Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/158

128 Another fresco representing the Last Supper may still be seen in the refectory of the ancient convent of S. Apollonia, which is now a complete gallery of Andrea's works. Frescoes of the Crucifixion, Entombment and Resurrection have lately been recovered from the whitewash which concealed them, and the heroes and women from Villa Pandolfini have been hung upon one of the walls, while the whole of another wall is occupied by the Cenacolo. This subject is painted with Andrea's habitual directness and frank realism. The white cloth and dishes on the table, the barrel vaulting of the ceiling and panelling of its walls, the grass on the ground, and the room opening out of the upper chamber, are all exactly reproduced. The Apostles are rough peasants, with strong faces and coarse hands, and there is little attempt at nobility of form or elevation of thought, even in the Christ. But in spite of the vulgarity of type and lack of ideal beauty, the work is one of great power and originality. The heads of the Apostles are full of individual character, the grouping of the figures, their gestures and attitudes, are singularly varied and expressive, and there can be little doubt that the composition of this naturalist master inspired Leonardo with the first idea of his sublime work.

A second Cenacolo, which Andrea del Castagno painted in the summer of 1457, for the refectory of Santa Maria Nuova, was his last fresco. A few months later he died, on the 19th of August, at the age of sixty-seven, and was buried in the church of the Annunziata.