he executed for the Brothers of the Passion, but this picture was never entirely finished, being left incomplete by the death of the master. Guadenzio painted exceedingly well in oil likewise, and there are many works by his hand at Vercelli and Veralla, all of which are very highly esteemed.[1]
THE MOST EXCELLENT FLORENTINE PAINTER, ANDREA DEL SARTO.
[born 1488[2]—died 1530]
At length then we have come, after having written the lives of many artists who have been distinguished, some for colouring, some for design, and some for invention; we have come, I say, to that of the truly excellent Andrea del Sarto,[3] in whom art and nature combined to show all that may be done in painting, when design, colouring, and invention unite in one and the same person. Had this master possessed a somewhat bolder and more elevated mind, had he been as much distinguished for higher qualifications as he was for genius and depth of judgment in the art he practised, he would
- ↑ Guadenzio Ferrari of Valdugia, in the Milanese, was a painter of high merit, and is accounted among the most distinguished masters of the school of Raphael. For more extended details respecting the works of Guadenzio Ferrari, see Lomazzo, Trattato dell’Arte della Pittura, but the accusation brought by this writer against Vasari, to the effect that the latter “intended to depreciate the Milanese school, while he desired to exalt his own, that of Tuscany namely, to the skies,” is wholly without foundation. But we may safely leave the case of our author to its merits; his best defence is in the evidence of impartiality presented by every page of his work.
- ↑ There is much discord among the authorities as to the period of Andrea’s birth; Della Valle and most of the later writers give it as above; Biadi only, Notizie inedite della Vita di Andrea del Sarto, Florence, 1829, is of a different opinion, and will have it to have taken place ten years earlier, but without adducing sufficient grounds for his opinion, as it appears to the present writer. For very minute details on this and other points, the reader is referred to the Life of Andrea, by Alfred Reumont, Leipzig, 1835.
- ↑ The family name of Andrea was Vannucchio. According to some writers, his father Michelangelo Vannucchio was of Flemish origin, but fled his native land in consequence of an unhappy quarrel. He calls himself sometimes Andrea Vannucchi, sometimes Andrea d’ Agnolo or di Michelagnolo Vannucchio; and in a receipt given to the Abbess of Luco in 1528, he writes, “I. Andrea d’ Angiolo del Sarto.” See Reumont, ut supra.
