Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/227

1435-1488] a few months afterwards, but acquitted of intentional homicide. After serving his apprenticeship in Verrocchio's shop, Andrea became an assistant of Donatello, whom he helped in his works in S. Lorenzo, and whom he succeeded in the favour of the Medici. Besides the bronze tombs of Cosimo, and of his sons Giovanni and Piero, in S. Lorenzo, he executed a variety of other works for Lorenzo, including the statuettes of the youthful David in the Bargello, and the wonderful Putto with the dolphin, which originally adorned the fountain of Villa Careggi. Andrea also restored antique statues for the Medici palace, designed the helmets worn by Lorenzo and Giuliano at their Tournaments, and planned many of the decorations and pageants which delighted the eyes of Florence on festive occasions. In 1477, he executed one of the silver reliefs for the Baptistery dossal, on which Antonio Pollauiolo was employed, and, soon after 1480, was summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV., to execute silver statuettes of the Apostles, for his new chapel in the Vatican; while in 1483, he finished the noble group of the Incredulity of St. Thomas for Or' San Michele, a work which a contemporary, Landucci, describes in his diary as the finest ornament of that church, and the most beautiful head of Christ that has ever been made.

But Andrea was too versatile a genius to confine himself to any one form of art, and after acquiring great renown as a sculptor he turned his attention to painting. "He was never idle," says Vasari, "but always worked at either sculpture or painting, and often passed from one thing to another, in order not to get tired by working too long at the same subject.