Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/216

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In a tabernacle which is outside the Pinti gate, at the corner where the road to the Ingesuati turns otF, there is a figure of the Virgin painted in fresco by Andrea del Sarto. Our Lady is seated with the Infant Christ in her arms: San Giovanni is in this work depicted as a child; he is smiling, and the figure is painted with admirable art, being finished so perfectly, that it has been greatly extolled for its beauty and animation. The head of Our Lady is a portrait taken from that of the artist’s wife; and the singular beauty of the painting in this tabernacle, which is of a truth surprisingly perfect, caused the latter to be retained in its place, when at the siege of Florence in 1530, the convent of the Ingesuati, with many other magnificent buildings, was razed to the ground.

In those days, the elder Bartolommeo Panciatichi carried on a large extent of traffic in France, and being desirous of leaving a memorial of himself in the French city of Lyons, he gave a commission to Baccio d’ Agnolo, to the intent that he should cause Andrea del Sarto to paint a picture for him, which Baccio was then to send to Lyons, where Bartolommeo Panciatichi then was; the subject chosen was the Assumption of Our Lady, with the Apostles standing around the tomb. This work Andrea executed almost to its conclusion, but did not entirely complete it; for as the wood which formed the panel became warped, and sprang in various places, he sometimes worked at it, and sometimes permitted it to remain untouched for a time; so that it was left unfinished at his death. It was, nevertheless, ultimately placed by the younger Bartolommeo Panciatichi in his house, as a work deserving the highest commendation, as well on account of the beauty to be perceived in the figures of the apostles, as of that