Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/247

1510] materials which he had spent upon the work. In 1486, our painter was employed by Lorenzo de' Medici's uncle, Giovanni Tornabuoni, to decorate the hall of his villa near Fiesole, in honour of his son's wedding. Two of the frescoes which he painted on this occasion were discovered under a coat of whitewash in 1873, and removed to the Louvre. In the one, the bridegroom, Lorenzo Tornabuoni, is welcomed by the seven Arts and Sciences, and Philosophy seated on a throne in their midst. In the other, his bride, Giovanna degli Albizzi, a charming maiden clad in a red robe, receives the gifts of four fair damsels, who represent the cardinal Virtues. Sandro excelled in the representation of these allegorical subjects, and his tribute to Lorenzo's culture and Giovanna's virtues won the applause of all Florence. But ere long a change passed over his art. In 1489, Savonarola came to Florence and began to preach, first in his convent church of San Marco, then to the crowds who flocked to hear him in the Duomo. His voice had a strange fascination for the scholars and artists of Lorenzo's immediate circle. Poliziano and Pico, Cronaca and Michelangelo, all heard him gladly, and took part in the great revival. And Sandro caught what Vasari, in his contemptuous manner, calls the prevailing frenzy, and threw himself into the Frate's cause with all the energy of his nature. He illustrated Savonarola's sermons, painted banners for his processions, and designed a large engraving of the Triumph of Fra Girolamo. He did not, like some of his brother artists, throw his pagan studies on the Bonfire of Vanities, but he gave up painting secular subjects, and, in obedience to Savonarola's teaching