Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/378

326 acquire the name of "Andrea of the Gallows," which had been applied of old to Andrea del Castagno, he announced that one of his apprentices would fulfil the order, which he really executed himself, going backwards and forwards by night, and hiding behind a hoarding when he was at work.

All through his later years, Vasari tells us, the painter never ceased to look back with regret at the time which he had spent in France, and made more than one effort to recover the favour of King Francis. The picture of the youthful Baptist, in the Pitti, was intended to be sent as a gift to propitiate that monarch, but was eventually bought by Ottaviano de' Medici. In 1529, however, Giovanni Battista della Palla once more commissioned Andrea to paint a picture for his master. This time the artist, anxious to recover his old patron's good graces, exerted himself to the utmost, and produced his Sacrifice of Isaac, a picture far finer in design and expression than any work of his later years. But the siege intervened, Giovanni Battista della Palla died in prison, and the picture was never sent to France. After Andrea's death it was sold by his widow to Filippo Strozzi, and, after changing hands repeatedly, was placed in the Tribune of the Uffizi, in 1633. Seven years afterwards it was exchanged for Correggio's Riposo, and passed with the chief treasures of the Duke of Modena's collection into the Dresden gallery. The smaller replica of the picture at Madrid was painted for Paolo di Terrarossa, who, filled with admiration for the original design which he saw in Andrea's studio, anxiously inquired the price of a small copy, and gladly gave the artist the trifling