But to return to the works of this master: if these were very numerous, they were also very beautiful; in addition to those mentioned above, he painted a picture of Our Lady for the church of the nuns of San Francesco, whose Convent is in the Via Pentolini; he received the commission for this work from a monk of Santa Croce of the order of the Minorites, who was at that time Intendant for those nuns, and was a great lover of painting: the Madonna is standing upright on a pedestal of eight sides, and on each of the angles of this pedestal are figures of Harpies, seated in an attitude which is almost, as it were, one of adoration of the Virgin.[1] Our Lady is holding the Divine Child with one arm; and the Infant, in a most exquisite attitude, has his arms round her neck, about which he is twining them most tenderly; with the other hand the Madonna holds a closed book, she is looking down on two nude figures of children, and these, while they support her in her position, serve at the same time as an ornament to the picture. On the right of the Virgin is San Francesco, extremely well painted, the countenance betokening all that simplicity and excellence by which that holy man is known to have been distinguished. The feet of the figures are also exceedingly beautiful, as are the draperies; and as regards the latter, it was one of Andrea’s excellencies that their flow was ever rich and ample, while he contrived, by a certain graceful and flexible turn of the forms, to cause the outlines of the nude figure to be discernible through or beneath them. On the left of Our Lady is San Giovanni Evangelista, depicted in a very fine manner as a youth, and in the act of writing the Gospel. Above these figures and the building wherein they are depicted, light transparent clouds are seen, and are so lightly and naturally represented that they appear to be really moving: this work is now considered among the best of Andrea’s productions, and is indeed one of singular and truly wonderful beauty.[2]
- ↑ This is considered to be a pure fancy of our author’s. The Harpies are merely the decoration of the pedestal, and are not intended by the painter to represent living beings, but merely lifeless figures carved in stone.
- ↑ Now in the Tribune of the Florentine Gallery of the Uffizj, and accounted the best of Andrea’s easel pictures. In his first edition, Vasari tells us that the master received but a very small sum for its execution, more because he asked but little,” he further adds, ‘^than because the monk
