which Andrea, who was a sufficiently obliging person, replied, that he would do it willingly, being moved partly by the persuasions of the Monk, partly by his wish for the payment, and partly by his hopes of fame. Shortly afterwards, therefore, he commenced the work accordingly, and painted a very beautiful Madonna in fresco; Our Lady is seated with the divine Child in her arms, and there is also a St. Joseph, who is leaning on a sack, and has his eyes fixed on an open book. This work is executed in such a manner, the drawing, the grace of the figures, the beauty of colouring, the life-like animation, and the force of the relief, are of such perfection, that the picture proves Andrea to have far excelled and surpassed all the painters who had laboured up to that time; the painting is of a truth so complete, that it speaks plainly for itself, and does not need praise from any other quarter to make it known as a most wonderful and extraordinary work.[1]
There was now one story only required to complete the pictures in the cloister of the Barefooted Brethren; wherefore Andrea, whose manner had become enlarged from the circumstance of his having seen the figures commenced, and in part finished by Michelagnolo in the Sacristy of Lorenzo,[2] Andrea, I say, resolved to set hand to this work also, wherein he gave the ultimate proof of that amelioration just alludedto. The subject chosen was the Birth of San Giovanni Battista; the figures are most beautiful, exhibiting much greater ability, and being in much finer relief, than those which had formerly been executed by Andrea in the same place. Among other most admirable figures in this work, may be distinguished that of a woman, who is bearing the
- ↑ We need scarcely remark that this work, called the Madonna del Sacco, has ever been considered one of the finest, if not the finest of Andrea’s fresco paintings. It is said to have suffered more by the injury received from the copyists, than from the action of time. In the year 1573 it was engraved by Zuccherelli, hut a much better engraving, the best, indeed, made from it since that time, is one by Raphael Morghen, in 1793; it has also been engraved in outline by Chiari. The engravings from this work now in the British Museum, will have rendered this work more familiar than those of this master usually are to the English reader.
- ↑ Bottari observes on this passage, that Andrea had also profited by the study of the cartoon depicting the War of Pisa.
