Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/359

Rh the Bacci family. There is, besides, a most beautiful picture from his hand in the church of : which contains numerous figures. Over the high altar of the Brotherhood of the Trinity there is also a work of Andrea della Robbia, representing God the Father, who supports the body of the crucified Redeemer in his arms. This group is surrounded by a multitude of angels, while San Donato and San Bernardo are kneeling below.

In like manner, this master executed various pictures for the church and other buildings of the, and these have retained their beauty in that desert place, where no painting could have been preserved even for a few years. Andrea likewise executed all the figures in glazed terracotta, which decorate the loggia of the in Florence, and which are tolerably good. The boys, some naked, others in swathing-clotlies, which are in the medallions between the arches, in the loggia of the hospital of the Innocenti, are also by Andrea della Robbia. These are all truly admirable, and give a favourable idea of the ability and knowledge of art possessed by this master; there are, besides, a large—nay, an almost infinite number of other works, performed by him in the course of his life, which lasted eighty-four years. Andrea died in 1528, and I, being still but a boy and talking with him, have heard him say, or rather boast, that he had been one of those who bore Donato to his burial-place. I remember, too, that the good old man, speaking of this circumstance, seemed to feel no little pride in the share he had taken in it.

But to return to Luca, that master was buried, with the rest of his family, in the tomb of his fathers, which is in the church of San Pier Maggiore, and after him Andrea della