DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0379
1531] PORTRAITS 325
air in her striped bodice with yellow sleeves, with the
white handkerchief folded over the thick coils of
chestnut hair. And he has painted himself too,
from the early days when he was a graceful youth
with dark eyes, sensitive lips, and long brown curls,
down to the last year of his life, when he had grown
stout and middle-aged, and the coarsened features
and listless expression tell a melancholy tale of
deterioration of character. A wonderful example of
his technical skill is still to be seen in the copy of
Raphael’s great portrait of Leo X. and his Cardinals,
which he painted, in 1524, for Ottaviano de’ Medici.
Pope Clement VII. had desired his kinsman to send
this famous Raphael, which hung over a doorway of
the Medici palace, as a present to the Duke of
Mantua, upon which Ottaviano, unwilling to part
from so great a treasure, employed Andrea to copy
the picture, and sent his work to Mantua in the place
of the original. So admirable was Andrea’s copy,
that even Giulio Romano, who had himself helped
Raphael in painting the Pope’s portrait, was com-
pletely deceived, until Vasari showed him Andrea’s
monogram with the interlaced initials on the edge of
the panel.
In spite, however, of his untiring industry, and of
the great reputation which he enjoyed in Florence,
Andrea del Sarto never attained the position to which
his rare talents entitled him. During the siege of
Florence he suffered many privations, and was glad
to accept a commission from the Signory to paint the
effigies of some rebels who had been hung as traitors
on the walls of the Podestk palace. But being
ashamed of the task, and fearing that he might
air in her striped bodice with yellow sleeves, with the
white handkerchief folded over the thick coils of
chestnut hair. And he has painted himself too,
from the early days when he was a graceful youth
with dark eyes, sensitive lips, and long brown curls,
down to the last year of his life, when he had grown
stout and middle-aged, and the coarsened features
and listless expression tell a melancholy tale of
deterioration of character. A wonderful example of
his technical skill is still to be seen in the copy of
Raphael’s great portrait of Leo X. and his Cardinals,
which he painted, in 1524, for Ottaviano de’ Medici.
Pope Clement VII. had desired his kinsman to send
this famous Raphael, which hung over a doorway of
the Medici palace, as a present to the Duke of
Mantua, upon which Ottaviano, unwilling to part
from so great a treasure, employed Andrea to copy
the picture, and sent his work to Mantua in the place
of the original. So admirable was Andrea’s copy,
that even Giulio Romano, who had himself helped
Raphael in painting the Pope’s portrait, was com-
pletely deceived, until Vasari showed him Andrea’s
monogram with the interlaced initials on the edge of
the panel.
In spite, however, of his untiring industry, and of
the great reputation which he enjoyed in Florence,
Andrea del Sarto never attained the position to which
his rare talents entitled him. During the siege of
Florence he suffered many privations, and was glad
to accept a commission from the Signory to paint the
effigies of some rebels who had been hung as traitors
on the walls of the Podestk palace. But being
ashamed of the task, and fearing that he might