Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/363

1486-1531] he made a fatal mistake in leaving France, and throwing away the opportunities of larger and more important works than he could find in Florence. But the high opinion which other masters had of his powers is shown by the famous words of Michelangelo, who had known Andrea in Florence, and who said one day to Raphael: "There is a little man in Florence who, were he ever employed on such great works as these, would bring out the sweat upon your brow."

Andrea d'Agnolo, as he generally signs himself, was the son of a tailor named Agnolo, who lived in the parish of Santa Maria Novella, and was born on the 16th of July, 1486, and baptised on the following day. At seven years old he was placed in a goldsmith's shop, but his talent for drawing soon attracted the notice of an inferior artist, named Barile, who taught him for three years and then recommended him to Piero di Cosimo. Under the influence of this master, who, Vasari tells us, was then held to be one of the best in Florence, Andrea made rapid progress, and amazed every one by the facility of his drawing and his skill in handling colours. Piero, we are told, had the greatest affection for his brilliant pupil and heard with indescribable delight that Andrea spent all his leisure hours in copying the cartoons of Leonardo and Michelangelo in the Pope's hall, and was already known as the cleverest of all the artists who met to study these masterpieces. But Piero's eccentricities at length forced Andrea to leave his house, and, when in 1508, he matriculated in the Painters' Guild, he opened a workshop on the Piazza del Grano, with another promising student, Francia-