DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0083
ANDREA DEL SARTO.
79
the money, which was wasted in his own and her
extravagance; and he never returned to France to
keep his oath and engagements. But though he had
been weak and wicked enough to commit this crime,
he had sufficient sensibility to feel acutely the dis-
grace which was the consequence; it preyed on
his mind and embittered the rest of his life. The
avarice and infidelity of his wife added to his suf-
ferings. He continued to paint, however, and im-
proved to the last in correctness of style and beauty
of colour.
In the year 1530 he was attacked by a conta-
gious disorder; abandoned on his death-bed by the
woman to whom he had sacrificed honour, fame,
and friends, he died miserably, and was buried,
hastily and without the usual ceremonies of the
church, in the same convent of the Nunziata
which he had adorned with his works.
Andrea del Sarto can only be estimated as a
painter by those who have visited Florence. Fine
as are his oil-pictures, his paintings in fresco are
still finer. One of these, a Repose of the Holy
Family, has been celebrated for the last two cen-
turies, under the title of the Madonna del Sacco,
because Joseph is represented leaning on a sack.
There are engravings of it in the British Museum.
The cloisters of the convent of the Nunziata,
and a building called the Scalzo, at Florence, con-
tain his most admired works. His finest picture
e 2
79
the money, which was wasted in his own and her
extravagance; and he never returned to France to
keep his oath and engagements. But though he had
been weak and wicked enough to commit this crime,
he had sufficient sensibility to feel acutely the dis-
grace which was the consequence; it preyed on
his mind and embittered the rest of his life. The
avarice and infidelity of his wife added to his suf-
ferings. He continued to paint, however, and im-
proved to the last in correctness of style and beauty
of colour.
In the year 1530 he was attacked by a conta-
gious disorder; abandoned on his death-bed by the
woman to whom he had sacrificed honour, fame,
and friends, he died miserably, and was buried,
hastily and without the usual ceremonies of the
church, in the same convent of the Nunziata
which he had adorned with his works.
Andrea del Sarto can only be estimated as a
painter by those who have visited Florence. Fine
as are his oil-pictures, his paintings in fresco are
still finer. One of these, a Repose of the Holy
Family, has been celebrated for the last two cen-
turies, under the title of the Madonna del Sacco,
because Joseph is represented leaning on a sack.
There are engravings of it in the British Museum.
The cloisters of the convent of the Nunziata,
and a building called the Scalzo, at Florence, con-
tain his most admired works. His finest picture
e 2