The abilities of Andrea had caused him, about this period of his life, to become known to Giovanni Gaddi, who was afterwards clerk of the chamber, and who, from his love to the arts of design, then kept Jacopo Sansovino in continual employment. The manner of Andrea del Sarto pleasing Giovanni, he commissioned the artist to paint a picture of the Virgin for him, and this proved to be a singularly beautiful painting, nay, it was considered to be the best that Andrea had then produced, partly because the latter had executed many beautiful and ingenious decorations, by way of frame work, around the picture.[1]
For the merchant Giovanni di Paolo, this master painted another picture of the Madonna, which pleases all who behold it exceedingly, and is indeed a truly beautiful production:[2] for Andrea Santini, he likewise painted a picture representing Our Lady, Jesus Christ, St. John, and St. Joseph, all executed with so much care, that in Florence they have ever been esteemed as works of the highest merit.[3]
These various labours secured so great a name for Andrea in his native city, that among the many artists, old and young, who were then painting, he was accounted one of the best that handled pencil and colours. Our artist then found himself to be not only honoured and admired, but also in a condition, notwithstanding the really mean price that he accepted for his labours, which permitted him to render assistance to his family, while he still remained unoppressed for his own part, by those cares and anxieties which beset those who are compelled to live in poverty. But having fallen in love with a
- ↑ This work was some years since in the possession of the Gaddi-Poggi family in Florence. The picture was somewhat faded in some parts, and had much darkened all over, but was upon the whole in good preservation. See Reumont’s Life of Andrea, as before cited.
- ↑ Biadi, who is followed by Reumont, believing this picture to be an Annunciation, although Vasari speaks only of a Madonna, declares it to be that in the Hall of Saturn, in the Pitti Palace; other writers maintain these commentators to be in error, and affirm that the work here in question is the Madonna with the Divine Child, which is in the room called that of the Education of Jupiter, in the same palace.
- ↑ Della Valle informs us that this work came by purchase into the hands of the Signor Alessandro Curti-Lepri, who caused it to be engraved by Raphael Morghen.
the Brotherhood with a purse of two hundred scudi, and an admirable copy of the work by Empoli, but the original and copy have now alike disappeared.
