DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0084
80
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
in oil is in the Florence Gallery, in the cabinet
called the Tribune, where it hangs behind the
Venus de’ Medici. It represents the Virgin seated
on a throne, with St. John the Baptist standing on
one side, and St. Francis on the other; a picture
of wonderful majesty and beauty. In general his
Madonnas are not pleasing; they have, with great
beauty, a certain vulgarity of expression, and in
his groups he almost always places the Virgin on
the ground, either kneeling or sitting. His only
model for all his females was his wife; and even
when he did not paint from her, she so possessed
his thoughts that unconsciously he repeated the
same features in every face he drew, whether Vir-
gin, or saint, or goddess. Pictures by Andrea del
Sarto are to be found in almost all galleries, but
•very fine examples of his art are rare out of Flo-
rence. The picture in our National Gallery
attributed to him is very unworthy of his repu-
tation. Those at Hampton Court are not better.
There is a fine portrait at Windsor, called the
Gardener of the Duke of Florence, attributed to
him, and a female head, a sketch full of nature
and power. In the Louvre is the picture of
Charity, No. 85, painted for Francis I. when
Andrea was at Fontainebleau in 1518, and three
others. Lord Westminster, Lord Lansdowne, Mr.
Munroe of Park Street, and Lord Cowper in his
collection at Panshanger, possess the finest exam-
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
in oil is in the Florence Gallery, in the cabinet
called the Tribune, where it hangs behind the
Venus de’ Medici. It represents the Virgin seated
on a throne, with St. John the Baptist standing on
one side, and St. Francis on the other; a picture
of wonderful majesty and beauty. In general his
Madonnas are not pleasing; they have, with great
beauty, a certain vulgarity of expression, and in
his groups he almost always places the Virgin on
the ground, either kneeling or sitting. His only
model for all his females was his wife; and even
when he did not paint from her, she so possessed
his thoughts that unconsciously he repeated the
same features in every face he drew, whether Vir-
gin, or saint, or goddess. Pictures by Andrea del
Sarto are to be found in almost all galleries, but
•very fine examples of his art are rare out of Flo-
rence. The picture in our National Gallery
attributed to him is very unworthy of his repu-
tation. Those at Hampton Court are not better.
There is a fine portrait at Windsor, called the
Gardener of the Duke of Florence, attributed to
him, and a female head, a sketch full of nature
and power. In the Louvre is the picture of
Charity, No. 85, painted for Francis I. when
Andrea was at Fontainebleau in 1518, and three
others. Lord Westminster, Lord Lansdowne, Mr.
Munroe of Park Street, and Lord Cowper in his
collection at Panshanger, possess the finest exam-