then given. 
 He painted banners, and designed costumes for the proces- 
 sions of the " potenze," a festive company, the origin of which 
 is uncertain, but dating certainly from the Middle Ages. 
 Each quarter of the city had an emperor, lords, and dig- 
 nitaries, each of whom carried his banner or emblazonment. 
 Grand processions, tournaments, and feasts were held once a 
 year, on S. John's Day, by the potenze. 
 
 Having assisted at the triumphs and marriages of the 
 Medici princes, he also furnished the funeral pomp and mag- 
 nificence on the deaths of the brothers, that of Giuliano 
 occurring in 1516, of Lorenzo 1519. 
 
 Lucratively it answered his purpose ; the Medici gave him 
 great honour ; he was well paid by them, and got the com- 
 mission to decorate the Chapel of the Palazzo Yecchio — a very 
 good specimen of his fresco painting, in which he never 
 reached his father's excellence, although in oil he far surpassed 
 
70 
 
 FllA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 him. The chapel is small ; the groined roof is covered with 
 emblematical designs on a blue ground, a Trinity in the midst 
 with angels bearing symbols of the passions around. The 
 apostles and evangelists surround this, and the principal wall 
 has a larger fresco of the Annunciation — a rather conventional 
 rendering. 
 
 Commissions flowed in on him to such a degree, that 
 although he had fifteen children, he lived to amass money and 
 lands, to see his daughters well married, and his sons pros- 
 perous merchants trading to distant lands. He died on the 
 6th of June, 1561, and lies with his forefathers in the church 
 of S. Maria Novella. 
 
See page iii. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF ANDREA DEL SARTO. BY HIMSELF. 
 /« the Uffizi, Flore7tce. 
 
ANDREA D'AGNOLO, 
 
 CALLED 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SrOUTH AND EARLY WORKS. 
 A.D. 1487—1511. 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO is a curious instance of the 
 vital power of art, which, like a flower forcing its 
 way to the light through walls or rocks, will find expression 
 in spite of obstacles. 
 
 Andrea the painter, " senza errori," was an artist in spite 
 of lowering home influences, of want of encouragement in 
 his patrons— for his greatest works only brought the smallest 
 remuneration— and even in spite of his own nature, which 
 was material, wanting in high aims, and deficient in ideality ; 
 yet his name lives for ever as a great master, and his works 
 rank close to those of the leaders of the Renaissance. 
 
 In looking at them one sighs even in the midst of admira- 
 tion, thinking that if the hand which produced them had 
 been guided by a spark of divine genius instead of the finest 
 talent, what glorious works they would have been! The 
 
YOUTH AND EARLY WORKS. 
 
 73 
 
 truth is that Andrea's was a receptive, rather than an original 
 and productive mind. His art was more imitative than 
 spontaneous, and this forms perhaps the difference between 
 talent and genius. The art of his time sunk into his mind, 
 and was reproduced. He lived precisely at the time of the 
 culmination of art, when all the highest masters were bring- 
 ing forth their grandest works ; therefore he could not do 
 otherwise than to follow the best examples. 
 
 He gathered the experience of all — the force of Michel- 
 angelo, the handling of Leonardo, the sentiment of Raphael, 
 so blending them as to form a style seemingly his own, and 
 in execution following closely on their excellence. 
 
 In Giotto's or Masaccio's case the master created the art ; 
 in Andrea's it was the art of the age which made the artist. 
 
 The question of Andrea del Sarto's birth is a mooted one. 
 Biadi dates it 1478, but the register he quotes is both vague 
 and doubtful. He also tells a curious story of his Flemish 
 origin. Signor Milanesi has deduced, from the archives of 
 Florence, an authentic pedigree from which we learn that 
 his remote ancestors were peasants, first at Buiano, near 
 Fiesole, and later at S. Ilario, near Montereggi. His grand- 
 father, Francesco, being a linen weaver, came to live nearer 
 Florence ; his father, Agnolo, son of Francesco, followed the 
 trade of a tailor — hence Andrea's sobriquet, "del Sarto " — he 
 took a house in Via Gualfonda, in Florence, about 1487, with his 
 wife Constanza, and here Andrea was born, he being the eldest 
 of a family of five — three girls and two boys. From the tax 
 papers of a few years later it is proved that Andrea was born 
 in 1487. His full name is Andrea d' Agnolo di Francesco. 
 It is by mistake that he has been called Vannucchi, 
 
 His parents were young, his father being only twenty- 
 seven years of age at Andrea's birth. They lived at that 
 time in Val Fonda, where Albertinelli had his shop, but 
 in 1504 they removed to the popolo, or parish, of S. Paolo. 
 Boys were not allowed to be idle in those days, but were 
 
74 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 apprenticed at an early age ; thus Andrea, like most artists 
 of his time, was bound to a goldsmith. It would be interest- 
 ing to investigate the great influence of the guild of 
 goldsmiths on the art of the Benaissance, The reason why- 
 youths who showed a talent for design were entered in that 
 guild is easy to assign — it was one of the " greater " guilds, 
 that of the painters being a lesser one, and merged in the 
 "Arte degli Speziali." At seven years old he left the school 
 where he had learned to read and write, and entered his very 
 youthful apprenticeship ; but he showed so much more apti- 
 tude for the designing than for the executive part of his 
 profession that Giovanni Barile, who frequented the bottega, 
 was induced to counsel his being trained especially as a 
 painter, offering himself as instructor. If Andrea, a conta- 
 dino by birth, an artisan by education, was not originally 
 of the most refined nature, his artistic training did not go 
 far towards refining him. Giovanni Barile was a coarse 
 painter and a rough man ; he had, however, generosity enough 
 to see that the boy was worthy of better teaching, and got 
 him entered in the bofctega of Piero di Cosimo, who had 
 attained a good rank as a colourist, his eccentricities possibly 
 adding to his reputation. 
 
 Accordingly in 1498, Andrea being then eleven years of 
 age, a life of earnest study began. Piero di Cosimo, odd and 
 misanthropic as he was, had yet a true appreciation of 
 talent, and showed an earnest interest in his pupil, giving 
 him — with plenty of queer treatment — a thorough training. 
 " He was not allowed to make a line which was not perfect " ^ 
 while in Piero's school. But excellent as his art teaching 
 may have been, the boy's morale could not have been raised 
 more here than under the rough but good-natured Barile. 
 We have seen Piero di Cosimo in his youth, the serious, 
 absent young man, who never joked with his juniors in 
 Cosimo Koselli's shop ; we see him now, with his youthful 
 ^ Kosiui, Storia dclla Pittura, chap. xvii. p. 40. 
 
YOUTH AND EARLY WORKS. 
 
 75 
 
 oddities hardened into eccentricities, and his reserve deepened 
 to misanthropy. No woman's hand softened and refined his 
 house, no cleansing broom was allowed within his door, and 
 no gardener's hand cleared the weeds or pruned the vines 
 in his garden. He so believed in nature unassisted that he 
 took his meals without the intervention of a cook. When 
 the fire was lighted to boil his size or glue he would cook 
 fifty or sixty eggs and set them apart in a basket, to which 
 he had recourse when the pangs of hunger compelled him. 
 All this was morally very bad for a boy so young. And 
 then woe betide the poor little fellow if he whistled, sneezed, 
 or made any other noise ! his nervous master would be out 
 of temper for a day afterwards. On wet days Piero was 
 merrier, for he would watch the drops splashing into the 
 pools, and laugh as if they were fairies. Sometimes he 
 would take Andrea for a walk, and all at once stop and 
 gaze at a heap of rubbish, or mark of damp on a lichened 
 wall, picturing all kinds of monsters and weird scenes in 
 its discolourations. 
 
 No doubt he was literally carrying out Leonardo da Vinci's 
 advice, headed, in his treatise, "A new Art of Invention." 
 "Look at some old wall covered with dirt, or the odd appear- 
 ance of some old streaked stones ; you may discover several 
 things like landscapes, battles, clouds, humorous faces, &c., 
 to furnish the mind with new designs." ^ Cosimo's mind 
 being fantastic, the pictures he saw were incomparably gro- 
 tesque. He delighted in drawing sea monsters, dragons^ 
 wonderful adventures, and heathen scenes ; in fact the boy 
 could have learned neither Christian art nor manners from 
 him. He learned how to use his brush, however, and, leaving 
 Piero to his minotaurs and dragons, went off at every spare 
 hour to study at more congenial shrines. He copied Masaccio 
 at the Brancacci Chapel, and drew so earnestly from the 
 cartoons in the Hall of the Pope that his achievements 
 1 Leonardo da Viaci, Treatise on Painting, 
 
76 
 
 ANDREA DEL SAETO. 
 
 reached the ears of Piero himself, who was not sorry that 
 his pupil surpassed the rest, and gave him more time for 
 study away from the bottega. Eosini tells us that "Fra 
 Bartolommeo taught him the first steps."i The influence of the 
 Frate may have reached him in two ways. It is not unlikely 
 that Piero di Cosimo kept up an interest in his old fellow- 
 pupil ; and then again, as Andrea lived in Yal Fonda, it is 
 probable he often visited Albertinelli's studio in that street, 
 and the friendship with Francia Bigio began before the 
 cartoons of Michelangelo ripened there. 
 
 The evidence of style goes to show that the works of 
 Albertinelli and Fra Bartolommeo influenced him more than 
 those of Piero. Yet though his sphere was devotional, it 
 was "impelled more by a material sense of beauty than by 
 the deep religious feeling which inspired the Frate." 
 
 As time went on the youth in strange old Piero's studio 
 became more famous than his master, and felt that he could 
 do greater things away from the stiff method which cramped 
 him, and the whimsicalities which annoyed him. His friend, 
 Francia Bigio, Mariotto's pupil, having just then lost his 
 master, who was giving more attention to his father-in-law's 
 business of innkeeper than his own, was willing to enter 
 into partnership, and the two youths began life together in 
 1509 or 1510, in a room near the Piazza del Grano, in the 
 first house in Yia del Moro, which still remains in its old 
 state. 
 
 The first bit of patronage recorded is the commission for 
 the frescoes in the Scalzo ; that they had work before is 
 proved by the words in the contract of the Barefoot Friars, 
 "dettero ad Andrea pittore celeberrimo il dipingeve nel 
 Chiosto." The " celebrated " presupposes works already 
 done. 
 
 The Scalzo was a name given to the " Compagnia dei 
 Disciplinati di S. Giovanni Battista," because they went 
 1 Storia della Pittura, cliap. xxvii. p. 2. 
 
YOUTH AND EAELY WORKS. 
 
 77 
 
 barefoot when they carried the cross in their processions. 
 They lived in a convent in Yia Larga (now Cavour), oppo- 
 site San Marco. A new cloister had been erected there 
 — an elegant little cortile, thirty-eight feet by thirty-two, 
 adorned with lovely Corinthian pillars — and the Brethren 
 were anxious to fill the lunettes of the arches with frescoes 
 at the least possible expense, wisely judging that a young 
 artist on his way to fame would be the best to employ. 
 
 The frescoes, of which there would be twelve large, and 
 four small ones in the upright spaces by the doors, were to 
 be done in "terretta," or brown earth, and to be paid fifty-six 
 lire (eight scudi) for the large, and twenty-one lire (three 
 scudi) each for the lesser frescoes. The small ones were four 
 figures of the Virtues, Faith, Hope, Justice, and Charity. 
 Hope is exquisitely expressed, and Charity a charming group, 
 the children most tenderly drawn. The subjects, though not 
 all finished till many years later, stand now in the following 
 order ; the second row of figures, with the dates, show the 
 order in which they were painted : — 
 
 1. Gabriel appearing to Zacharias . . . Andrea del Sarto 9 ... 1523. 
 
 2. Visitation ,, 10 ... 1523. 
 
 3. Birth of S. John ,, „ 4 ... 1514. 
 
 4. Zacharias blessing John before going 
 
 to the desert Francia Bigio. 
 
 5. S. John meets the Virgin and Infant 
 
 Christ 
 
 6. Baptism of Christ Andrea del Sarto 1 ... 1509. 
 
 7. Preaching of S. John ,, 2 ... 1514. 
 
 8. Baptism of the Gentiles 3 .. 1514. 
 
 9. S. John bound in the presence of Herod 5 ... 1522. 
 
 10. Dance of Herodias ,, G ... 1522. 
 
 11. Beheading of S. John ,, 7 ... 1522. 
 
 12. Herodias receives the head of S. John 8 ... 1522, 
 
 Of these, No. 6 was the first executed, and it is probable 
 that Francia Bigio assisted him, for it has not the finished 
 drawing nor careful handling of any of Andrea's other frescoes. 
 
78 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 Possibly this is the cause of the partners never working 
 together afterwards, each taking his own subjects and signing 
 his own name. The composition, in the Baptism of Christ, is 
 not original, being very similar to that of Verocchio's, 
 especially in the two angels kneeling on the left bank ; the 
 landscape and figures, however, are far in advance of that 
 master. 
 
 It will be well to speak of the whole set of frescoes in this 
 place, for although they belong to different times and styles, 
 they are a complete work, and might be taken almost as an 
 epitome of Andrea's career ; from the one above mentioned 
 in which Piero de Cosimo's influence is apparent, to the Nos. 7 
 and 8, which very nearly approach Michelangelo's power and 
 freedom. 
 
 In No. 1 the expression of muteness about the mouth of 
 Zacharias, as he stands by the altar, is wonderfully given ; 
 you feel sure he could not speak if he would. The other 
 figures are superfluous to the motive, though adding grandeur 
 to the work as a whole. 
 
 In composition Andrea differs widely from Fra Bartolom- 
 meo. The latter delighted in building up a single form, 
 every figure in the whole picture adding its hue and 
 weight to perfect this pyramid or circle. Andrea spreads 
 his figures more widely ; he likes a double composition, 
 dividing his pictures into two separate groups, connected 
 by one central figure, or divided entirely. This is seen in 
 Nos. 3, 10 and 12, which are all double groupings, the last 
 completely divided in the centre by a table and an archway 
 behind it. Nos. 7 and 9 are pyramidal compositions. The 
 Preaching of S. John is one of the best works, and shows 
 his most forcible style. S. John on a rock stands like a 
 pillar in the centre, the hearers are dressed in the "lucco" 
 (a Florentine cloak of the 15th century), the grouping following 
 the lines of the landscape. At the back Jesus kneels on a 
 rising ground. Yasari says the figures are from Albrecht 
 
YOUTH AND EAELY WORKS, 
 
 79 
 
 Diirer, whose works had made a great impression on the 
 southern world of art ; but it is more probable that they 
 only show his influence, for the dress and style are 
 Florentine. 
 
 No. 8, the Baptism of the Gentiles, is another of his best 
 style, and is, in the drawing of the nude figures, almost 
 Michelangelesque in poAver. This is one of his favourite 
 "echo" subjects, a group in the background of John 
 answering the Pharisees forming an echo to the principal 
 subject. The muscular life of the spirited crowd of nude 
 figures is beautifully contrasted by the graceful draped forms 
 in the background. One of the baptized is the same child 
 whom he had modelled in the Madonna of S. Erancisco. 
 
 Nos. 4 and 5 are by Francia Bigio, and were done during 
 Andrea's absence in France, showing that he had so far 
 learned from his friend as almost to rival him in power. 
 The subjects, although not scriptural, are conjecturally true. 
 
 In the Zacharias blessing John before he goes to the Desert, 
 the sitting figure of S. Elizabeth and the kneeling one of the 
 child are very lovely ; the action of Zacharias is not so well 
 defined, the great force in the uplifted arm betokens anger 
 more than blessing. The grouping follows the lines of a flight 
 of steps in the background, and is triangular. 
 
 The same form of composition is apparent in the next 
 group (No. 5), only the lines form an angle receding from the 
 one just mentioned. The Virgin is charmingly posed and 
 draped, the children less pleasing. 
 
 This elegant little cloister is a true shrine of art, although 
 the frescoes are all in monochrome. So much were they 
 admired at the time, that an order was issued prohibiting 
 artists to copy them without the permission of Duke Cosimo. 
 Cardinal Carlo de' Medici had them covered with curtains, ' 
 but, in spite of care, they are very much injured, the under 
 parts almost lost. The precaution of covering the cloister 
 ' Richa, Delle Chiese. 
 
80 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SAKTO. 
 
 witli a glass roof has only been taken in modern times, and 
 too late. 
 
 Andrea's next patrons were the Eremite monks of S. 
 Agostino, at San Gallo, who ordered of him two picture for 
 their church. In 1511 he painted Christ appearing to JIary 
 Magdalen, and an Annunciation in 1512. The former is said 
 to have had much softness and delicacy, the latter is be 
 seen in the Hall of Mars at the Pitti, and is a very ple£,sing 
 picture. The Virgin kneels at her prayer desk, S. Jcseph 
 behind her — a rather unusual rendering of the subject — 
 her attitude is graceful and decorous, the angel calm and 
 gentle, floats in mid air, two other angels stand on the left. 
 The colouring is varied in the extreme, and the lights well 
 defined. 
 
 These two pictures, and the Disputa, painted later, were 
 removed to the church of S. Jacopo tra Fossi, when the con- 
 vent was demolished in 1529. They were still there in ".677, 
 when Bocchi wrote his Bellezze di Firenze, but the Christ 
 appearing to Mary Magdalen is said to be now in the cLurch 
 of the Covoni in the Casentino. 
 
4 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SERVITE CLOISTEE. 
 A.D. 1511—1512. 
 
 THE next great works were the frescoes in the Court of 
 S. Annunziata, if indeed they were not carried on 
 simultaneously with those in the Scalzo. This famous series 
 of Andrea's works was obtained by cunning, and painted in 
 emulation. While the two partners, who had differed from 
 the beginning, and had since become rivals, were engaged in 
 the Scalzo, a certain astute Era Mariano, the keeper of the 
 wax candle stores at the Servite Convent — to which the church 
 of the S. Annunziata belonged — had watched well those two 
 young painters. Era Mariano understood human nature, as 
 priests often do ; he had seen the envious rivalship growing 
 between them, as the friends, who should have worked to- 
 gether, took separate compartments, and cast jealous criti- 
 cising glances on each other's designs and method of work. 
 Having ambition of his own, he knew how to work on that 
 of others to further his own aspirations, which were, to be 
 considered a patron of art and a benefactor to his convent. 
 
 Reading Andrea's heart, he played on all his strongest 
 feelings, placed before him the glory he would win by cover- 
 ing the lunettes of the arches in the court of the fine church 
 with frescoes which would carry his name down to posterity ; 
 
 F B G 
 
82 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 he said that any other artist would pay much to obtain 
 leave to paint upon historical walls like those, and how they 
 would all envy the man who should obtain the coveted 
 honour! Then, with a half -whispered hint that for one, 
 Francia Bigio was dying to get the commission for nothing, 
 the wily Frate went his way victorious. Andrea, scorning to 
 make any pecuniary bargain, only stipulated that no one 
 else should paint in that courtyard, and forthwith began the 
 Stories from the Life of S. Filippo Benizzi, having only old 
 Alesso Baldovinetti's Nativity, and Cosimo Roselli's Jfdiracle 
 of S. Filippo, as foils to his own. These two works were on 
 the walls on each side of the church door ; there were there- 
 fore three entire sides of the cloister to cover, excepting only 
 the entrance into the courtyard from the Piazza, and no doubt 
 he felt like Ghirlandajo, when " he wished he had the entire 
 circuit of the city walls to paint." 
 
 On the 16th of June, 1511, he began to paint with such 
 vigour that in a few months the first three were uncovered. 
 
 1. S. Philip at Viterbo with the Court, dressing a naked lepe,r 
 in his own cloak, 
 
 2. S. Philip going from Bologna to Modena. He rebukes 
 some gamblers, telling them the vengeance of God is near. A 
 sudden thunderstorm and lightning destroy them, thus ful- 
 filling the prediction. There is a great deal of fine action in 
 this composition ; the horror and disbelief struggling in the 
 faces of the men, and the stormy landscape are all well 
 rendered. A horse leaps away with strong, terrified action, 
 there is a masterly grasp of his vivid subject, and a rugged 
 strength in the execution which gives great life to it. 
 
 3. S. Philip exorcises a Girl possessed of a Demon. Here 
 the composition is very tender, the mother and father support 
 the sick girl, and form a very pleasing group ; the figures of 
 the spectators are full of life without exaggeration. 
 
 These works have suffered much from exposure, but the 
 colouring is still good. The praise that Andrea obtained for 
 
THE SERVITE CLOISTER. 
 
 83 
 
 them was so great that he followed them up by the two 
 in the next series. 
 
 4. A Child brought to life hy touching th& hier of S. Philip. 
 This is a kind of double composition, the child being repre- 
 sented in a twofold condition in the foreground, first as dead, 
 and then revived at the touch of the bier. The grouping 
 around the dead saint is very suggestive of Ghirlandajo, and 
 shews a deep study of his frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel. 
 The colouring is peculiarly his own ; there is the mingling of 
 a great variety of bright tints of equal intensity, which by 
 some necromancy are made to relieve each other, instead of 
 being relieved by the art of chiaroscuro as in the handling 
 of other masters. 
 
 5. Children healed hy the garments of S. Philip, which are 
 held by a priest, standing before an altar, the women and 
 their children kneeling in front of him. The grouping is 
 symmetrical, the figures lifelike, but not refined, round- 
 cheeked buxom women, and rough, human men's faces, be- 
 speak Andrea as the painter of reality rather than ideality ; 
 there is vivid life in every attitude, but the life is not high 
 caste. A fine old man, leaning on his staff, is a portrait of 
 Andrea della Eobbia, whose son Luca stands near. 
 
 For all these Fra Mariano paid only ten scudi each, and 
 Andrea, feeling the remuneration not equal to the merit of 
 the work, would have left off here, but the Frate held him to 
 his bond. Two more lunettes yet remained to finish, but as 
 these were of a later date, we will reserve them for a future 
 chapter. He also painted in the orto, or garden, of the 
 convent, the now perished fresco of the Parable of the Vine- 
 yard, our illustration of which is taken from a drawing in the 
 UfEzi. 
 
 Meanwhile, the rival friends had changed lodgings ; they 
 left the Piazza del Grano, and took rooms in the Sapienza, a 
 street between the Piazza San Marco and the S. Annunziata. 
 Andrea chose this because it was near his work, and also 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 ANDKEA DEL SAKTO, 
 
 because his great friends, Sansovino and Rustici, already- 
 lived there. Commissions began to pour in on him, which he 
 fulfilled, while still at work at the Servi. Judging from the 
 style of his early manner, we may date at this time a Virgin 
 and Child, with S. John and S. Joseph, now in the Pitti, It 
 is painted " alia prima," i.e. a quick method of giving the 
 effect in the first painting, — and is probably the one spoken 
 of by Yasari as painted for Andrea Santini; it formerly 
 belonged to Francesco Troschi.^ 
 
 A /S. Agnes, in the palace of the Prince Palatine, at 
 Diisseldorf, is in this early style. He also painted some 
 frescoes at San Salvi, S/S. Giovanni Gualberto and Benedict 
 resting on clouds ; they ornamented the recess where the Last 
 Supper was placed at a later period. 
 
 In a narrow alley, behind the church of Or San Michele, is 
 a tabernacle on the wall beneath an ancient balcony. Here 
 the architect, Baccio d'Agnolo, commissioned Andrea del 
 Sarto to paint an Annunciation. It is so much injured 
 as to be almost indistinguishable now, but was much 
 admired at the time, though some say it was too laboured, 
 and so wanting in ease and graee.^ It is more likely that it 
 was one of his early works, and should be classed before the 
 frescoes of the Scalzo, for it is said that he was living at the 
 time with his father, whose shop was over the archway, and 
 that he had adorned the inner walls of the house with two 
 frescoed angels,^ These have perished completely. 
 
 1 Life of Andrea del Sarto, vol. iii. p. 193. 
 
 2 Biadi, 26 ; Vasari, vol. iii. p. 189. 
 
 3 Firenze antica e moderna, Ed. Flor. 1794, vol. vi. p. 215. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE AND MARRIAGE, 
 A.D. 1511—1516. 
 
 THIS chapter will speak of the man, and not of the 
 artist. As it is now understood that history is not a 
 dry record of battles and laws, but the story of the inner life 
 of a people, so the biography of a painter ought not to con- 
 sist wholly in a list and description of his works, but a picture 
 of his life and inner mind, that we may know the character 
 which prompted the works. 
 
 First, as to personal appearance. There are two portraits 
 of Andrea del Sarto in his youth; one in the Duke of 
 Northumberland's collection represents him as a young man 
 with long hair, and a black cap, writing at a table. It is 
 painted in a soft, harmonious style, but not masterly as 
 regards chiaroscuro. It might be by Francia Bigio, as it has 
 something of the manner of his master, Albertinelli. 
 
 Another now in the Uifizi is a most life-like portrait of 
 sombre colouring, but not highly finished. Here we have the 
 same black cap and long hair ; the dress is a painter's blouse 
 of a blue-grey, which well brings out the flesh tints. The 
 face is intelligent, but not refined ; the clear dark eyes be- 
 speak the artist spirit, but the full mobile mouth tells the 
 material nature of the man. In looking at this one can solve 
 the riddle of the dissonance between his art and his life. As 
 
86 
 
 ANDKEA DEL SARTO. 
 
 a young man Andrea was full of spirit; he loved lively 
 society, and knew almost all the young artists who lived 
 very much as students now. They met each other in the 
 art schools, and dined and feasted together in the wine shops. 
 Sometimes they formed private clubs, meeting in certain 
 rooms for purposes of youthful merriment. 
 
 Of this kind was the " Society of the Cauldron " (" Societa 
 del Paiuolo "), held at the apartment of the eccentric sculptor, 
 Rustici, which was in the same street as that of Andrea 
 himself. 
 
 Sansovino, who also lived near, was not a member of this 
 rollicking club ; he was one of Andrea's more serious friends, 
 and served as companion when his most exalted moods were 
 upon him. Perhaps Rustici's rooms did not please Sansovino, 
 for strange inmates were there — a hedgehog, an eagle, a 
 talking raven, snakes and reptiles, in a kind of aquarium ; 
 besides all these gruesome familiar spirits, Rustici was 
 addicted to necromancy. The Society of the Cauldron 
 seems only a natural outgrowth from such a character. It 
 consisted of twelve members, all artists, goldsmiths, or 
 musicians, each of whom was allowed to bring four friends 
 to the supper, and bound to provide a dish. Any two 
 members bringing similar dishes were fined, but the droll 
 part of it was that the suppers were eaten in a huge cauldron 
 large enough to put table and chairs into ; the handle served 
 as an arched chandelier, the table was on a lift, and when 
 one course was finished it disappeared from their midst, and 
 descended to be replenished. As for the viands, the sculptors 
 displayed their talents in moulding classical subjects in 
 pastry, and turning boiled fowls into figures of Ulysses and 
 Laertes. The architects built up temples and palaces of 
 jellies, cakes, and sausages; the goldsmith, Robetta, pro- 
 duced an anvil and accoutrements made of a calf's head, 
 the painters treated roast pig to represent a scullery-maid 
 spinning. 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND MAKKIAGE. 
 
 87 
 
 Andrea del Sarto built up the model of the Baptistery with 
 all kinds of eatables, with a reading desk of veal, and book 
 with letters inlaid with truflSes, at which the choristers were 
 roast thrushes with open beaks, while the canons were 
 pigeons in red mantles of beetroot — an idea more droll than 
 reverential. 
 
 After this, in 1512, another club, called that of the 
 "Trowel," was instituted, of which Andrea was not a 
 -member, but was chosen as an associate. The first supper 
 was arranged by Giuliano Bugiardini, and was held on the 
 aja or threshing floor of S. Maria Nuova, where the bronze 
 gates of the Baptistery had been cast. 
 
 In this no two members were allowed to wear the same style 
 of dress under penalty of a fine. The members were in two 
 ranks, the "lesser" and the "greater," a parody on the 
 guilds of the city. They were shown the plan of a build- 
 ing, and the " greater " members, furnished with trowels, were 
 obliged to build it in edibles, the " lesser " acting as hodmen, 
 and bringing materials. Pails of ricotta or goat's milk cheese 
 served for mortar, grated cheese for sand, sugar plums for 
 gravel, cakes and pastry for bricks, the basement was of 
 meats, the pillars fowls or sausages. 
 
 Some suppers were classical scenes, others allegorical 
 representations, always in the same edible form. We can 
 imagine the wit which sparkled round these strange tables, 
 the jokes of the artists, the songs of the musicians. Andrea 
 del Sarto is said to have recited an heroi-comic poem in six 
 cantos called the "Battle of the frogs and mice." Biadi 
 gives it entire ; it seems a kind of satire on Eustici's tastes, 
 with perhaps a hit at the government, and shows no lack of 
 wit of rather unrefined style; but the authorship is not 
 proved. Some say Ottaviano de' Medici assisted Andrea in it. 
 
 It would have been well for Andrea if this innocent 
 jollity had sufficed for him, but unfortunately he admired a 
 woman whose beauty was greater than her merits. Probably 
 
88 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 he began by mere artistic appreciation of her personal 
 charms, for she sat to him for the Madonna of the Visitation, 
 which was painted in 1514, two years before their marriage. 
 This Lucrezia della Fede was the wife of a hatter who lived 
 in Yia San Gallo. Her husband dying after a short illness, 
 Andrea del Sarto married her, and whatever were her faults, 
 she retained his life-long love. Biadi and Eeumont give the 
 date 26th of December, 1512, as that of the death of her 
 husband, but Signer Milanesi, from more authentic sources, 
 proves it to have been in 1516. 
 
 A great deal has been said and written of the evil influence 
 this woman had on him, and his very house bears an inscrip- 
 tion recording his fame together with"affanni domestici," but 
 it would seem that posterity has taken for truth more than 
 the facts of the time imply. That she was proud, haughty, 
 exacting, and not of a high moral nature, that she was 
 selfish^ and begrudged his helping his own family, her every 
 action proves. That her manners were not conciliating to 
 the pupils is possible, perhaps their manners savoured too 
 much of familiarity for a woman who believed in her own 
 charms ; but that she was faithless, which her biographers 
 assert on the strength of Yasari's phrase, " that Andrea was 
 tormented by jealousy," there is literally nothing to show. 
 
 In the first place Yasari — who was one of the scholars she 
 offended and put down — gives vent to his private pique in 
 his fixst edition, and in the second, which only contains a slight 
 mention of her, omits almost all he had previously said. Now, 
 if the first assertions were true why should he retract them % 
 Secondly, the sixteenth century was an age of license in 
 writing and speaking, and had any immoralities been laid 
 to her charge, not a biographer would have scrupled to 
 particularize them ; but no ! her name is never men- 
 tioned, except with her husband's, even by her greatest 
 enemies, who say she was as haughty as she was beautiful. 
 Thirdly, a faithless woman could never have kept her 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND MAERIAGE. 
 
 89 
 
 husband's devoted love, and had she been so, would that 
 affectionate though exaggerated letter of hers, recalling him 
 from. France, have been written 1 That a man who thinks 
 his wife the most lovely creature living may be tormented 
 with jealousy without wrong doing on her part is more than 
 possible. 
 
 Let us then place Lucrezia's character where it ought to 
 stand in Andrea del Sarto's life— as a powerful influence, 
 lowering his moral nature, weaning him from his duties as a 
 son and brother, by fixing all. his care and affection on herself ; 
 she, however, not allowing her own family to be losers by her 
 marriage, although causing him to slight his own. Even this 
 much-spoken-of neglect of his own family seems disproved by 
 his will, which, after a very little more than her own dot left 
 to his wife, makes his brother and niece heirs of all his estate. 
 
 Except that she cared more for her own pleasure than his 
 true advancement, she was not any great hindrance to his 
 artistic career ; he painted an incredible number of pictures, 
 and she was willing to sit for him over and over again. 
 Indeed if she were his model for all the Madonnas in which 
 her features are recognisable, she must have had either 
 inexhaustible patience or great love for the artist. 
 
 In fact she was thoroughly selfish ; as long as she reaped 
 the benefit of his work she furthered his art ; where she was 
 left out of his consideration he must be brought back to 
 her side at any sacrifice to him. This is not the stuff of 
 which an artist's wife ought to be made ; the infiuence of 
 a strong-willed selfish nature on his weak and material one 
 was not good, and his morale became lowered. 
 
 He felt this deterioration less than his friends felt it for 
 him ; even Vasari says that " though he lived in torment, he 
 yet accounted it a high pleasure." It was one of those unions 
 in which the man gives everything, and the woman receives 
 and allows every sacrifice. Her family were kept at his 
 ■expense, her daughter loved as his own, and if she were 
 
90 
 
 AOTiEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 haughty or exacting, he suffered with a Socratic patience, 
 thinking life with her a privilege. 
 
 It is to be supposed that a member of tbe societies of the 
 Cauldron and the Trowel would appreciate good living. He 
 was so devoted to the pleasures of the table that he went to 
 market himself early every morning and came home laden 
 with delicacies. ^ A curious confirmation of this is to be 
 found in his house, the dining-room of which is beautifully 
 frescoed, the arched roof in Raphaelesque scrolls and grotes- 
 ques ; while the lunettes of one wall have two large pictures, 
 one of a woman roasting birds over a fire, the other of a servant 
 preparing the table for dinner. This love of good living, 
 however, in the end shortened his life, according to Biadi. 
 
 After his marketing was over he turned his attention to 
 art, going to his fresco painting followed by his scholars, or 
 superintending their work in the " bottega." He was always 
 a kind and thorough master, his manner just and fatherly. 
 
 Sometimes he and Sansovino or other friends lounged 
 away an hour in the neighbouring shop of Nanni TJnghero, 
 where their mutual friend, Niccol6 Tribolo, did all the hard 
 work, fetching and carrying blocks and saws grumblingly. 
 Tribolo often begged Sansovino to take him as his pupil, 
 which he did afterwards, and he became a famous sculptor. 
 One of Andrea's acquaintances was Baccio Bandinelli, who, 
 as he thought he could equal Michelangelo in sculpture, 
 imagined that only a knowledge of Andrea del Sarto's 
 method of colouring was necessary to enable him to surpass 
 him in painting. To gain this knowledge he proposed to 
 sit to Andrea for his portrait. His friend, discovering his 
 motive, succeeded in frustrating it by mixing a quantity of 
 colours in seeming confusion on his palette, and yet getting 
 fi'om this chaos exactly the tints he required. So Baccio 
 never rivalled his friend in colouring after all, not being able 
 to understand his method. 
 
 ^ Biadi, Notizie inedite, &c., chap. xix. p. 62. 
 
THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN. BY ANDREA DEL SARTO. See J>ase gx. 
 
 In the Convent of the Servi, Florence. 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 WORKS IN FLORENCE. 
 A.D. 1511—1515. 
 
 FROM 1511 to 1514 Andrea was employed on the two 
 last frescoes in the courtyard of the SS. Annunziata 
 the Epiphany and the Nativity of the Virgin. The sum fixed 
 for these was ninety-eight lire, but the Servite brothers 
 augmented it by forty-two lire more, seeing the work was 
 " veramente maravigliosa thus these two were paid at the 
 same rate as the other five of S. Filippo — seventy lire or ten 
 scudi each. 
 
 In the Nativity, one of the finest of his frescoes, we see 
 Ms favourite double grouping, the interest in the mother 
 being kept to one side, that of the child and its attendants 
 to the other — a balance of form united by Joachim, a stern, 
 finely moulded figure in the centre. The attitudes are 
 natural, the draperies free and graceful. Old Yasari justly 
 remarks " pajono di came le figure." The woman standing in 
 the centre of the room is Lucrezia della Fede ; this is the first 
 known likeness of her. There is a richness of colour without 
 iimpasto, a modulation of shade giving full relief without 
 startling contrast, a clear air below and celestial haze in the 
 singel-peopled clouds above. 
 
92 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 This might well be classed as on the highest level ever 
 reached in fresco. Nearly fifty years after it was painted, 
 while Jacopo d'Empoli was copying this fresco, an old woman 
 came through the courtyard to mass, and, stopping to watch 
 the young artist at his work, began to talk of the days 
 of her youth and beauty when she sat for the likeness of 
 that natural figure in the midst, no doubt sighing as she 
 looked at the freshness of the fresco, and thought of her many 
 wrinkles and aged limbs, she being nearly fourscore at the 
 time. 
 
 The Epiphany is also a remarkable work, more lively than 
 the last ; it is also less carefully painted, the graceful femi- 
 nine element is wanting ; there is plenty of activity, a 
 crowded composition, and richness of colour. Three figures 
 are especially interesting as likenesses ; that of the musician 
 Francesco A jolle — a great composer of madrigals, who went 
 to France in 1530, and spent the remainder of his life there; 
 Sansovino, on the right of Ajolle ; and near him Andrea 
 himself — the same face as the portrait in the Ufiizi already 
 spoken of. 
 
 The Madonna del Sacco, over the door of the entrance to 
 the church from the cloister, would seem to have been 
 painted in the same year, 1614, judging from Biadi's extract 
 from the MS. account books of the Servite Fathers existing 
 in the archives, where is an entry " Giugno, 1514, ad Andrea 
 del Sarto, per resto della Madonna del Sacco, lire 56." This 
 term resto (remainder) would imply a previous payment. 
 The money was a thank-offering from a woman for having 
 been absolved from a vow by one of the Servite priests. 
 Like all his other frescoes of this church, Andrea only gained 
 ten scudi for this masterpiece. The date- of MDXXY. and the 
 words "Quern genuit adoravit" on the pilasters of this work 
 have led most writers to suppose it painted in that year ; but 
 it is probable they were added by a later hand. Biadi ^ says 
 1 Biadi, Notizie, &c., p. 42 note. 
 
WOKKS IN FLOEENCE. 
 
 93 
 
 the letters are of tlie style of nearly two centuries later, 
 that Andrea would have signed it, like all his other and 
 works, with his monogram of the crossed A's {i.e. 
 Andrea d'Agnolo). Por charming soft harmonies of 
 colour, simplicity, and grace of design, this surpasses 
 all his other frescoes. The Madonna has an imposing gran- 
 deur of form, there is a boyish strength and moulding in 
 the limbs of the child which is very expressive, the dignity 
 of Joseph and majesty of the Virgin are not to be surpassed ; 
 and yet the whole is given in a space so cramped that all 
 the figures have to be reclining or sitting. 
 
 After this Andrea returned to the Scalzo, the Barefoot 
 Brotiiers offering better pay than the Servites. Here he 
 did the allegory of Justice and the Sermon of S. John in 
 monbchrome. In these he took a fancy to retrograde his 
 style, for thgy have the rugged force and angular form that 
 recalls the more stern old Italian masters, or that Titan 
 of northern a'rt, Albrecht Diirer. 
 
 Of his works in oil at this era we may class — 
 
 1. The /Story of Joseph, painted for Zanobi Girolami Bracci, 
 which Borghini judges a beautiful picture. The figures were 
 small, but the painting highly finished. It came afterwards 
 into the possession of the Medici family. 
 
 2. A Madonna, with decorations and models surrounding 
 it like a frame, was painted for Sansovino's patron, Giovanni 
 Gaddi, afterwards clerk of the chamber to Ferdinand I. It 
 was existing in the collection of the Gaddi Pozzi family in 
 Borghini's time. 
 
 3. Annunciation, for Giovanni di Paolo Merciajo, now in 
 the Hall of Saturn in the Pitti Palace. It is a pretty com- 
 position, the Yirgin sitting, yet half kneeling, the angel on 
 his knees before her. There is a yellowish light in the sky 
 between two looped dark green curtains ; the angel's yellow 
 robe takes the light beautifully. 
 
 4. Madonna and Child, in the ''Hall of the Education of 
 
94 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SARTO. 
 
 Jupiter " in the Pitti Palace, one of his most pleasing groups. 
 This is supposed by the commentators of Vasari to be the 
 altarpiece painted for Giovanni di Paolo Merciajo, but Biadi 
 traces it through the possession of Antonio, son of Zanobi 
 Bracci, to its present possessors. The mistake arises from 
 Vasari often confusing the names Annunciations and 
 Assumptions with Madonnas. 
 
 5. A Holy Family, for Andrea Santini, which awakened 
 great admiration in Florence. It was in the possession of 
 Signor Alessandro Ourti Lepri, by whose permission Morghen's 
 print was taken. 
 
 6. The Head of our Saviour, over the altar of the SS. 
 Annunziata, ordered by the sacristan of the order. A ma.g- 
 nificent head, full of grandeur and expression, and very clear 
 in the flesh tints. Empoli made several copies of it. 
 
 7. The Madonna di San Francesco, Andrea's masterpiece 
 among easel pictures. It was a commission from a monk of 
 the order of "Minorites of Santa Croce," who was intendant 
 of the nuns of S. Francesco, and advised them to employ 
 Andrea. In grandiose simplicity this surpasses Albertinelli's 
 Visitation, in soft gradations and rich mellowness of colour 
 it equals Fra Bartolommeo at his best, for tenderness in the 
 attitude of the child it is quite Kaphaelesque. The Madonna 
 is standing on a pedestal adorned with sculptured harpies. 
 She holds the Divine Child in one arm ; its little hands are 
 twined tenderly round her neck, and it seems to be climbing 
 closer to her. The two children at her feet give a suggestive 
 triangular grouping, while the dignified figures of S. Francis 
 and S. John the Evangelist form supports on each side, and 
 rear up a pyramid of beauty. Bosini's term " soave " just ex- 
 presses this picture, so fused and soft, rich yet transparent 
 in the colouring. The olive-brown robe of one saint is 
 balanced by the rich red of the other. In the Virgin, a 
 deep blue and mellow orange are combined by a crimson 
 bodice. The price paid to the painter for this was low because he 
 
WORKS IN FLORENCE, 
 
 95 
 
 asked little ; but a century or two later, Ferdinando de' Medici, 
 son of Cosmo III., spent 20,000 scudi to restore the church, 
 and had a copy of the picture made in return for a gift of 
 the original, which is now the gem of the Tribune in the 
 Uffizi. 
 
 8. The Disputa di S. Agostino is another masterpiece, show- 
 ing as much power as the last-named work displays of 
 softness. It was painted at the order of the Eremite monks 
 of San Gallo for their church of San Jacopo tra Fossi, where 
 it was injured by a flood in 1557, and removed later to the 
 Hall of Saturn in the Pitti Palace. The composition is level, 
 the four disputing saints standing in a row, the two listeners, 
 S. Sebastian and Mary Magdalen, kneeling in front. S, 
 Agostino, with fierce vehemence, expounds the mystery of 
 the Trinity ; S. Stephen turns to S. Francesco interrogatively ; 
 S. Domenico (whom Yasari, by the way, calls S. Peter Martyr; 
 has a face full of silent eloquence — he seems only waiting 
 his turn to speak. In S. Sebastian we have a good study 
 
 from the nude, and in Mary Magdalen's kneeling figure a 
 
 charming portrait of Lucrezia — is concentrated the principal 
 focus of colour. 
 
 9. Four Saints, SS. Gio. Battista, Gio, Gualberto, S. Michele, 
 and Bernardo Cardinale, a beautifully-painted picture, once 
 in the Hermitage of Vallombrosa. There were originally two 
 little angels in the midst dividing the saints, as in our 
 illustration. When the picture was transferred to the 
 Gallery of the Belle Arti, where it now is, the angels were 
 taken out and the divided saints brought into a more com- 
 pact group. The angels are in a frame between two frescoed 
 Madonnas of Fra Bartolommeo. 
 
 By this time the fame of Andrea del Sarto, both as a 
 fresco and oil painter, had risen to the highest point. 
 Michelangelo only echoed the opinion of others when he 
 said to Raphael, "There is a little fellow in Florence 
 who wiU bring the sweat to your brow if ever he is engaged 
 
96 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 in great works." His style of composition was important, 
 Ms figures varied and life-like, his draperies dignified. "The 
 main excellence, however, in which Andrea stands unique 
 among his contemporaries rests in the incomparable blending 
 of colour, in the soft flesh tints, in the exquisite chiaroscuro, 
 in the transparent clearness even of his deepest shadows, 
 and in his entirely new manner of perfect modelling." ^ His 
 method, as shown in an unfinished picture of the Adoration oj 
 the Magi in the Guadagni Palace, was to paint on a light 
 ground ; the sketch was a black outline, the features and 
 details not defined, but often roughly indicated. He finished 
 first the sky and background. The flesh tints, draperies, &c., 
 were all true in tone from the first laying in. 2 He did not 
 place shades one over the other, and fuse them together 
 glaze by glaze as Leonardo did, but used an opaque dead 
 colouring which allowed of correction ; the system was 
 rapid, but deficient in depth and mellowness ; "the lights 
 are fused and bright," but "the shadows, owing to their 
 viscous consistency, imperfectly fill the outlines." ^ In a 
 Holy Family in the Louvre, S. Elizabeth's hand is painted 
 across S. John, and shows the shadow underneath it, being 
 grey at that part. Though more solid, he could not paint 
 light over dark without injuring his brilliance of colour. 
 
 Albertinelli, on the contrary, when he painted and repainted 
 his Annunciatio7i, washed out the under layer with essential 
 oil before making his "pentimenti" or corrections, and in this 
 way the thinness was kept. 
 
 In Andrea's early style this thinness is apparent, especially 
 in the Joseph series, painted for Pier Francesco Borgherini. 
 
 Biadi classes Andrea's works in three styles. The first 
 showing the influence of Piero di Cosimo, the second— to 
 which the best works in the Servi cloisters belong— is a 
 
 1 Liibke, History of Art, vol. ii. p. 241. 
 
 2 Eastlake's Materials for History of Oil Painting. 
 
 3 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. iii. chap. xvii. p. 570. 
 
WOEKS IN FLOKENCE, 
 
 97 
 
 larger and more natural style, after the study of Michelangelo 
 and Leonardo. 
 
 The third is the natural development in his own practice 
 of a perfect knowledge of art, and a just appreciation of 
 natui-e. The Birth of the Baptist and the Cenacolo, of San 
 Salvi, belong to his last and greatest manner. In 1515 the 
 Florentine artists were employed on more perishable works 
 than frescoes. Leo X., the Medici Pope who had been elected 
 in 1513, made his triumphal entry into Florence on the 
 3rd of September, 1515, on his way to meet Francis I. of 
 France at Bologna. All the guilds and ranks of Florence 
 vied with each other to make his reception as artistic as 
 possible. He and his suite were obliged to stay three days 
 in the Yilla Gianfigliazzi at Marignolle while the triumphal 
 preparations were being completed. The churches had tem- 
 porary facades of splendid architecture in fresco ; arches 
 were erected at the Porta Romana and Piazza San Felice, 
 covered with historical paintings ; Giuliano del Tasso adorned 
 the Ponte Santa Trinita with statues; Antonio San Gallo 
 made a temple on the Piazza della Signoria, and Baccio 
 Bandinelli prepared a colossus in the Loggia dei Lanzi. 
 Various decorations adorned other streets, and Andrea del 
 Sarto surpassed them all with a fa<^^de to the Duomo, painted 
 in monochrome on wood. His friend Sansovino designed the 
 architecture, and he painted the sculpture and adornments 
 with such efPect that the Pope declared no work in marble 
 could have been finer. 
 
 Andrea lent his talent to another kind of decorative art. 
 The guild of merchants were desirous of inaugurating a 
 festa for the day of S. Giovanni, and had ten chariots made 
 from^ the model of the ancient Roman ones, to institute 
 chariot races in the piazza. Andrea painted several of these 
 with historical subjects, but they have long been lost. The 
 chariot races were revived under the Grand Dukes, but not 
 with any success. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 GOING TO FBANCE. 
 A.D. 1518—1519. 
 
 MEANWHILE fate was working Andrea del Sarto on 
 to what might have been the culminating point of 
 his fame, had not his weakness rendered it a blot on his 
 honour ; i.e. his journey to France. His fame was rising high ; 
 a picture of the Dead Christ surrounded hy Angels, weeping 
 over the body they support, having been sent to France,^ the 
 king was so pleased with it that he wished another work by 
 the same artist. Andrea painted a very beautiful Madonna, 
 for which, however, he only obtained a quarter of the price 
 which the king paid to the merchants. The king was so 
 delighted with it that he sent the artist an invitation to come 
 to Paris in his employ, promising to pay all his expenses. In 
 the Pitti Palace there is a portrait of Andrea and his wife, 
 in which he has commemorated the reception of this letter. 
 He is looking very interested over it, while his wife has the 
 blankest expression possible. 
 
 In the summer of 1518 he started with his pupil, Andrea 
 Sguazzella, called Nanoccio. Such a journey was in those 
 
 1 It was engraved hy the Venetian, Agostino, before it went to France ; 
 the engraving is signed 1516. It did not please Andrea, who never 
 allowed any otliers to be engi'aved. 
 
GOING TO FKANCE. 
 
 99 
 
 days considered as little less tlian a parting for life. It is 
 plain that Lucrezia's family looked on her as almost a widow, 
 for they made him sign a deed of acknowledgement for the 
 150 florins of her dote. Some authors have taken this docu- 
 ment as a proof of their marriage in that year, but it was 
 merely a precaution against loss by her family ; the Italian 
 law being that the husband is obliged to render the portion 
 obtained with his wife to her family if she dies without issue, 
 and in case of his own death, the widow is entitled to it. 
 
 He was well received in Paris, and employed immediately 
 on a likeness of the infant Dauphin Henri II,, then only a 
 few months old. For this he obtained 300 scudi : and a 
 monthly salary was allowed him. What a mine of gold 
 the French court must have seemed to him after working 
 for years at large frescoes for ten scudi each ! 
 
 He did no less than fifty works of art while there, most 
 of which have been engraved by the best French artists. ^ The 
 Caritd, is signed 1518, and is in Andrea's best style— perhaps 
 with a leaning towards Michelangelo. The S. Jerome in 
 Penitence, which he painted for the king's mother, and 
 obtained a large price for, cannot be traced. His life in 
 Paris was a new revelation, and not without its effect on his 
 character, always alive to substantial pleasure. 
 
 The king and his courtiers frequented his atelier, and 
 delighted to watch him paint, vieing with each other in the 
 richness of their gifts, among which were splendid brocade 
 dresses and beautiful ornaments and jewels, in which he 
 longed to adorn his wife. While he was engaged in painting 
 the S. Jerome for the queen-mother, a letter from Lucrezia 
 aroused his longings for home to the uttermost; she— the 
 wife who has been branded by the name of faithless— wrote 
 that she was disconsolate in his absence, and that if he did 
 not soon return he would find her dead with grief. 
 
 Yasari, quoting this exaggerated letter, says in his first 
 ^ See Catalogue of Royal Pictures in France, by M. Lepiscie. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 edition that she only wanted money to give her friends, 
 but this also he retracts in the second. Whether it ex- 
 pressed her feelings truly or not, the letter had such an 
 effect on Andrea's mind that he decided to return home 
 at any cost. 
 
 During Andrea's absence the house in Via S, Sebastiano, 
 behind the Annunziata, was being prepared under her super- 
 intendence and with his sanction. His scholars had decorated 
 the walls and ceilings with frescoes, and no doubt Lucrezia 
 was as anxious for him to see the new house as he was to 
 adorn her with Parisian brocades and jewellery. 
 
 Being able to satisfy her ambitious soul, Andrea too 
 readily flung away all his brilliant prospects to return, and 
 willingly take again the yoke of the burden of his wife and 
 her family. He made promises that he would bring her 
 back to Paris with him, and the king in all faith allowed 
 him to depart, confiding to him large sums of money for the 
 purchase of works of art to be sent to Prance. 
 • Sguazzella, wiser than his master, preferred to stay in 
 Paris under the patronage of Cardinal de Tournon. He 
 painted a great many works, much in the style of Andrea, 
 but with less excellence. It is possible that some of M. 
 Lepiscie's long list are, in fact, the work of the pupil rather 
 than the master. When Benvenuto Cellini went to France 
 in 1537 he lodged in Sguazzella's house, with his three 
 servants and three horses, at a weekly rate of payment {a 
 tanto la settimana). 
 
 But to return to Andrea : this is an episode in his life 
 which we would gladly pass over if it were possible, for it 
 forms the moral blot on a great artistic career. 
 
 Returning home he fell once more under the strong will of 
 his wife, but with his principles weakened by the effect of a 
 luxury and prosperity which has always a greater deteriorating 
 effect on a nature such as his than on a finer mind. Bringing 
 grand ideas from the palaces of the French nobles, he not only 
 
GOING TO FEANCE. 
 
 101 
 
 fell in with Lucrezia's plans for beautifying the new house, 
 but even surpassed her wildest schemes. The staircase was 
 embellished with rich oaken balustrades, the rooms were all 
 frescoed. Cupids hide in the Eaphaelesque scrolls on the 
 arches, classic divinities rest on the ceilings, but in the dining 
 room the homely nature of the man who did his own 
 marketing, creeps out. It is a charming room, the windows 
 opening on a garden courtyard, where a vine trellis leads 
 round to what used to be the side door of his studio which 
 has its entrance in another street. 
 
 The roof is vaulted and covered with exquisite decorative 
 frescoes, but in the lunettes of the two largest arches are the 
 domestic scenes of cooking and laying the cloth, spoken of at 
 page 90. Two or three of the up stairs rooms are very fine, 
 especially the one in which Andrea is said to have died.^ It 
 is probable the furniture matched the style of the rooms, and 
 that much money was spent on carved chairs and cassoni. 
 Certain it is that the King of France's commissions were 
 unfulfilled, and his money misappropriated. 
 
 Andrea would have returned to France, but his wife, who 
 had an Italian woman's dread of leaving her own country, 
 put every obstacle in his way, adding entreaties to tears which 
 the uxorious Andrea could not resist. As usual he tried to 
 please her, and she only cared to please herself. 
 
 He fell greatly in the estimation of the King, who was 
 justly 
 
 ^^g^y } albeit the artist salved his own too easy 
 conscience by sending a few of his own paintings to Francis I., 
 one of which, the Sacrifice of Abraham, still remains in France, 
 and another a half length figure of S. John the Baptist. The 
 place of this picture is much disputed ; it is said to be at 
 present in the Pitti Palace. Argenville speaks of it among 
 
 1 This description is due to the kindness of the present resident in the 
 house, who kindly showed it to the writer, pointing out all the unrestored 
 portions. 
 
102 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SARTO. 
 
 the French pictures as if it had returned subsequently to 
 Florence, while Vasari asserts that it never went there, but 
 was sold to Ottaviano de' Medici.^ As Andrea painted no 
 less than five pictures of this subject, of which Argenville 
 mentions that there were two in France, one of which was 
 sold to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, it is probable that the 
 Pitti one is not that painted for Francis I. 
 
 ^ Life of Andrea del Sarto, vol. iii. p. 212. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANDREA AND OTTAVIANO DE' MEDICI. 
 A.D. 1521—1523. 
 
 THE Medici, always patrons of art, did not neglect to 
 enrich their palaces with the works of Andrea del 
 Sarto, Ottaviano de' Medici, a cousin of the reigning branch, 
 was an especial friend of his, from the time that Andrea began 
 the fresco of Ccesar receiving tribute of animals in the Hall of 
 Poggio a Cajano. The commission came really from Pope 
 Leo X., who deputed Cardinal Giulio, his cousin, to have the 
 hall of the favourite family villa adorned with frescoes. He 
 in turn handed over the direction to Ottaviano, who was a 
 great amateur of art. It was designed that Andrea del 
 Sarto should cover a third of the Hall, the other two-thirds 
 being given to Pontormo and Francia Bigio. The payment of 
 thirty scudi a month was arranged. In this Andrea has 
 shown his genius in a style entirely new, the composition 
 being crowded, the perspective intricate, the background a 
 building adorned with statues. The subject being allegorical, 
 he has given the reins to his fancy and produced a wonderful 
 assemblage of strange beasts and stranger human beings. 
 Moors, Indians, and dwarfs. There are giraffes, lions, and 
 all kinds of animals, which he had an opportunity of study- 
 ing in the Serraglio of Florence. The drawing is true and 
 
104 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 free, the figures and animals full of life, the colouring as 
 usual well harmonised and bright. The Pope died about this 
 time in 1522, and the picture was left to be finished by Allori 
 in 1580. 
 
 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 Otta- 
 viano. 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 Eaphael 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 
 
ANDEEA AND OTTAVIANO DE' MEDICI. 
 
 105 
 
 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 Yasari 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, Martyr- 
 dom 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 excel- 
 lence 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 
 
 1 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. 
 
106 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 represented as a mediaeval 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 indig- 
 nation, 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.^ 
 
 1 Biadi, Notizie, &c., p. 146, note 2. 
 
CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. 
 A.D. 1525—1531. 
 
 FHOM 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 
 Pieth, a Visitation, and a Head of Christ — almost a replica of 
 the one in the SS. Annunziata. 
 
 The Fieth 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 
 
108 
 
 ANDKEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 to their cliaracters. 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 Pietct, 
 the two pictures would have had the very same figures in 
 each : but how different the composition, feeling, and expres- 
 sion ! The Prate's group is a compact triangle ; that of 
 Andrea a scattered arrangement. The Magdalen of the Prate 
 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. 
 
 Por the three works painted at Luco Andrea was paid 
 ninety florins in gold. The Pieth 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.^ Biadi gives the following document 
 "lo Andrea d'Angiolo del Sarto, a di 11 Ottobre 1528 ho 
 ricevuto fiorini 80 d' oro di quel larghi [i.e. of two scudi each] 
 della Tavola dell' Altar grande e di una mezza tavola della 
 Visitazione, da Donna Caterina della Casa Piorentina, Badessa 
 di Luco." 
 
 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, 
 
 ' Tn 1818 it was restored by Luigi Scotti and sold. 
 2 Vol. iii. p. 571, note. 
 
See /'u^v 109 
 
 SAINT AGNES. BY ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 lu the Cathedral, Fisa. 
 
THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. 
 
 109 
 
 S, Sebastian, and S. Eocco ; 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 ivfant 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. 1 
 
 The Duomo of Pisa has five saints painted by Andrea ; 
 they originally formed one large picture in five compart- 
 ments, and were painted for the church of the now sup- 
 pressed 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 
 ^ Bocclii, Bellezze di Firenze, p. 482. 
 
110 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SARTO. 
 
 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 Ringhicra — 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 emble- 
 matical 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 Rin- 
 ghiera 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 misunder- 
 standing between the rulers of the order prevented their 
 continuation.^ 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 bril- 
 liancy 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 Gena, at Milan, we should say that 
 ^ Yasari's Lives, vol. iii. p. 224. 
 
THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the painter is high bred ; looking at that of S. Salvi, that 
 he is accustomed to lowly company." ^ 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 Mcchio," 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 
 iS. 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 gTaceful, 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. ^ 
 
 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 Yasari 
 thinks one of his most excellent works. The face of the 
 ' Hist, of Painting, vol. iii. chap. xvii. p. 574. 
 * This portrait is given as a frontispiece. 
 
112 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 patriarch is full of faith, and yet self-sacrifice; the nude 
 figure of Isaac, bronzed in the parts which have been ex- 
 posed 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 Delia 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 dun- 
 geon 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 Eossa ; 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 hy the 
 Hand, now in the possession of the Zonadari family, who 
 obtained it from the Peruzzi, 
 
See pa%e 112. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF ABRAHAM. BY ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 In the Bj'esden Gallery. 
 
THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. 
 
 113 
 
 During the siege, work was found for artists, but of an 
 unpleasant nature. Andrea was commissioned, in 1530, to 
 paint the eflfigies of some traitors on the palace of the 
 Bignoria. He dared not refuse, but remembering that his 
 namesake, Andrea del Castagno, who had been similarly em- 
 ployed, gained the name of " Andrea degli Impiccati," he 
 was anxious that the same name should not attach to him- 
 self. 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 brother- 
 hood 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 sud- 
 denly, and gave himself up for lost. Neither Yasari 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 biu"ied 
 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 
 
 F B I 
 
114 
 
 ANDEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 being the plague, it would only have been a natural precau- 
 tion 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).^ 
 
 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 Yia 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 nostra 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 incom- 
 parable. A little more refinement and aesthetic feeling 
 would have placed him on a level with the great leaders 
 of the Renaissance. 
 
 ^ " Ricordanze nel Archivio del E. Spedate degli Innocenti di Firenze. 
 Biadi, Notizie, p. 127. 
 
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 Yinci, 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 acknow- 
 ledge 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 An- 
 nunciation for the convent of S. Gallo. His hand is to be seen 
 also in several of his master's works. He drew public atten- 
 tion 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. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 SCHOLAES OF ANDKEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 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 re- 
 constructed 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 Yisdomini, 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 Ver- 
 tumnus, 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 
 
PONTOEMO. 
 
 117 
 
 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 Diirer, 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 pro- 
 gress 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 
 
118 
 
 SCHOLAKS OF ANDREA DEL SAKTO. 
 
 embody the whole teaching of the Bible, but becoming over- 
 whelmed 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 Vasabi, 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 Caesar. 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 
 
SALVIATI. 
 
 119 
 
 great liall 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 wa,s 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 Yasari with corrections and notes taken from 
 the archives by Signor Gaetano Milanesi. 
 
 Feancesco Rossi, de' Salviati (born at Florence, 1510 — 
 died at Rome, 1563) was a great friend of Yasari; 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 RafEaello 
 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 Yecchio, he painting any 
 works the Cardinal wished. Francesco was not idle, a great 
 number of frescoes, altar-pieces, and portraits, &c., &c., testi- 
 fying to his industry. In his later years he was employed 
 
120 
 
 SCHOLARS OF ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 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 inven- 
 tion, but perhaps a little wild in the matter of draperies and 
 bizarre costumes. His colouring is more pleasing than that 
 ©f 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 after- 
 wards. The inscription to Andrea del Sarto which once 
 existed in the church of SS. Annunziata was put up by Conti. 
 
 jACOPa 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. Car- 
 dinal 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 fagade 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 
 
SCHOLARS OF ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 121 
 
 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 Yilla 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 Yecchio 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. 
 
WORKS BY FRA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 Date.' Subject. For Whom Painted. Present Place. 
 
 1498 Portrait of Savonarola . . . Convent 8. Marco . . Sig. Eubieri. 
 
 1498 Nativity with Angels .... Card. Qio. de' Medici . ? 
 
 1499 Last Judgment. Fresco. . . Gerozzo Dini . . . . Cemeteryof 8. MariaNuova. 
 Early .Nativity and Circumcision . . Pier del Pugliese . . Uflazi. 
 
 Madonna Pier Maria del Pozzi . ? 
 
 1504 Vision of S. Bernard .... Bernardino del Bianco. Belle Arti, Florence. 
 1506 Christ and Disciples at Emmaus Prior of S. Mark's . . S.Marco (Refectory). 
 
 1506 Madonna Agmlo Doni .... Corsini Palace. Rome. 
 
 ifrno j Eternal in Heaven with Saints ) t. j -n ? o 
 
 I and Angels $ Dalgano, Murano. San Romano, Lucca. 
 
 1508 Assumption % Conp de' GontemplantiA y 
 
 \ Florence ) 
 
 1508 Holy Family ? y 
 
 1508 f Nativity _ and Crucifixion. ) ^^^j. .(Given by him to Zanobi 
 
 Small, in form of book , . ) I Gaddi. , 
 
 ... S. Vincenzo Convent of S. Marco . Belle Arti, Florence. 
 
 rn- * 'loly Father, S. Catherine, and! „ „ . . 
 
 ' \ Mary Magdalen ]SantiPagmni . . . San Romano, Lucca. 
 
 ... Half-figure of Christ .... ? f Marchess Giov. Mansi, 
 
 \ Lucca. 
 
 ... HolyFamUy ? Conte Bernardini, Lucca. 
 
 1509 /Vi'giii "wiih Angels, between S. \ 
 
 I Stephen and S. John Baptist 1 Pa-onini . . . Cathedral of Lucca. 
 
 1509 Head of Christ \ n- o • • ^ ^ , . 
 
 1509 Head of Virgin ] Pier Soderim, Confalomere 1 
 
 ^''°H^'2£ts'.''^. • S. Marco (Church). 
 
 1610 Annunciation Pier Soderini .... ? 
 
 1510 Marriage of S. Catherine . . Florentine Government. Louvre. 
 
 ic,, /Madonna and Child, S. Peterl ^ , ^- • t^- ^, . „ ^ , 
 
 I and S. Paul ... J Michele Mastiam, Pisa. Ch. of S. Catherine, Pisa. 
 
 / Madonna and Angels, and Six") _ . „ 
 
 I Saints. ....... \^-^emno .... Cathedral, Besan?on. 
 
 1512 Marriage of S. Catherine . . Convent of S. Marco . Pitti Palace. 
 
 1512 Madonna. Fresco / ^""^^ Pian de Mug. j g^^^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 I none J 
 
 1512 S. Catherine DominicanMonhs, Siena Gallery at Siena. 
 
 ' The dated pictures only are chronologically placed, the ones marked ... are only conjectu- 
 rally approximate in point of time. 
 
"WORKS BY FEA BARTOLOMMEO. 
 
 123 
 
 Date. Subject. Fob Whom Painted. 
 
 S. Mary Magdalen Dominican Monks,Siena 
 
 ( Holy Family. S. John holding | ^^^^^ 
 
 I fruit in his robe -* 
 
 Eape of Dinah ? 
 
 1513 S. Sebastian Convent of S. Marco . 
 
 1514 S. Mark ■ . . . Ditto 
 
 1514 S. Peter Fra Mariano Fetti 
 
 1514 S. Paul Ditto 
 
 1514 ( ^^e^'y °* ^'^^^'"^ } Alfonsina de' Medici . 
 *. narola ■' 
 
 1515 Madonna della Misericordia . Santi Pagnini . . . 
 
 1515 Madonna and Child. Fresco . ( Dominican Monks, 
 
 <• Pistoja .... 
 1515 Annunciation. Fresco . . . Pian di Mugnone . 
 
 I Apotheosis of Saints. SmaU | ^^^^^^^ , ^^^^^ 
 
 V and unfinished ' 
 
 1515 ( ^^^^ °^ Christ -i Dominican Monks, 
 
 1 Head of Virgin j Prato 
 
 1515 Annunciation ? 
 
 1516 ( Resurrection or Impersonation | s^i^^tore Billi . . 
 ( of the Saviour J 
 
 Present Place. 
 Siena Gallery. 
 Pitti Palace. 
 
 In England. 
 M. Alaffre, Toulouse. 
 Pitti Palace. 
 Quirinal, Rome. 
 Ditto. 
 
 France. 
 
 San Romano, Lucca. 
 I San Domenico, Pistoja. 
 . Pian di Mugnone. 
 
 Panshanger (Earl Cowper). 
 
 I Convent at Prato. 
 
 Louvre. 
 , Pitti Palace. 
 
 f Madonna and 
 I Frescoes . . 
 f Madonna and 
 l Frescoes . . 
 
 Two J 
 
 Ditto Convent of S. Marco. 
 
 Child. 
 
 Two j 
 
 Dominican Monks 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Patron Saints 
 ) Unfinished . 
 
 of Florence. 
 
 ■ Pier Soderini . 
 
 1516 Deposition. Fresco .... 
 1516 Two Heads of Christ. Frescoes 
 1510 
 to 
 
 1517 
 
 Assumption People of Prato . . . 
 
 ^ i i- • ii_ m 1 f Chapel of Novitiates, 
 Presentation m the Temple . | s Marco 
 
 Holy Family ? 
 
 Virgin and Child. Half-length ? 
 
 1516 
 1516 
 
 Holy Family 
 
 Madonna della Tenda .... ? 
 
 S. Thomas Aquinas .... Convent of S. Marco . 
 
 Dominican Monk Ditto 
 
 Savonarola as Peter Martyr . Ditto 
 
 jg^^f Saviour and Mary Magdalen | p ^. 
 
 <. in garden. Fresco 
 
 1517 Madonna Alfonzo d'Este . . , 
 
 BeUe Arti, Florence. 
 
 Hermitage at Lecceto. 
 Ditto. 
 
 UffizL 
 
 j Belvedere, Vienna. ^ 
 
 Buda-Pesth Gallery. 
 Belvedere, Vienna. 
 ( Given by Pope Pius VI. to 
 I Ct. Czernicheflf, Russia, 
 r Formerly in possession of 
 I Lord Clive, London. 
 Belle Arti, Florence. 
 Ditto. 
 Ditto. 
 
 Chapel Pian di Mugnoi»e. 
 ? 
 
124 
 
 WOEKS BY ALBERTINELLT. 
 
 Date. 
 
 1517 
 1517 
 
 1517 
 
 Subject. Fob Whom Painted. 
 
 Holy Saviour iMcrezia Borgia . . . 
 
 S. Jerome Fra Qeronimo de' Bossi 
 
 Madonna and ChUd . . . . f ^'^dame Alfonsina de' j 
 
 I Medici J 
 
 Saviour and Mary Magdalen . Domenieo Perini . . 
 Madonna and Angels .... Lorenzo de' Medici . . 
 
 Pieta Monks of S. Gallo . . 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin ■) 
 (part by AlbertineUi) . . .) 
 
 Present Place. 
 
 Pitti Palace. 
 Berlin Gallery. 
 
 WORKS BY FRA BARTOLOMMEO IN ROME. 
 
 I Presentation in the Temple, \ 
 S. Sebastian, S. Nicolol 
 
 Tolentino, S. Jerome, and) ^ Capitol (No. 27, 1st room). 
 
 S. John Baptist 
 
 Holy Family ? Borghese (No.40,2ndroom). 
 
 Holy Family ? ^""^ ^'''^ °* 
 
 I Gallery). 
 
 Holy Family ? Sciarra (No. 1, 4th room). 
 
 /Virgin and Chi]d and S. John \ , c ^ ,xt on o •. 
 
 I Baptist S ' ^P*^* (N^'- 2nd room). 
 
 WORKS BY ALBERTINELLI. 
 
 1508 Salutation ( (^^^'"'^^ "/ S. Martina, ^ ^^^j (xngcan HaU). 
 
 1. Florence J ^ ' 
 
 1503 Nativity ? Pitti Palace. 
 
 1506 Crucifixion. Fresco .... Carthusian Monks . ./Chapter House, Certosa, 
 
 I near Florence. 
 
 ifinfif^S'^onn* 0" pedestal. 8. 1„ i,. ^ , . 
 
 Jerome and S. Zenobius . J ^<'^o^^ del Maestro . . Lonvre. 
 
 {Madonna and Child enthroned,i 
 8. John Baptist, 8. Julian, [ Nuns of 8. Oiuliano . BeUe Arti, Florence. 
 S. Nicholas, and S. Dominic 
 
 1507 Trinity, on gold ground . . . Ditto Ditto. 
 
 /•Virgin and ChUd and Johns 
 
 1509 Baptist. Virgin holds pome-i ? FitzwUUam Museum, Cam- 
 ^ granate ) 
 
 1510 Annunciation Company of S Zenohi BeUe Arti, Florence. 
 
 1512 Adam and Eve Agnolo JDoni .... Castle Howard. 
 
 Sacrifice of Abraham .... Ditto Ditto. 
 
 Annunciation Ditto Munich, Pinakothek. /' 
 
 1513 Medici Arms Oiuliano de' Medici . ? 
 
 1515 Marriage of 8. Catherine . . Fra Mariano Fetti . . ? 
 
 ... Assumption of the Virgin I y .. Berlin GaUery. 
 (part by Fra Bartolommeo) 1 
 
 Christ appearing to the Magdalen ? . . Louvre. 
 
 Virgin and Child seated . . ? . . National Gallery, London. 
 
WOEKS BY ANDEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 Date. Subject. Fob Whom Painted. 
 
 1511 ( appearing to Mary Mag- ") Eremite Monks of S. 
 
 dalen i Qallo 
 
 1512 ( -with two Angels \ jryuto 
 I on the left •' 
 
 1512 PredeUa, 8. Pietro Ignatio . . Ditto 
 
 )Life of S. FiHppo Benizzi. \ „ „ . ,„ , 
 ( Five Frescoes ) ^'"^ • 
 
 1510 f '^^^h "^"'^P^ 1 Andrea Santinl . . . 
 
 (- and S. John Baptist . . J 
 
 1510 S.Agnes ) Prince Palatine of IHis- 
 
 i seldorf 
 
 1510 f '^J^^ GioyB.TLmQu^-^ Valombrosian Monks . 
 I berto.andFonrSaints.Fresco J 
 
 ? Annunciation. Fresco . . . Baccio d'Agnolo . . . 
 
 1509 Virgin and ChUd ..... ? 
 
 Mary Magdalen. Fresco . . ? 
 
 Mary Magdalen Servite Monks . . . 
 
 1511 Nativity of the Virgin. Fresco Ditto 
 
 1511 Epiphany. Fresco .... Ditto 
 
 1514 Madonna del Sacco. Fresco . Ditto .... 
 
 1509 ^Scenes from life of S. John"( Barefoot Brothers, 
 , *° I Baptist. Ten Frescoes . ■' (Scalzo) . . . . , 
 1523 ^ 
 
 /Four virtues. Faith, Hope,\ 
 
 1515 I Charity, and Justice. Four> Ditto 
 
 V Frescoes •' 
 
 Story of Joseph ZanoU Qirolami . . , 
 
 _ /Madonna, with decorations fori _ _ 
 
 I frame 
 
 Annunciation <Jto di Paolo Mercajo . 
 
 1515 Head of Saviour Servite Monks . . , 
 
 1515 DisputadiS.Ago8tino . . •{^'J^jJ "-^ ^• 
 
 r Madonna, with 8 Francis and | ^^^^ ^j. g jy^„,fsco 
 
 I 8. John Baptist i 
 
 Madonna Carlo Ginori . . . , 
 
 Half-length nude figure of Job Ditto . . . . . 
 
 Present Place. 
 "» Church of the Covoni, 
 J Casentino. 
 
 Pitti Palace (HaU of. Mars). 
 Belle Arti, Florence. 
 
 rCortUe deUa SS. Annuc- 
 \ ziata. 
 
 Sig. Curti Lepri. 
 
 j Dusseldort. 
 
 f Convent of San Salvi, 
 1 Florence. 
 
 fin passage behind Or San 
 l Michele, Florence. 
 Palazzo Corsini, Rome. 
 
 {Church of Or San Michele, 
 Florence. 
 Archbp. of Milan (gallery). 
 CortUe of SS. Annunziata. 
 Ditto. 
 
 . Cloister of SS. Annunziatft 
 
 ■ Convent of the Soalzo. 
 
 1515 
 
 r Madonna and ChUd surrounded | ^i,,,a„aro Corsini . 
 
 <■ by children J 
 
 1515 Holy Virgin Giovanni B. Puccini 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Not known, 
 f Casa Gaddi Poggi, Flo- 
 ■ I rence. 
 
 , Pitti Palace(Hall of Saturn). 
 Altar of SS. Annunziata. 
 
 J PittiPalace(Hall of Saturn). 
 . Uflzi (Tribune). 
 
 Pitti Palace. 
 Ditto. 
 
 (•Pinacoteoa of Milap, or 
 1 Big. Crescenzi of Rome. 
 , Not known. 
 
126 
 
 WORKS BY ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 Belle Arti, Florence. 
 Belvedere, Vienna. / 
 
 Louvre, Paris. 
 
 Ditto. 
 Unknown. 
 
 ^Louvre and other French 
 
 Date. Subject. For Whom Painted. Present Place. 
 
 151g|Dead^^Christ surrounded by aiovanni B. Puccini . Sent to France. 
 
 ... Angel and Tobias ? Belvedere, Vienna. ^ 
 
 ... Same subject ? Corsini Gallery, Florence. 
 
 ... Same subject ? Pitti Palace. 
 
 1516 Pieta,. Fresco Semte Monies 
 
 ... Tietk. Oil Ditto . . 
 
 jgjg (-Likeness of the Dauphin, 
 
 I Henri II J 
 
 1518 Charity Ditto . . 
 
 1518 S. Jerome Mother of Francis I. 
 
 Fifty other Works done in W„„,,, ^^j.^^, . 
 
 1520 Sacrifice of Abraham . . . .f^°"« ^'"^'^V ■f"''] In Fiance (?) 
 
 <- King of France . ,i ^ 
 
 1520 f ^- '^"^'^ ^^P*^^*- Half-length I j^.^^^ ("Pitti Palace. (HaU of Ju- 
 I figure i I piter). 
 
 Tt-f,-. fCeesar receiving Tribute oi) Cardinal Giulio de')-rr.,, 
 
 ^^^H Animals. Fresco ... .1 Medici j HaU of Poggio a Cajano. 
 
 1521 Madonna Ottaviano de' Medici . Pitti Palace. 
 
 1521 fLikeness of Pope Clement VIL I ^^^^^^ 
 
 Copy of Raphael •' 
 
 ^^^^{^paLtings"^"''^.^'. '^^'^ Pier. Fran. Borgherini. Pitti Palace (Hall of Mars). 
 1523 Likeness of young man writing Domenico Conti . . . Panshanger (Earl Cowper). 
 ikoq/S. James and Two Children, inl Comp an u of t ;i e ) „a! • ,t,- „ , ^, 
 '''n dress of the Company. . .1 - NiccUo" . . . . j t^ffizi (Hall of Old Masters). 
 
 /Madonna and Child. Half-\ „ ,, .„ ., (Collection of Marchese 
 
 - 1 length I For the Almem Family ^ Niccolini, Via dei Servi- 
 
 Florence. 
 
 Nativity of Christ. Oil . . . Servite Monks . . . [Servite Convent, Flo- 
 
 ^ rence. 
 
 f Parable of the Vineyard and\ r,.,, y-, , , „ 
 
 — i „ , , f Ditto Garden of Convent. 
 
 <■ the Husbandmen J 
 
 Birth of S. John Baccio Valori . . . Palazzo Altoviti, Florence. 
 
 lf*l Ket^- Fresco \ Nuns of S. Pitro ai ( Mugello. 
 
 ^^^^ fTn. T'^l.- ■ • ■ LucoinMugello . . ? 
 
 1527' Head of Christ. Oil . . . . ^Ch. of the Angeli, Florence. 
 
 /Holy Family with young B.'X Ordered for Tabernaele\DesiroyeA. (Copies in Uf- 
 
 \ John. Fresco J at Porta Pinti ... J fizi and other galleries). 
 
 radonna enthroned. S. John\ 
 Baptist, Mary Magdalen, S. e„^6a»n . . Pitti Palace. 
 
 Sebastian, and S. Rocco, be-j 
 neath J 
 
 ... Madonna Gio di Agostino Dini . / ^'''"stcheff CoUection, St. 
 
 i Petersburg. 
 
WORKS BY ANDEEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 127 
 
 Date. Subject. For Whom Painted. Present Place. 
 
 /Five Saints: S. Cyrus, S.Peter, j 
 
 .., ] S. John Baptist, S. Catherine, > Convent 0/ S. .dories . Pisa Cathedral. 
 
 ^ and 8. Margaret ' 
 
 Four Saints and Two Angela Vallombrotian Monks . Be]le Arti, Florence. 
 
 1525 I Cartoons for the Ringhiera oi 1 gignoria of Florence . Lost, 
 t. Palazzo Vecchio J 
 
 f Madonna and Child, S. Anna | ^ f Family of Pesaro Patrizio 
 
 I and S. Joseph i '■of Venice. 
 
 1526 Cenacolo. Last Supper. Fresco Monks of San Salvi " f Convent of S. Salvi. Flo 
 
 ( rence. 
 
 1528 Sacrifice of Ahraham .... Gio. Battista della Palla Dresden Gallery. 
 1528 Same subject Paolo di Terra Rosea . Naples, 
 
 I Madonna veiled, Child in her") 
 lap. Archangel at her feet, S. 
 Joseph on left, S. Elizabeth^ ? Madrid Gallery, 
 
 and S. John Baptist in back-l 
 ground • J 
 
 ... Holy Family. Round. Signed ? Louvre, Paris. 
 
 (■Virgin andChild.S.Catherine.S. I y Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 
 
 I Elizabeth, & S. John Baptist- J 
 
 f Virgin and Child, 3. Francis,") y fSir Richard WaUace, 
 
 I and Three Cherubs ...... London. 
 
 1527 X 
 
 or [charity with Two Children . G. Battista della Palla Antinori Family, Florence. 
 
 1528 ) 
 
 . ,. „ , „. T 07 rPitti Palace (Hall of 
 
 Annunciation. Half round . Giuhano Scala • ' • i ^ ., . 
 
 \ Jupiter). 
 
 (Assumption, with Angels. S.\ 
 Gio Gualberto, 8. Bernard, ( yallomhrosian Monks . Pitti Palace (HaU of Hiad). 
 8. Catherine, and 8. Fedele/ 
 stand below J 
 
 ... Christ bearing His Cross . . ? Palazzo Reale, Parma. 
 
 S. John Baptist Giovanni M. Benintendi Pitti Palace. 
 
 /Holy Family. Virgin dancing-v pjttj palace (Hall of 
 
 1528 ^ Child on Imee. 8. 'Elizabeth] Ottaviano de' Medici . Apollo). 
 
 ' and S. John Baptist behind . ■' 
 1528 S.Sebastian Company of S.Sebastian. Pitti Palace. . 
 
 1528 Madonna enthroned with) „ t> t n 
 
 I ? Berlin Gallery. 
 
 Eight Saints ) 
 
 (Madonna and Child withAngels.) company of theStimate\j,.^„ r«+bpHr»1 
 ... { S. John Baptist, S. Francis,^ Francesco, J I'^^a Cathedral. 
 
 ^ S. Bartholomew, & S. Jerome 
 
 Holy Family ? PalatinePalace.Dlisseldorf. 
 
 (Madonna reading, Jesus and\ y Ditto. 
 
 S. John sleeping .* 
 
 ("Madonna with S, John Baptist) Company of S. Morta j Bought by Cardinal Carlo 
 1 and Ambrose. Small . . . della Neve . . . J de' Medici. 
 
128 
 
 WOEKS BY ANDKEA DEL SAETO. 
 
 *J Genoa. 
 
 Date. Suejeot. For Whom Painted. Present Placb. 
 
 (■Madonna and Four S&iatsX Dominican ^onks at) 
 '" 1 standing, Two kneeling . . J Sarzana . 
 
 ... Madonna and Child . . . . f ^""^^ -B""*- "i**) Not known. 
 
 (. Serragh, Florence. . >' 
 
 f Madonna and Child and Two] 
 I Figures seated on the Steps 
 
 ' J Lorenzo Jacobi . . 
 
 Holy Family. Two oil paintings ? 
 
 Madonna Nizzo, the carpenter 
 
 Sacrifice of Abraham .... ? 
 
 Same subject. Unfinished . . ? 
 
 {Madonna and Child, with S. j j 
 John Baptist f 
 
 Palace of Duke of Mantua. 
 
 Holy Family 
 
 Marriage of S. Catherine 
 Pieti 
 
 Holy Family 
 
 Portrait of an old woman 
 
 aged 71 
 
 Holy Family 
 
 Jupiter and Leda 
 
 Holy Family 
 
 Assumption 
 
 Holy Family ' 
 
 Holy Family. In Chiaroscuro. 
 
 Madonna. Sketch on Paper .\ 
 
 S. Zacharias with the Angel . 
 
 Holy Family. Half-figures . • 
 ("Madonna and Child, Angels, 
 V and S. Mark 
 
 S. Joseph 
 
 Holy Family adored by Angels.j 
 ( Portrait of Man in black dress 1 
 
 I and cap ■' 
 
 (■Portrait of woman in blael 
 I holding book ' 
 
 {Portrait of woman in red with | 
 spindle and distaff 
 Young man with cap . . 
 
 Andrea himself 
 
 . Not known. 
 
 {Palazzo Binuccini, Flo- 
 ' rence. 
 . Not known. 
 
 France. (See Argenville.) 
 
 {Collection Zondadari, Flo- 
 rence. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh, London. 
 
 National Gallery, London. 
 Dresden Gallery. 
 Ditto. 
 
 r Louvre (Collection of 
 1 Francis I.). 
 
 Belvedere, Vienna. ^ 
 
 Ditto. A 
 Brussels Gallery. 
 Madrid Gallery. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 fPanciatichi Gallery, Flo- 
 \ rence. 
 
 Munich Gallery. 
 
 /Gallery of Prince Leuch- 
 l tenberg. 
 
 Uffizi. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Ufflzi (Tuscan School). 
 
 ' An old copy of this picture is in the Dulwich Gallery. 
 
WORKS BY ANDREA DHL SARTO. 
 
 129 
 
 Date. Subject. ; 
 
 / Intendant of Vallombrosian ) 
 
 I Monks ' 
 
 Canon of Pisa 
 
 Baccio Bandinelli 
 
 Cosimo Lapi 
 
 Pope Leo X. (copy of Raphael) 
 
 For Whom Paintrd. 
 The Intendant . . 
 
 Present Place.' 
 Convent, Vallombrosa. 
 
 The Canon Believed to be in Pisa. 
 
 Abt. 
 1521 
 
 I Clement VII. 
 
 Baccio Bandinelli . 
 ? 
 
 Ottaviano de' Medici 
 Ottaviano de' Medici 
 
 at 
 
 ( Lucrezia seated 
 I reading 
 
 Lucrezia 
 
 Lucrezia 
 
 Lucrezia. In black crayon. 
 
 Lucrezia. In red chalk . 
 
 table. 
 
 1515 I On paper mounted -i 
 1 on board i 
 
 1518 I Lucrezia, and Andrea showing \ 
 
 I her a letter ' 
 
 Castruccio Castracani . . . 
 
 ^.Self, young, in black dress . . 
 1509 i ^ 
 
 1517 ( ^^^^ black cap. Thirty years \ 
 I of age. Half-length ... J 
 Self in black cap, similar to this 
 Self holding a book in his hand 
 f Several others not fuUy au- \ 
 ■■■ 1 thenticated ' 
 
 Ginori Family, Florence. 
 ? 
 
 Naples, 
 f Gallery of Archbishop of 
 I Milan. 
 
 ? Prince Poniatowsky. 
 
 ? Madrid Gallery. 
 
 ? Berlin GaUery. 
 
 ? Mr. Long's Collection. 
 
 , f Formerly in the Mariette 
 
 I Collection. 
 Sketch for Disputa di \ Sig. Domenico Bicoli, Flo- 
 Sant' Agostino . . . I rence. 
 
 Pitti Palace (Hall o 
 
 Jupiter). 
 Dr. M. Eomanelli. 
 Pitti Palace (Hall of Iliad). 
 
 Pitti Palace (Hall of 
 
 Jupiter). 
 Ufllzi (Tuscan School). 
 National GaUery. 
 
 ? 
 
 WORKS BY ANDREA DEL SARTO IN ROME. 
 
 Holy Family ? Barberini(No.90,3rdroom). 
 
 " La Yiege au Chardonneret " ? Borghese (No.35,2ndroom). 
 
 f Yirsin and Child and S. John ) 
 
 I Baptist i Borghese (No.28,3rd room), 
 
 f Yirgin and Child a«d S. John i 
 
 1 and Elizabeth ... .1 Borghese (No.29,3rd room). 
 
 Holy Family ? Doria (No. 15, Srd room). 
 
 „ , „ ( Doria (No. 15. 8rd arm of 
 
 ^-^y-^^^^y ■■' [ Gallery). 
 
 TT- • /.I -u 1 o T V . /Doria (No. 37, Srd arm of 
 
 Yirgin, Child, and S. John . . .' ^ Gallery 
 
 Holy Family and S. Peter Martyr ? Sciarra (No. 11, Srd room). 
 
 Yisitation Spada (No. 18. Srd room). 
 
 Virgin and Child > ■ Spada (No. 44, 5th room). 
 
 F B K 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 VA-SARI, Giorgio. Le Vite de' piu eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, et Scultori 
 Italiani da Cimabue insino a' Tempi nostri. Firenze Lor. Torrentino, 
 1550 
 
 BALDINUCCI, F. Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, 
 per le quali si dimostra come, e per chi le bell' arti di Pittura, Scultura e 
 Architettura lasciata la rozzezza delle maniere Greca e Gottica, si siano 
 in questi secoli ridotte all' antica loro perfezione. 6 vols. Firenze, 
 1681—1728. 
 
 BOTTARI, Giovanni Gaetano. Eaccolta di Lettere sulla Pittura, Scultura, 
 ed Architettura, scritte' da' piu celebri personaggi dei Secoli xv., xvi., e 
 xvii. 8 vols. Milano, 1822—25. 
 
 BIADI, Ltjigi. Notizie inedite della Vita d' Andrea del Sarto. Firenze, 1831. 
 
 GATE, Giovanni. Carteggio inedito d'Artisti dei Secoli xiv., xv., xvi. 
 Pubblicato ed illustrato con Documenti pure inedite. 3 vols. Firenze, 
 1839—40. 
 
 ROSINI, Giovanni. Storia della Pittura Italiana esposta coi Monumenti. 
 
 7 vols. Pisa, 1839-47. 
 CAPPONI, Giovanni Battista. Storia della Repubblica di Firenze. 
 
 MARCHESS, ViNCENZO. Memorie dei piu insigni Pittori, Scultori e 
 Architetti Domenicani, con aggiunta di alcuni scritti intorno le Belle 
 Arti. 2. vols. Firenze, 1845—46. 
 
 CROWE, J. A., and G. B. CAVALCASELLE. A new History of Painting in 
 Italy, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. Drawn up from fresh 
 materials and recent researches in the archives of Italy ; as well as from 
 personal inspection of the works of art scattered throughout Europe- 
 3 vols. London, 1864—66. 
 
 KUNST UND KUNSTLER des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit. Fka 
 Bartolommeo, by Dr. Hermann Lucke. Andeea del Saeto, by Dr., 
 Hubert Janitschek. Leipzig, 1876. 
 
 MILANESI, Gaetano. Le Opere di Giorgio Vasari ; con nuove annotazioni 
 e Commenti di Milanese. Firenze, 1878—79. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 (The Names of Paintings are printed in italic.) 
 FRA BARTOLOMMEO AND ALBERTINELLI. 
 
 Adam and Eve. Albertinelli. 47. 
 Agostino, Fra, 57. 
 
 Albertinelli, Mariotto, 10, 12, 16, 17, 
 
 32, 36, 47, 52. 
 Alessandro VI., Pope, 23. 
 Andrea, Fra, 57. 
 Andrea di Cosimo, 12. 
 Angehco, Fra, 20, 27. 
 Annunciation, The, 51. 
 Annunciation. Albertinelli. 39, 47. 
 
 Bartolommeo, Fra. 
 1475. Born, 9. 
 
 1484. Entered the studio of Cosimo 
 Eoselli, 10. 
 
 1490. Studied with Mariotto Alber- 
 tinelli, 14. 
 
 1499. Portrait of Savonarola, 19. 
 
 1500. Joined the Convent of San 
 
 Marco, 27. 
 1504. Ee-commenced painting, 29. 
 
 Friendship with Raphael, 30. 
 1509. Partner with Albertinelli, 32. 
 1514. Visited Rome, 48. 
 1517. Died at Florence, 66. 
 Bertoldo, 15. 
 Bigio, Francia, 62. 
 Bugiardini, Guiliano, 59. 
 
 Christ as the centre of Eeliyion, 53. 
 Cianfanini, Benedetto, 57. 
 Crucifixion, 'ITie. Albertinelli. 36. 
 
 Deposition from the Cross, 54. 
 
 Eternal Father in Heaven, Tlie, 43. 
 
 Ghirlandajo, Eidolfo, 66. 
 
 Holy Family, The, 44. 
 
 Inuocenza d'Imola, 59. 
 
 Last Judgment, The, 26. 
 Leonardo da Vinci, 13, 15. 
 
 Madonna and Child, 44, 46, 49, 53. 
 Madonna and Saints. Albertinelli. 36. 
 Madonna della Misencordia, 50. 
 Madonna enthroned. Albertinelli. 36. 
 Madonna, icith infant Baptist. Alber- 
 tinelli. 39. 
 Marchese,Padre, 20,30,32. 
 Marriage of S. Catherine, 45. 
 Medici Family, The, 16. 
 Medici Garden, The, 14. 
 
 Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus, Nativity, The. Albertinelli, 34 > 
 29. Nelli, Suor Plautilla, 56, 53. 
 
132 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Paolino, Fra, assistant of Bartolom- 
 
 meo, 32, 56, 57. 
 Patron Saints of Florence, The, 54. 
 Piero di Oosimo, 10. 
 
 „ Fortraits ly, 11. 
 
 Fieta, 55. 
 
 Kaphael, Friendship with, 30. 
 Eenaissance, Thoughts on the, 1. 
 Reswnrectioii, The, 53. 
 Rome, Bartolommeo works at, 48. 
 Roselli, Cosimo, 8, 14. 
 Hustici, Gabbriele, 57. 
 
 Sacrifice of Ahraham. Alberiinelli. 47. 
 S. Sebastian, 49. 
 
 SS. Faul and Feter, Cartoons of, 48. 
 Salutation, The. Albertinelli. 17, 34. 
 Salvator Mundi, 53. 
 San Marco, The Convent of, 18, 29,41. 
 
 Savonarola, 12,18,21,27. 
 
 „ Fortrait of, 19. 
 Scholars of Fra Bartolommeo, 57. 
 
 Mariotto Albertinelli, 59. 
 
 Trinity, The Holy. AlbertiueUi. 37. 
 
 Valor! , Francesco, 22, 24. 
 Virgin, The. (Corsini Gall.) 30. 
 Virgin and Child with four Saints, 44. 
 Visino, 59. 
 
 Vision of S. Bernard, 28. 
 Vision of the Saviour to Mary Mag- 
 dalen, 55. 
 
 AYorks, List of , Fra Bartolommeo, 122. 
 
 „ „ Albertinelli, 124. 
 Works, Miscellaneous, of Bartolom- 
 meo, 44, 46. 
 
 ANDREA DEL SARTO. 
 
 Adoration of the Magi, 96. 
 Andrea del Sarto. 
 
 1487. Born in Florence, 7B. 
 
 1498. Studied under Piero di Cosimo, 
 74. 
 
 1509-10. With Francia Bigio, 76. 
 
 1516. Married Lucrezia della Fede. 
 88. 
 
 1518. Visited Paris, 98. 
 1531. Died of the plague at Florence, 
 lid. 
 
 Annunciation, Tlie, 80, 93. 
 Annunziata, S., Frescoes in, 81, 91. 
 
 Barile, Giovanni, 74. 
 Bartolommeo, Fra, 76. 
 Bigio, Francia, 76. 
 Firth of the Baptist, 97. 
 
 Casar receiving trilmte of animals, 103. 
 
 Carrucci, Jacopo, 115. 
 
 " Cenacolo," The, 97. 
 
 Charity with three Children, 112. 
 
 Christ appealing to Magdalen, 80. 
 Conte, Jacopo del, 120. 
 Conti, Domenico, 120. 
 
 Dead Christ, The, 98. 
 Fisputa di S. Agostino, 95. 
 
 Epiphany, The, 90. 
 
 Florence, Plague and Siege, 113. 
 
 Four Saints, 95. 
 
 Frescoes in the Scalza, 76, 93. 
 
 „ „ Court of S. Annun- 
 ziata, 81, 91. 
 Frescoes at San Salvi, 84, 110. 
 
 „ Poggio a Cajano, 103. 
 
 Head of the Saviour, 94, 107. 
 Holy Family, The, 94, 96, 104, 109. 
 
 Jacopo, called Jacone, 120. 
 Joseph, Life of, 105. 
 
INDEX 
 
 133 
 
 Last Svpper, The, 110. 
 Lucrezia della Fede, 88. 
 
 JIfadonna del Sacco, 92.1 
 
 „ and Child The, 93. 
 
 „ di San Francesco, 94. 
 
 „ Apotheosis of the, 108. 
 Mariano, Fra, 81. 
 
 Medici, Andrea and Ottavino de', 103. 
 A^ativity of the Virgin, TJie, 91 . 
 
 Parable o f the Vineyard, 83. 
 Piero di Cosimo, 74. 
 Pietd, A, 107. 
 
 Poggio a Cajano, Frescoes at, 103. 
 Pontormo, 115. 
 
 Sacrifice of Ahraham, 101, 111. 
 ^S". Agnes, 84. 
 
 S. Agnes and four Saints, 109. 
 S. James tcith two Children, 111. 
 S. Jerome in Penitence, 99. 
 S. John the Baptist, 101. 
 S. Philip, Stories from the Life of, 82. 
 Salviati, Francesco Rossi de', 119. 
 Sandro, Pier Francesco di, 121. 
 San Salvi, Frescoes at, 84, 110. 
 Scalzo, Paintings in the, 76, 93, 105. 
 Ssholars of Andrea del Sarto, 115. 
 Sguazzella, Andrea, 120. 
 Society of the Cauldron, 86. 
 
 „ „ Trowel, 87. 
 Stories from the Life of S. Philip, 82. 
 Story of Joseph, The, 93. 
 
 Vasari, Giorgio, 118. 
 
 Virgin and Child with Saints, 84. 
 
 Visitation, The, 107. 
 
 "Works of Andrea del Sarto, 125. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 K. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS. 
 
■ iiWIillMIWillMimMllltli^^