Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/200

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About the same time Andrea del Sarto painted a picture for the abbey of San Godenzo, a benefice also belonging to the Servite monks; this work was considered to be very well done. For the monks of San Gallo he painted a picture of Our Lady receiving the Annunciation from the Angel; in this there is a pleasing harmony to be remarked in the colouring, certain heads of the angels by whom Gabriel is accompanied are painted with the most delicate softness, and the beauty of the expression is perfect. Beneath this picture was a predella executed by Jacopo da Pontormo, then a disciple of Andrea, who gave an indication at that early age of the admirable works which he afterwards produced in Florence, before he became what we may very properly call another and entirely difierent person, as will be related in his life.

At a somewhat later period Andrea painted a picture for Zanobi Girolami; the subject of this work, the figures in which are not very large, is the story of Joseph the son of Jacob; it was completed by the master with most unremitting care and diligence, for which cause it has been usual to consider this a very beautiful painting. No long time after having finished this work, he undertook one for the men of the Brotherhood called that of Santa Maria della Neve, who have their house behind that of the nuns of Sant’ Ambrosio; the picture is small, and the figures are three: Our Lady namely, with San Giovanni Battista, and Sant’ Ambrosio; when it was finished, the work was in due course of time fixed in its place on the altar of the above-named Brotherhood.