DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0381
1531] DIES OF THE PLAGUE 327
sum for which he asked—“ una miseria” as Vasari
says!
When Florence was taken by the Spaniards, the
plague broke out in many parts of the city, and Andrea
del Sarto was one of its first victims. He breathed his
last on the 22nd of January, 1531, at the age of forty-
five, deserted even by his wife, who fled in terror from
the house and left him to die alone. Yet his devotion
to her had never altered, and in a will which he made
four years before his death, he left all his property to
his dear wife, “ la mia diletta domina” and even remem-
bered his step-daughter Maria. Lucrezia survived
her husband forty years, and died in January, 1571.
One day in the winter of 1570, when the artist
Jacopo da Empoli was copying Andrea del Sarto’s
Birth of the Virgin in the court of the Annunziata,
an old woman of eighty stopped to speak to him on
her way to mass, and pointing to the figure of the
handsome young matron in the picture, told him that
this was her portrait, and that she herself was Lucrezia
del Fede, the widow of the artist who painted the fresco.
She had vexed him in his life-time and abandoned
him on his death-bed, but it was still her greatest
pride to remember that she had been the wife of
the famous master—“ Andrea senza errorid
Chief Works:—
Florence.—Accademia : 61. Two Child-Angels.
75. Fresco—Dead Christ.
76. Four Saints.
77. Predella. Legends of Saints.
lt Pitti-. 58. Deposition.
66. Portrait of the Painter.
81. Holy Family.
87. Joseph’s Dream.
88. Joseph in Egypt.
sum for which he asked—“ una miseria” as Vasari
says!
When Florence was taken by the Spaniards, the
plague broke out in many parts of the city, and Andrea
del Sarto was one of its first victims. He breathed his
last on the 22nd of January, 1531, at the age of forty-
five, deserted even by his wife, who fled in terror from
the house and left him to die alone. Yet his devotion
to her had never altered, and in a will which he made
four years before his death, he left all his property to
his dear wife, “ la mia diletta domina” and even remem-
bered his step-daughter Maria. Lucrezia survived
her husband forty years, and died in January, 1571.
One day in the winter of 1570, when the artist
Jacopo da Empoli was copying Andrea del Sarto’s
Birth of the Virgin in the court of the Annunziata,
an old woman of eighty stopped to speak to him on
her way to mass, and pointing to the figure of the
handsome young matron in the picture, told him that
this was her portrait, and that she herself was Lucrezia
del Fede, the widow of the artist who painted the fresco.
She had vexed him in his life-time and abandoned
him on his death-bed, but it was still her greatest
pride to remember that she had been the wife of
the famous master—“ Andrea senza errorid
Chief Works:—
Florence.—Accademia : 61. Two Child-Angels.
75. Fresco—Dead Christ.
76. Four Saints.
77. Predella. Legends of Saints.
lt Pitti-. 58. Deposition.
66. Portrait of the Painter.
81. Holy Family.
87. Joseph’s Dream.
88. Joseph in Egypt.