Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/232

224 would not be too little, seeing it to be such that all wbo behold it are struck with astonishment. We are therefore not to be surprised if its excellence formed the safeguard of the building in the siege of Florence, in the year 1529, when that convent was suffered to remain standing while the soldiery and spoilers, by command of those who were ruling, destroyed all the suburbs, demolishing and razing to the ground all the monasteries, hospitals, and every other edifice situate without the walls. They were proceeding in truth to tear down a part of the Convent, having already ruined the church and Campanile or bell tower of San Salvi, and had arrived at the Refectory where this Last Supper is; but when the officer by whom they were led saw this work, having probably heard people speak of it, he would not permit so wonderful a painting to be destroyed, and, abandoning the place, determined that it should be injured no further, unless it should be found that nothing short of its total destruction would suffice.

For the brotherhood of San Jacopo, called 11 Nicchio, Andrea del Sarto afterwards painted a Banner to be carried in their processions; the subject chosen was San Jacopo, who is caressing a boy clothed in the habit of the Flagellants; there is also a second boy holding a book in his hand, and portrayed in a manner which is very natural and graceful. He likewise depicted the portrait of an Tntendant of the monks of Vallombrosa, who constantly made his abode in the country, for the purpose of attending to the affairs of his monastery; the picture was placed beneath an arbour of vines, around which the Intendant had arranged shady walks and many contrivances after his own fancy, but where it was somewhat exposed to wind and weather: so it was, nevertheless, that the Intendant, who was a friend of Andrea, would have it.