ANDREA DEL SARTO
(b. 1486, Florence, d. 1530, Florence)
(b. 1486, Florence, d. 1530, Florence)
ANDREA DEL SARTO, is an Italian painter, nicknamed Andrea "of the tailor" after his father's occupation. His real name was Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco. He is, alongside Fra Bartolomeo, the supreme exponent of Florentine early High Renaissance style and the counterpart of Michelangelo and Raphael. Del Sarto was the best painter (as opposed to draughtsman) in 16th-century Florence, and had more feeling for tone and color than any of his contemporaries south of Venice. He was the first Florentine to depart from the colored-drawing approach in favor of composition by colored patches of light and shade, although his actual draughtsmanship is derived from Michelangelo. He also borrowed from the newly-arrived prints by Durer. Except for a visit to Rome around 1511, where his style gained greater monumentality, and a year-long stay in France in 1518, where he completed a few works at the invitation of François I, he spent most of his life in Florence.
As a fresco painter he made his name with a series of grisailles (painting or drawing completed in monochrome or near monochrome, usually in gray) in the cloister of the Scalzi in Florence, depicting the story of the Baptist (1511-26), and the miracles of San Filippo Benizzi (1509-10) in SS. Annunziata. These were followed by his most famous frescoes, epitomizing the High Renaissance style in Florence, the Birth of the Virgin (1514) and the Madonna del Sacco (1525), both also in the Annunziata.
In 1517 or 1518 he married a wealthy widow who had modeled for him for several years, both for portraits and for Madonnas. He went to France in 1518/19 at the invitation of François I and was well received there, but he broke his contract in order to return to his wife who, in the opinion of contemporaries, ruined him.
Andrea's works are of great importance in the evolution of Florentine painting, especially the Holy Families often in half-length. His Madonnas are notable for their softly atmospheric qualities and the richness of their color, in contrast to the linear definition and clear, bright hues of artists like Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The Madonna of the Harpies (shown above) (1517, Florence, Uffizi), is a purely classical work comparable with Raphael's Madonnas. Sarto is, however, a starting point for Mannerism since his pupils included Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, and Vasari. Andrea's process of making a series of preparatory drawings before painting demonstrated his patient pursuit of perfection and became a pattern for later artists. He was an excellent draughtsman; the best collection of his drawings is in the Uffizi.
As a fresco painter he made his name with a series of grisailles (painting or drawing completed in monochrome or near monochrome, usually in gray) in the cloister of the Scalzi in Florence, depicting the story of the Baptist (1511-26), and the miracles of San Filippo Benizzi (1509-10) in SS. Annunziata. These were followed by his most famous frescoes, epitomizing the High Renaissance style in Florence, the Birth of the Virgin (1514) and the Madonna del Sacco (1525), both also in the Annunziata.
In 1517 or 1518 he married a wealthy widow who had modeled for him for several years, both for portraits and for Madonnas. He went to France in 1518/19 at the invitation of François I and was well received there, but he broke his contract in order to return to his wife who, in the opinion of contemporaries, ruined him.
Andrea's works are of great importance in the evolution of Florentine painting, especially the Holy Families often in half-length. His Madonnas are notable for their softly atmospheric qualities and the richness of their color, in contrast to the linear definition and clear, bright hues of artists like Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The Madonna of the Harpies (shown above) (1517, Florence, Uffizi), is a purely classical work comparable with Raphael's Madonnas. Sarto is, however, a starting point for Mannerism since his pupils included Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, and Vasari. Andrea's process of making a series of preparatory drawings before painting demonstrated his patient pursuit of perfection and became a pattern for later artists. He was an excellent draughtsman; the best collection of his drawings is in the Uffizi.
Perhaps the most famous work of Andrea del Sarto is the altarpiece painted for the nuns of San Francesco dei Macci, known as the Madonna of the Harpies. According to the contract signed on May 14, 1515 the picture was to depict the Madonna and Child crowned by two angels and flanked by St John the Evangelist and St Bonaventure, and to be delivered within a year. But, in fact, the work is dated 1517 and shows St John the Evangelist and St Francis on either side of the Madonna and Child on a high polygonal pedestal. The latter is decorated at the corners with monster-like figures (the so-called Harpies), while in the centre, beneath the artist's signature, are the opening words of a hymn to Our Lady of the Assumption. We therefore have not the Coronation of the Virgin but the Virgin of the Assumption.
These variations on the original commission, and the subject itself, which is not a traditional Madonna and Child Enthroned between Two Saints, but a highly unusual presentation of the Virgin, full-figure on that enigmatic pedestal with the images of the "harpies," have led to a lot of thought and attempted explanations on the part of all critics. The most recent interpretation is that it is a depiction, based on the text of the Book of Revelations, of the Virgin triumphant over evil, symbolized by the monstrous figures, the "harpies," which are in fact the "locusts" mentioned in Revelations; and besides that, bears witness to the cult of the Virgin by the clients, the conventual Franciscans.
Having removed the layers of dirt and overpainting, the 1984 restoration has re-established the exceptionally rich coloring of the work, praised by Vasari as being "of singular and truly rare beauty." The figure of the Madonna, wrought into a composed chiasmus (a figure of speech where two or more are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism) in order to balance the weight of the Child (who on the other hand is lively, smiling, and as ambiguous as Rosso's putti), lights up the centre of the picture with the intense rose-color of her robe tempered by harmony with the pale blue of her mantle, and with the brilliant yellow of the light fabric draped over her shoulders beneath the beautiful drapery of the white veil covering her head. On her left is the sculptural St John (painted from a terracotta model by Sansovino) swathed in a cinnabar red mantle linked to the lilac of his robe by means of a highly refined drapery, while on the other side the figure of St Francis strikes a clear note that emerges by subtle varieties of tone from the architectural motif of the background; while in the background one can once more see "the smoke of transparent clouds veiling the architecture and the figures, that appear to move" (Vasari): a warm, mysterious halo, made of colors and of shadows, that behind and around the figures impels an atmosphere that implies the rich spiritual message brought to us by this painting.
The Madonna of the Harpies is truly a milestone in the career of Andrea del Sarto, and bears witness to the level of maturity of the most significant artistic experiences of the early 16th century: the "atmospheric" painting of Leonardo, the meditation recently infused with a new freshness in the "grandiose" manner of Michelangelo, the elegant and solemn classicism of Fra Bartolomeo endowed with a new intensity of color after his stay in Venice, the experience of Raphael's work in Rome (and in this case the Sistine Madonna is usually mentioned); these are all motifs that come together in a single stylistic solution, the greatness of which was immediately recognized in Florence and elsewhere. This general admiration was shared almost two centuries later by Prince Ferdinando de' Medici, who acquired the picture for his collection in Palazzo Pitti, offering the nuns in exchange for it not only a copy of the picture done by Francesco Petrucci, but also the embellishment, and practically the remodeling and restoration of all the decoration of their church by Foggini.
These variations on the original commission, and the subject itself, which is not a traditional Madonna and Child Enthroned between Two Saints, but a highly unusual presentation of the Virgin, full-figure on that enigmatic pedestal with the images of the "harpies," have led to a lot of thought and attempted explanations on the part of all critics. The most recent interpretation is that it is a depiction, based on the text of the Book of Revelations, of the Virgin triumphant over evil, symbolized by the monstrous figures, the "harpies," which are in fact the "locusts" mentioned in Revelations; and besides that, bears witness to the cult of the Virgin by the clients, the conventual Franciscans.
Having removed the layers of dirt and overpainting, the 1984 restoration has re-established the exceptionally rich coloring of the work, praised by Vasari as being "of singular and truly rare beauty." The figure of the Madonna, wrought into a composed chiasmus (a figure of speech where two or more are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism) in order to balance the weight of the Child (who on the other hand is lively, smiling, and as ambiguous as Rosso's putti), lights up the centre of the picture with the intense rose-color of her robe tempered by harmony with the pale blue of her mantle, and with the brilliant yellow of the light fabric draped over her shoulders beneath the beautiful drapery of the white veil covering her head. On her left is the sculptural St John (painted from a terracotta model by Sansovino) swathed in a cinnabar red mantle linked to the lilac of his robe by means of a highly refined drapery, while on the other side the figure of St Francis strikes a clear note that emerges by subtle varieties of tone from the architectural motif of the background; while in the background one can once more see "the smoke of transparent clouds veiling the architecture and the figures, that appear to move" (Vasari): a warm, mysterious halo, made of colors and of shadows, that behind and around the figures impels an atmosphere that implies the rich spiritual message brought to us by this painting.
The Madonna of the Harpies is truly a milestone in the career of Andrea del Sarto, and bears witness to the level of maturity of the most significant artistic experiences of the early 16th century: the "atmospheric" painting of Leonardo, the meditation recently infused with a new freshness in the "grandiose" manner of Michelangelo, the elegant and solemn classicism of Fra Bartolomeo endowed with a new intensity of color after his stay in Venice, the experience of Raphael's work in Rome (and in this case the Sistine Madonna is usually mentioned); these are all motifs that come together in a single stylistic solution, the greatness of which was immediately recognized in Florence and elsewhere. This general admiration was shared almost two centuries later by Prince Ferdinando de' Medici, who acquired the picture for his collection in Palazzo Pitti, offering the nuns in exchange for it not only a copy of the picture done by Francesco Petrucci, but also the embellishment, and practically the remodeling and restoration of all the decoration of their church by Foggini.
Madonna of the Harpies - Andrea del Sarto
