Sogliani commenced a large picture for Giovanni Serrestori, which was to be placed in the Church of San Francesco dell’ Osservanza, outside the gate of San Miniato; this work contains a vast number of figures, among which there are certain heads of admirable beauty, and perhaps the best ever depicted by this master, but the picture was not completed before the previously-named Giovanni Serrestori died. Nevertheless, as Sogliani had received the whole of his demand for it, he completed the work by degrees, and gave it to Messer Alamanno di Jacopo Salviati, son-in-law and heir of Giovanni Serrestori, by whom it was presented, together with the frame-work by which it was ornamented, to the nuns of San Luca, who placed it over the High Altar of their chapel in the Via di San Gallo.[1]
Many other works were executed by Giovan Antonio Sogliani, in Florence, some of which are dispersed among the houses of the citizens, while others have been sent into foreign parts, but of these I need make no further mention, seeing that we have already enumerated the principal. Sogliani was a most upright and exceedingly religious man, always occupied with his own affairs, and being ever careful to offer no molestation to any of his brethren in art. One of his disciples was Sandrino del Calzolaio, who painted the Tabernacle which is fixed at the corner of the Murate. At the Hospital of the Temple also, there is a work by Sandrino, representing San Giovanni Battista receiving the poor to shelter, and many more works, which would also have been good ones, would Sandrino del Calzolaio have performed without doubt, had he not died so early, but the death of this artist happened while he was still very young.[2]
Other disciples of Giovan Antonio Sogliani were Michele, who afterwards studied with Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, whose name he took; Benedetto, who went to France with Antonio Mini,[3]
- ↑ Still in the Church which is near the Hospital of St. Boniface in the Via San Gallo. In the upper part of the work is the Immaculate Conception,” and beneath are several doctors of the Church, among whom are SS. Augustine, Ambrose, and Bernard, holding a deputation concerning original sin, over the dead body of Adam.
- ↑ The works of these disciples of Sogliani have perished.
- ↑ Borghini, in his Riposo, relates that Antonio received the Leda of Michael Angelo from that master, and that he took it into France, where he sold it to the king.
