Cartwright, Julia: The painters of Florence: from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth century (London: John Murray, 1910)

128

ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

[1390-

Another fresco representing the Last Supper may
still be seen in the refectory of the ancient convent
of S. Apollonia, which is now a complete gallery
of Andrea’s works. Frescoes of the Crucifixion,
Entombment and Resurrection have lately been
recovered from the whitewash which concealed them,
and the heroes and women from Villa Pandolfini
have been hung upon one of the walls, while the
whole of another wall is occupied by the Cenacolo.
This subject is paiiited with Andrea’s habitual
directness and frank realism. The white cloth and
dishes on the table, the barrel vaulting of the ceiling
and panelling of its walls, the grass on the ground,
and the room opening out of the upper chamber, are
all exactly reproduced. The Apostles are rough
peasants, with strong faces and coarse hands, and
there is little attempt at nobility of form or elevation
of thought, even in the Christ. But in spite of the
vulgarity of type and lack of ideal beauty, the work
is one of great power and originality. The heads
of the Apostles are full of individual character, the
grouping of the figures, their gestures and attitudes,
are singularly varied and expressive, and there can
be little doubt that the composition of this naturalist
master inspired Leonardo with the first idea of his
sublime work.
A second Cenacolo, which Andrea del Castagno
painted in the summer of 1457, for the refectory of
Santa Maria Nuova, was his last fresco. A few
months later he died, on the 19th of August, at the
age of sixty-seven, and was buried in the church of
the Annunziata.