general, Benedict Arnold (q.v.), thinking himself injuriously treated by his colleagues, made overtures to the British to betray to them the important fortress of West Point on the Hudson river, the key of the American position, of which he was commandant. This seemed to Sir Henry Clinton a favourable opportunity for concluding the war, and Major André was appointed to negotiate with Arnold. For this purpose he landed from a vessel bearing a flag of truce and had an interview with Arnold, who delivered to him full particulars and plans of the fortress of West Point, and arranged with him to co-operate with the British during an attack which was to be made in a few days. Unfortunately for André, the British vessel was fired on before the negotiations were finished and obliged to drop down the river. André, therefore, could not return by the way he came and was compelled to pass the night within the American lines. After making the fatal mistake of exchanging his uniform for a civilian disguise, he set out next day by land for New York, provided by Arnold with a passport, and succeeded in passing the regular American outposts undetected. Next day, however, just when all danger seemed to be over, André was stopped by three American militiamen, to whom he gave such contradictory answers that, in spite of Arnold’s pass, they searched him and discovered in his boots the fatal proofs of his negotiations for the betrayal of West Point. Notwithstanding his offer of a large sum for his release, his captors delivered him up to the nearest American officer. Washington, although admitting that André was “more unfortunate than criminal,” sent him before a court-martial, by which, notwithstanding a spirited defence, he was, in consequence of his own admissions, condemned to death as a spy. In spite of the protests and entreaties of Sir Henry Clinton and the threats of Arnold he was hanged at Tappan on the 2nd of October 1780. Arnold, warned by the unfortunate André, escaped by flight the punishment he so richly merited. The justice of André’s execution has been a fruitful theme for discussion, but both British and American military writers are agreed that he undoubtedly acted in the character of a spy, although under orders and entirely contrary to his own feelings. Washington’s apparent harshness in refusing the condemned man a soldier’s death by shooting has also been censured, but it is evident that no other course was open to the American commander, since a mitigation of the sentence would have implied a doubt as to its justice. Besides courage and distinguished military talents, Major André was a proficient in drawing and in music, and showed considerable poetic talent in his humorous Cow-chase, a kind of parody on Chevy-chase, which appeared in three successive parts at New York, the last on the very day of his capture. His fate excited universal sympathy both in America and Europe, and the whole British army went into mourning for him. A mural sculptured monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey by the British government when his remains were brought over and interred there in 1821; and a memorial has been erected to him by Americans on the spot where he was taken. André’s military journal, giving an interesting account of the British movements in America from June 1777 to the close of 1778, was taken to England in 1782 by General Grey, whose descendant, Earl Grey, discovered it in 1902 and disposed of it to an American gentleman.
See The Life and Career of Major John André, &c., by Winthrop Sargent (new ed., New York, 1902); André’s Journal (Boston, Mass., The Bibliophile Society, 1904).
ANDREA, GIOVANNI (1275–1348), Italian canonist, was born at Mugello, near Florence, about 1275. He studied canon law at Bologna, where he distinguished himself in this subject so much that he was made professor at Padua, and later at Pisa and Bologna, rapidly acquiring a high reputation for his learning and his moral character. Curious stories are told of him; for instance, that by way of self-mortification he lay every night for twenty years on the bare ground with only a bear’s skin for a covering; that in an audience he had with Pope Boniface VIII. his extraordinary shortness of stature led the pope to believe he was kneeling, and to ask him three times to rise, to the immense merriment of the cardinals; and that he had a daughter, Novella, so accomplished in law as to be able to read her father’s lectures in his absence, and so beautiful, that she had to read behind a curtain lest her face should distract the attention of the students. He is said to have died at Bologna of the plague in 1348, and an epitaph in the church of the Dominicans in which he was buried, calling him Rabbi Doctorum, Lux, Censor, Normaque Morum, testifies to the public estimation of his character. Andrea wrote a Gloss on the Sixth Book of the Decretals, Glosses on the Clementines and a Commentary on the Rules of Sextus. His additions to the Speculum of Durando are a mere adaptation from the Consilia of Oldradus, as is also the book De Sponsalibus et Matrimonio, from J. Anguisciola.
ANDREA DEL SARTO (1487–1531). This celebrated painter of the Florentine school was born in Gualfonda, Florence, in 1487, or perhaps 1486, his father Agnolo being a tailor (sarto): hence the nickname by which the son is constantly designated. There were four other children. The family, though of no distinction, can be traced back into the 14th century. Vannucchi has since 1677 been constantly given as the surname—according to some modern writers, without any authority. It has recently been said that the true name is Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore. But this only gives, along with our painter’s Christian name, the Christian names of his antecessors for five generations, and is in no way his own surname. In 1494 Andrea was put to work under a goldsmith. This occupation he disliked. He took to drawing from his master’s models, and was soon transferred to a skilful woodcarver and inferior painter named Gian Barile, with whom he remained until 1498. Barile, though a coarse-grained man enough, would not stand in the way of the advancement of his promising pupil, so he recommended him to Piero di Cosimo as draughtsman and colourist. Piero retained Andrea for some years, allowing him to study from the famous cartoons of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Finally Andrea agreed with his friend Franciabigio, who was somewhat his senior, that they would open a joint shop; at a date not precisely defined they took a lodging together in the Piazza del Grano. Their first work in partnership may probably have been the “Baptism of Christ,” for the Florentine Compagnia dello Scalzo, a performance of no great merit, the beginning of a series, all the extant items of which are in monochrome chiaroscuro. Soon afterwards the partnership was dissolved. From 1509 to 1514 the brotherhood of the Servites employed Andrea, as well as Franciabigio and Andrea Feltrini, the first-named undertaking in the portico of the Annunziata three frescoes illustrating the life of the Servite saint Filippo Benizzi (d. 1285). He executed them in a few months, being endowed by nature with remarkable readiness and certainty of hand and unhesitating firmness in his work, although in the general mould of his mind he was timid and diffident. The subjects are the saint sharing his cloak with a leper, cursing some gamblers, and restoring a girl possessed with a devil. The second and third works excel the first, and are impulsive and able performances. These paintings met with merited applause, and gained for their author the pre-eminent title “Andrea senza errori” (Andrew the unerring)—the correctness of the contours being particularly admired. After these subjects the painter proceeded with two others—the death of S. Filippo and the children cured by touching his garment,—all the five works being completed before the close of 1510. The youth of twenty-three was already in technique about the best fresco-painter of central Italy, barely rivalled by Raphael, who was the elder by four years. Michelangelo’s Sixtine frescoes were then only in a preliminary stage. Andrea always worked in the simplest, most typical and most trying method of fresco—that of painting the thing once and for all, without any subsequent dry-touching. He now received many commissions. The brotherhood of the Servites engaged him to do two more frescoes in the Annunziata at a higher price; he also painted, towards 1512, an Annunciation in the monastery of S. Gallo.
The “Tailor’s Andrew” appears to have been an easy-going plebeian, to whom a modest position in life and scanty gains were no grievances. As an artist he must have known his own
