Table of contents:
- Biggraphy and style of Andrea del Sarto
- Biographies and character
- Series of frescoes about John the Baptist
- Madonna with the Harpies
- Court service
- Flawless Artist
Video: Whom in the XVI century was called "an artist without a flaw", and What paintings did he write?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Andrea del Sarto is an Italian painter and draftsman whose works, with refined, sophisticated composition and skill, played a significant role in the development of Florentine Mannerism. The famous biographer Vasari called him "an artist without a flaw." What was he like, the famous painter of the High Renaissance?
Biggraphy and style of Andrea del Sarto
The real name of the artist is Andrea Vannucchi. He was born on July 16, 1486 in Florence. But he gained his fame as Andrea del Sarto thanks to the profession of his father, who was really a tailor (hence "del Sarto", in Italian "sarto" - a tailor).
Sarto was a pupil of Piero di Cosimo and was heavily influenced by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo. The art of Andrea del Sarto, rooted in the traditional painting of Quattrocento, combined Leonardo's sfumato with Raphael's compositional harmony and in a style typical of the Cinquevento (16th century). In 1509 Andrea received his first important public commission for the creation of 5 frescoes for the Church of Santissima Annunziata. These were depictions of scenes from the life of Saint Filippo Benizzi, a servite monk canonized in the 17th century. Two more frescoes, The Journey of the Magi and The Nativity of the Virgin, executed in 1511 and 1514, demonstrate the very rapid development of the artist's individual style. Subsequently, the influence of Michelangelo and artistic events in Rome led to the idealization of the style. Still, the "Last Supper" in San Salvi (1511-1527) is considered an absolute masterpiece of Sarto. The fresco survived the siege of Florence in 1529-1530 by the Spanish imperial forces, and it is one of the rare works that was saved from destruction during a year's siege.
Biographies and character
The biographies of biographers (especially Vasari) claim that Andrea was a kind, humble person with high professional standards and a deep understanding of humanity. He was genuinely pious, sometimes working for minimal wages or, as in the case of Madonna del Sacco (Madonna of the Sack), he refused his wages altogether. Vasari interprets this as shyness and modesty, but it is more likely that Andrea, who was patronized by the Pope himself and the king of France, was wealthy and prosperous enough to afford such generosity.
Series of frescoes about John the Baptist
One of Andrea del Sarto's striking masterpieces is a series of grisaille frescoes about the life of Saint John the Baptist at Chiostro dello Scalzo in Florence. All these works (1511-1526) were written by the hand of Sarto alone, so many consider this cycle of frescoes to be Sarto's fictional autobiography, covering most of his career.
Madonna with the Harpies
In 1517, Sarto married Lucrezia del Fede, a widow who became the artist's beloved wife and muse. Her portraits show that Sarto used her image for many of his Madonnas (for example, the famous "Madonna with the Harpies" in the Uffizi).
Del Sarto was commissioned to paint this painting for the nuns of the Convent of St. Francis de Macci. In his solid and meticulous compositional structure, the artist flawlessly combines the typical pyramidal shape of the Virgin of Raphael, with the stately feeling of Michelangelo's figures, while mixing them with the tenderness of Da Vinci's sfumato.
Court service
In 1518, King Francis I of France summoned Sarto to Fontainebleau, where he was already known for his brilliant reputation as a great artist. Letters from Lucretia, Sarto's wife, prove her strong love for the artist and how she missed him and asked him to return to Florence. It is likely that it was the pleas of Lucretia that led Sarto to abandon the popularity and success of the court service and return to his hometown. There is another opinion: it is unlikely that Sarto found the life of a court artist close in spirit. For a year of service, he did not receive a single large order. But on his return to Florence, Andrea Sarto becomes close to the influential Medici family. Acquaintance led to the artist receiving a significant contract for the painting of the Villa Medici in Poggio Caiano, near Florence.
In 1520, Sarto began to build a house in Florence, which was subsequently visited by many artists of that time. The plague in 1523-24 forced Sarto and his wife to find a safer place for themselves. It was a house in Mugello, north of Florence. After the expulsion of the Medici, Sarto carried out orders for the republican government of Florence. His Sacrifice of Abraham, conceived as a political gift to Francis I, was written during this turbulent period. After the siege of Florence by imperial and papal forces in 1530, at the young age of 44, he died of a new wave of plague and died in his home.
Flawless Artist
Giorgio Vasari, who attended Andrea del Sarto's studio as a young man, called him "an impeccable artist." Sarto had a reputation as a "flawless artist", the justice of which is evident in the skillful rendering of figures, the nobility and complexity of their gestures and the use of rich colors. His style, shaped by his exploration of the works of Michelangelo and Raphael and characterized by an exquisitely balanced composition and a high level of technical skill, strongly influenced Florentine painting to the point that Sarto is rightfully considered the forerunner of Mannerism.
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