Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo LottoVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo Lotto
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Having come into greater repute by reason of these works, Andrea
received commissions for many pictures and works of importance; among
others, one from the General of the Monks of Vallombrosa, for painting
an arch of the vaulting, with a Last Supper on the front wall, in the
Refectory of the Monastery of S. Salvi, without the Porta alla Croce. In
four medallions on that vault he painted four figures, S. Benedict, S.
Giovanni Gualberto, S. Salvi the Bishop, and S. Bernardo degli Uberti
of Florence, a friar of that Order and a Cardinal; and in the centre
he made a medallion containing three faces, which are one and the same,
to represent the Trinity. All this was very well executed for a work in
fresco, and Andrea, therefore, came to be valued at his true worth in
the art of painting. Whereupon he was commissioned at the instance of
Baccio d' Agnolo to paint in fresco, in a close on the steep path of
Orsanmichele, which leads to the Mercato Nuovo, the Annunciation still
to be seen there, executed on a minute scale, which brought him but
little praise; and this may have been because Andrea, who worked well
without over-exerting himself or forcing his powers, is believed to have
tried in this work to force himself and to paint with too much care.
As for the many pictures that he executed after this for Florence, it
would take too long to try to speak of them all; and I will only say
that among the most distinguished may be numbered the one that is now in
the apartment of Baccio Barbadori, containing a full-length Madonna with
a Child in her arms, S. Anne, and S. Joseph, all painted in a beautiful
manner and held very dear by Baccio. He made one, likewise well worthy
of praise, which is now in the possession of Lorenzo di Domenico
Borghini, and another of Our Lady for Leonardo del Giocondo, which at
the present day is in the hands of Piero, the son of Leonardo. For Carlo
Ginori he painted two of no great size, which were bought afterwards by
the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici; and one of these is now in his
most beautiful villa of Campi, while the other, together with many other
modern pictures executed by the most excellent masters, is in the
apartment of the worthy son of so great a father, Signor Bernardetto,
who not only esteems and honours the works of famous craftsmen, but is
also in his every action a truly generous and magnificent nobleman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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