Florence poorly remunerated for his toils, living in wretched poverty and wholly incapable of raising himself from his depressed condition,[1] the two pictures which he had sent into France, were obtaining much admiration from King Francis, and among the many others which had been despatched to him from Rome, Venice, and Lombardy, these had been adjudged to be by far the best. That monarch therefore, praising them very highly, was told that he might easily prevail on Andrea to visit France, when he might enter the service of His Majesty; this proposal was exceedingly agreeable to the king, who therefore gave orders that everything needful should be done for that purpose, and that a sum of money for the expenses of the journey, should be paid to Andrea in Florence. The latter gladly set forth on his W'ay to France accordingly,[2] taking with him his scholar Andrea Sguazzella.[3]
Having in due time arrived at the French court, they were received by the monarch very amicably and with many favours, even the first day of his arrival was marked to Andrea by proofs of that magnanimous sovereign’s liberality and courtesy, since he at once received not only a present of money, but the added gift of very rich and honourable vest-
- ↑ In the first edition of our author this paragraph commences as follows; Andrea now began to feel, not that the beauties of his wife had become wearisome, but that the mode of his life was an oppression to him; his error had become in part apparent to his perceptions; he saw that he could never lift himself from the earth; though perpetually toiling, he did so to no purpose. He had the father and all the sisters of his wife devouring every thing he gained, and though well-accustomed to that burthen, he could not be insensible to the weight thereof, and he finally became tired of the life he was leading. Knowing this, some friend, who still loved him, though more perhaps as an artist than as a man, advised him to change his dwelling, leaving his wife in some more secure abode for a time, that so he might at a future period receive her again, when they might live in a manner more creditable to him* He had hardly been brought to a conviction of his error, and to the persuasion that something should be done towards the discovery of a remedy, when such an occasion for re-instating himself was presented to him as he had never had before, since the time when he had taken a wife. The two pictures which he had sent into France,” &c., &c.
- ↑ According to Biadi, as before cited, Notizie, &c., this happened towards the end of May, in the year 1518.
- ↑ There is a Deposition from the Cross, by Andrea Sguazzella, in the gallery of the Louvre, which has been engraved by Vicus, with some few changes, and is called a work of Raphael.—Ed. Flor.y 1832 -8
