Andrea del Sarto (1486
– 1531)
was an Italian
painter from Florence,
whose career flourished during the High Renaissance
and early-Mannerism.
Though highly regarded by his contemporaries as an artist "senza
errori" (i.e., faultless),
he is overshadowed now by equally talented contemporaries
like Raphael.
Early Life and Training
Andrea was born in
Gualfonda,
close to Florence,
in either 1486 or 1487: he was one of four children to
Agnolo, a tailor (sarto). Since 1677 some have
attributed the surname Vannucchi with little documentation.
By 1494 Andrea was apprenticed to a goldsmith,
and then to a skillful woodcarver
and inferior painter named Gian Barile with whom he
remained until 1498. According to Vasari,
he then apprenticed to Piero di Cosimo,
and later with Raffaellino del Garbo
(Carli).
Andrea and an elder friend
Franciabigio
decided to open a joint studio at a lodging together in the
Piazza del Grano. Their first partnership may have been the
Baptism of Christ for the Florentine Compagnia dello Scalzo,
the beginning of a monochrome fresco series.
By the time the
partnership was dissolved, Sarto's style bore the stamp of
individuality. It "is marked throughout his career by an
interest, exceptional among Florentines, in effects of
colour and atmosphere and by sophisticated informality and
natural expression of emotion."
Frescoes at SS Annunziata in Florence
From 1509 to 1514 the brotherhood of the Servites
employed Sarto, Franciabigio and Andrea Feltrini
in a programme of frescoes
at Basilica della Santissima Annunziata
di Firenze.
Sarto completed three frescoes in the portico
of the Servite convent illustrating the
Life of Filippo Benizzi, a
Servite saint who died in 1285. He executed them rapidly,
depicting the saint sharing his cloak with a leper, cursing
some gamblers, and restoring a girl possessed with a devil.
These paintings met with respect, the correctness of the
contours being particularly admired, and earned for Sarto
the nickname of "Andrea senza errori" (Andrea the perfect).
After these, the painter depicted in two frescoes the death
of S. Filippo and children cured by touching his
garment; all five works were completed before the close of
1510. The Servites engaged him to do two more frescoes in
the forecourt of the Annunziata: a Procession of the Magi
(or Adoration, containing a self portrait) finished
in 1511. Towards 1512 he painted an Annunciation in
the monastery
of S. Gallo and a Marriage of Saint Catherine
(Dresden).
By 1514 Andrea had
finished his last two frescoes, including his masterpiece,
the Birth of the Virgin, which fuses the influence of Leonardo, Ghirlandaio
and Fra Bartolomeo.[1]
By November 1515 he had finished at the Scalzo the
Allegory of Justice and the Baptist preaching in the
desert, followed in 1517 by John Baptizing, and
other subjects.Visit to France
Before the end of 1516 a Pietà of his composition, and
afterwards a Madonna, were sent to the
French
court. They led to an invitation for Sarto to come to the
court of François I
in 1518. He journeyed to Paris towards June of that year,
along with his pupil Andrea Squarzzella,
leaving his wife in Florence.
Lucrezia, however, wrote urging his return to
Italy. The king assented but only on the understanding that
his absence from
France
was to be short and he entrusted Andrea with a sum of money
to be expended in purchasing works of art for his royal
patron. Instead, the temptation of having a goodly sum
encouraged its expenditure in the building of a house for
himself in Florence. This necessarily brought him in
conflict with François, who refused to be reingratiated with
Andrea. No serious punishment however, apparently befell
the artist.
Later works in Florence
In 1520 he resumed work in Florence, and executed the
Faith and Charity in the cloister of the Scalzo.
These were succeeded by the
Dance of the Daughter of Herodias,
the Beheading of the Baptist, the
Presentation of his head to Herod,
an allegory of Hope, the "Apparition
of the Angel to Zacharias"
(1523), and the monochrome Visitation.
This last was painted in the autumn of 1524, after Andrea
had returned from Luco in
Mugello,
whence an outbreak of bubonic plague
in Florence had driven him and his family. In 1525 he
returned to paint in the Annunziata cloister the Madonna
del Sacco, a lunette
named after a sack against which Joseph is represented
propped. In this painting the generous virgin's gown and her
gaze indicate his influence on the early style of pupil Pontormo.
His final work at the Scalzo was the Birth of the Baptist
(1526). In the following year he completed at S. Salvi, near
Florence, a celebrated Last Supper in which all the
personages seem to be portraits. It is the last monumental
work of importance which Andrea del Sarto lived to execute.
He died in 1531 in Florence.
