Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il SodomaVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il Sodoma
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
But to return to Jacopo; he had not been many months in Florence when
he was placed by Bernardo Vettori with Leonardo da Vinci, and shortly
afterwards with Mariotto Albertinelli, then with Piero di Cosimo, and
finally, in the year 1512, with Andrea del Sarto, with whom, likewise,
he did not stay long, for the reason that, after Jacopo had executed
the cartoons of the little arch for the Servites, of which there will
be an account below, it appears that Andrea never again looked
favourably upon him, whatever may have been the reason. The first
work, then, that Jacopo executed at that time was a little
Annunciation for one his friend, a tailor; but the tailor having died
before the work was finished, it remained in the hands of Jacopo, who
was at that time with Mariotto, and Mariotto took pride in it, and
showed it as a rare work to all who entered his workshop. Now
Raffaello da Urbino, coming in those days to Florence, saw with
infinite marvel the work and the lad who had done it, and prophesied
of Jacopo that which was afterwards seen to come true. Not long
afterwards, Mariotto having departed from Florence and gone to Viterbo
to execute the panel-picture that Fra Bartolommeo had begun there,
Jacopo, who was young, solitary, and melancholy, being thus left
without a master, went by himself to work under Andrea del Sarto, at
the very moment when Andrea had finished the stories of S. Filippo in
the court of the Servites, which pleased Jacopo vastly, as did all his
other works and his whole manner and design. Jacopo having then set
himself to make every effort to imitate him, no long time passed
before it was seen that he had made marvellous progress in drawing and
colouring, insomuch that from his facility it seemed as if he had been
many years in art.
Now Andrea had finished in those days a panel-picture of the
Annunciation for the Church of the Friars of S. Gallo, which is now
destroyed, as has been related in his Life; and he gave the predella
of that panel-picture to Jacopo to execute in oils. Jacopo painted in
it a Dead Christ, with two little Angels who are weeping over Him and
illuminating Him with two torches, and, in two round pictures at the
sides, two Prophets, which were executed by him so ably, that they
have the appearance of having been painted not by a mere lad but by a
practised master; but it may also be, as Bronzino says, that he
remembers having heard from Jacopo da Pontormo himself that Rosso
likewise worked on this predella. And even as Andrea was assisted by
Jacopo in executing the predella, so also was he aided by him in
finishing the many pictures and works that Andrea continually had in
hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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