DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0368
3i6 ANDREA DEL SARTO [1486-
Vasari describes the wonderful masques and suppers
held in the clubs which they formed among them-
selves. There was the famous Club of the Paiolo,
or Cauldron, which met at Rustici’s house, where
dishes of the most elaborate kinds were provided
by each of the twelve members, and Andrea, on
one occasion, designed a temple in imitation of
the Baptistery, with mosaics of jelly, columns of
sausages, and choir and priests represented by
birds and hooded pigeons. Another evening he
recited a comic Greek poem, called the Battle of
the Mice, and said to have been composed by
Ottaviano de’ Medici, who was himself a member
of the Club, which excited great merriment among
the company. No less popular were the meetings of
the Society of the Trowel, where the members
appeared in mason’s clothes, and acted comedies and
plays, for which Andrea painted the scenery. A
great change had passed over Tuscan art and artists
since the days when Cennino wrote his Trattato.
The religious spirit which marked societies and
guilds of painters in those early times had entirely
disappeared, and the very character of the Florentines
seemed to have changed. Few sixteenth-century
masters approached art with the high seriousness of
Leonardo or the deep devotion of Fra Bartolommeo.
But, at least, Andrea was not idle. Hardly
had he finished the frescoes in the Court of the
Annunziata, than he set to work on the chiaroscuro
subjects from the life of the Baptist, in the cloisters
of the Scalzi or Bare-footed brothers in the Via
Larga. This series was to consist of twelve large
frescoes, for which he was to receive 56 lire, and
Vasari describes the wonderful masques and suppers
held in the clubs which they formed among them-
selves. There was the famous Club of the Paiolo,
or Cauldron, which met at Rustici’s house, where
dishes of the most elaborate kinds were provided
by each of the twelve members, and Andrea, on
one occasion, designed a temple in imitation of
the Baptistery, with mosaics of jelly, columns of
sausages, and choir and priests represented by
birds and hooded pigeons. Another evening he
recited a comic Greek poem, called the Battle of
the Mice, and said to have been composed by
Ottaviano de’ Medici, who was himself a member
of the Club, which excited great merriment among
the company. No less popular were the meetings of
the Society of the Trowel, where the members
appeared in mason’s clothes, and acted comedies and
plays, for which Andrea painted the scenery. A
great change had passed over Tuscan art and artists
since the days when Cennino wrote his Trattato.
The religious spirit which marked societies and
guilds of painters in those early times had entirely
disappeared, and the very character of the Florentines
seemed to have changed. Few sixteenth-century
masters approached art with the high seriousness of
Leonardo or the deep devotion of Fra Bartolommeo.
But, at least, Andrea was not idle. Hardly
had he finished the frescoes in the Court of the
Annunziata, than he set to work on the chiaroscuro
subjects from the life of the Baptist, in the cloisters
of the Scalzi or Bare-footed brothers in the Via
Larga. This series was to consist of twelve large
frescoes, for which he was to receive 56 lire, and