Andrea Del Sarto The Beginning of Mannerism

This episode is brought to you by Audible. If you would like to support this podcast, visit AudibleTrial.com forward slash TheRenaissance and when you do, you will receive a free audiobook with your free 30-day trial membership. Audible is the internet's leading provider of audio entertainment with over 180,000 titles to choose from. If you've still not gotten your fill of the Medici, check out another title by Paul Strathern. The Medici, Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance. You may choose this or another one of their many titles when you visit AudibleTrial.com forward slash TheRenaissance for your free download. Hello and welcome to The Renaissance. Episode 24, Andrea del Sarto. Hello and welcome to The Renaissance Podcast. I'm your host Dennis Berg. Well, it's great to be back and recording from my new studio in Greensboro, North Carolina. As some of you may know if you follow the Facebook page, my family and I moved from Atlanta to Greensboro over the summer and as a result, my recording schedule took quite a hit. However, I am now back and recording and this is the first episode recorded in Greensboro. So despite the unexpected but much needed break over the last several months, but we're back in recording and at the moment I'm playing with several scheduling options for the podcast. So to catch us back up to where we are now, we've covered most of the Florentine Renaissance from Giotto through Michelangelo, which is where we ended in September with our last episode and today we'll be discussing Andrea del Sarto and then we will wrap up the Florentine Renaissance with Vasari. After Vasari, we're going to take a trip back in time and to Northern Europe and look at the art of the Northern Renaissance in Flanders, Germany and England. After this, we'll return to Italy but this time to Venice and we'll tie it all together and wrap up with the Mannerist. On a final note, I would like to thank all those who've emailed me and Facebook messaged me over the last several months to check on me and my family and the podcast and especially want to thank Thomas, Timo, Matt, Stefan, Anthony, Colin, Yakov, Charles and Chad for all the emails over the last several weeks and months. Hopefully I pronounced everyone's name correctly and I hope I didn't miss anyone. So with all of that, let's jump into episode 25. In this episode, we will explore the works and life of Andrea del Sarto. He was a contemporary of Michelangelo but like so many of Michelangelo's contemporaries, he died prior to the great master. Del Sarto represents an important transition, along with Michelangelo, toward the late Renaissance style of Mannerism, which would eventually influence Baroque art in the early 17th century. Born in Florence in 1478 to a tailor, del Sarto in fact means the tailor's son, Andrea would be apprenticed to a goldsmith at the early age of seven. He would spend his time learning to draw and seem little interested in the trade of goldsmithing. A painter by the name of Gian Barile would discover the young boy in the goldsmith's shop and seeing the young boy's talent, offer to have him apprenticed with him. Andrea would develop so quickly and paint so well that Gian Barile would contact Piero di Cosimo, the best painter living in Florence at the time, to have the boy placed with him. Andrea would study with Piero di Cosimo for the next several years, making studies of the cartoons of Michelangelo and Leonardo. While apprenticing with Piero di Cosimo and later Raffaellino del Garbo, he would strike up a friendship with Francio Biggio. According to Vasari, the two were inseparable. They were always to be found sketching or in one another's company. Having completed his apprenticeship, Francio Biggio struck out on his own and he approached Andrea about joining him opening a studio. Neither artist could support themselves on the meager commissions they were earning, but together they would be able to scrap up enough for a studio space and a room and board. In 1509, Andrea was commissioned by the monks of the order to complete a fresco depicting the birth of the Virgin Mary in the Basilica of the Holy Annunciation of Florence. Andrea initially refused the commission because the abbot offered him so little for it. Rather than offering more money, the abbot let it slip that his friend, Francio Biggio, had accepted the offer. This pushed Andrea into accepting it more as a matter of pride than financial gain. He was to be part of a three-man team that included Francio Biggio and Andrea Feltrini. He would complete seven frescoes in the forecourt and atrium of the Basilica. Andrea was known for his quick execution of these works. He completed a painting depicting the procession of the Magi and the Nativity of the Virgin. These two works were highly praised and earned him the nickname Andrea the Faultless. In 1513 or 1514, he would begin work on the birth of the Virgin and we see the influences of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. This painting marks the beginning of what we would later call Mannerism. This competition with Francio Biggio may have cemented Del Sarto's reputation, however it drove a wedge between the two friends. The two men would drift apart and become rivals. Despite his success of the painting at the Basilica, Andrea's low wages for his work left him struggling with debt and poverty according to Vasari. The convent of San Francesco dei Macchi commissioned Andrea in 1515 to paint an altarpiece depicting the Madonna of the Harpies. This is meant to show the triumph of the Madonna and child over the Harpies representing sin and temptation. On either side are saints Bonaventure and John the Evangelist as well as two putti on either side of the Virgin's legs. He would complete this painting in 1517 and Vasari would describe this as one of Del Sarto's best works and it is one of his most famous. Also in 1517, he would marry Lucrezia del Fede, a moderately wealthy widow whom Andrea claimed he used as a model for years. With their marriage, she brought a dowry that would ease Del Sarto's financial burden. With the absence of Leonardo and Michelangelo, Del Sarto would become the leader of the Florentine art community. Vasari says that despite this he still struggled financially, though there is evidence to the contrary. One of his paintings of the Pietà found its way to the court of Francis I, the King of France. He summoned Del Sarto to his court with the promise of many lucrative commissions. There are a couple versions of his life in France. In both, little work was completed. Vasari tells us that Andrea was receiving daily letters from his wife to return to Florence. Lucrezia, then, was to blame for Andrea's happiness in France. More likely, however, he was unhappy with court life. After a year with no major commissions, Del Sarto spoke with the King of France and asked permission to return to Florence to retrieve his wife so they both may live happily in France. Andrea packed up and returned home never to visit France again. Vasari paints a picture of Del Sarto living a lavish lifestyle with parties and entertaining, so much so that he spent his entire fortune as well as the King's. This provided him with a convenient excuse not to return to France. Over the years, he would continually evade representatives of the King, claiming not to have the funds needed to return. This may be what Del Sarto wished the King to believe, and perhaps he even convinced Vasari, but recent scholarship indicates that he began constructing a large villa after his return and maintained a large household with several servants throughout his entire life. This may also explain why he charged so little for his work since he was not in need of the money to maintain his lifestyle. Most likely, Del Sarto lived off the fortune of his wife's dowry. Much of this is supposition, but Vasari did carry some resentment toward his former master, Del Sarto. Vasari had studied under Michelangelo, but he encouraged Vasari to study with Andrea Del Sarto. Vasari's admiration for Michelangelo, however, seems to have jaded him towards Del Sarto. Even though Andrea was a technical virtuoso, he never attained the stature of Michelangelo and Raphael with large scale masterpieces. Vasari attributes this to a flaw in Del Sarto's character, a lack of drive perhaps. Though this seems to be an unjust criticism of Del Sarto, who ran a very active workshop with many students. As has been the case with most of the artists we have discussed in past episodes, Andrea Del Sarto found support from the Medici family. His return from France combined with the Medici return from exile in 1512. This meant there was plenty of work for Andrea in the city. Lorenzo's son Giovanni had been elected Pope, known as Pope Leo X. Leo announced a triumphant return to Florence in 1519 and summoned Del Sarto to Rome. The specifics of the meeting are unknown and it is surrounded by much secrecy, but art historians have surmised that it was to discuss the completion of the Medici villas at Poggio Ai Ciano. This was the project Del Sarto longed for, one that would put him on the same footing as Raphael or Michelangelo. He began painting in fresco in 1520 and 1521, but his hopes were soon dashed. If you remember, Leo X would die in December 1521, and like the Medici tombs Michelangelo was carving, all the work of the villas would stop with the Pope's death. Del Sarto would abandon the project and return to his workshop near the Servite convent, where he completed many other masterpieces. All that survives of his initial efforts in the villas is the tribute to Caesar, which is now part of a decoration scheme completed years later. If you remember back to episode 23 on Michelangelo, the siege of Florence would have a huge effect on the city. Just to recap, Rome had been sacked in 1527, and Pope Clement, a Medici Pope, was under siege by the Holy Roman Empire. Florence took this opportunity to cast off Medici rule and regain their independence as a true republic. In 1529, the Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Clement made a peace and joined one another to attack Florence. The soldiers, from Spain and Germany, besieged the city for months. While Michelangelo was preparing the city's defenses against the impending attack, Del Sarto was employed in the task of painting the likeness of traitors to the republic. He feared what this might do to his reputation, or perhaps he was concerned about the risk to his life should Florence fall. So he announced publicly that his assistants would complete the work. However, Andrea would enter into the enclosure he built to shield the work at the Podesta Palace and paint a striking likeness of the mercenaries who fled with a chest of gold from the city. These paintings no longer exist and were in fact painted over during Vasari's lifetime. Vasari claims it is to shield the Florentines from the faces of traitors, but just as likely, it was to whitewash, quite literally, the guilt of those still living in the city who betrayed her during the siege. After the siege had been lifted, Alessandro de' Medici was made Duke of Florence. Andrea returned to work at the Servite convent painting a picture of San Sebastian. During the siege, Andrea, like so many of his fellow citizens, lived on a starvation diet. As is often the case during war, a pestilence accompanied the army of the Holy Roman Emperor, bubonic plague. Starving, Andrea was in no condition to fight off the illness and began showing symptoms in September of 1530. Lucrezia, his wife, is cast as the villain in this tale. Vasari describes her as locking Andrea in their home and fleeing to the countryside. This he attributes to her own selfishness and lack of empathy for Andrea. This sort of treatment of plague victims, however, was not uncommon. Most understood that it was highly contagious and feared to be in the same house, leaving their loved ones to die from the disease or from starvation. It's understandable that Lucrezia would flee, leaving her husband to succumb to the plague. A wise decision, perhaps, since she outlived him by 40 years. Andrea would be dead by the end of September 1530. His body was unceremoniously chunked into a grave in the church of the Servites whom he did so much work for. Andrea del Sarto was only 43 years old. Despite being overshadowed by the likes of Leonardo and Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto would have a huge impact on art. His students, and there were many, would spread his unique style that combines elements of Leonardo Raphael and Michelangelo. In fact, this new style would develop into its own movement, known as Mannerism. So, if there's a lesson for any fellow artist out there, if you want to make a huge impact on the art world, teach. One of the things that first drew me to Andrea del Sarto was his incredible chalk drawings. I studied this in art school and I've always been amazed by his work. Many of these drawings were seen as disposable by the artists of the day, studies for larger works, but there's a delicacy in del Sarto's work that rivals that of Leonardo. I'm not going to discuss each drawing here, but I invite you to take a look at the slideshow on the website and you'll see what I mean. And as always, all the images for this podcast and any other podcast are posted at TheRenaissancePodcast.com. We'll delve more into Mannerism with Vasari, and then we will return to it at the end of the podcast series when we cover the Venetian Renaissance and the final years of the Late Renaissance. Mannerism represents the last phase of the Renaissance and it ushers in an entirely new period of art known as the Baroque in the 17th century. Many art historians credit del Sarto as the first pioneer of this movement. It's clear that the Mannerists were influenced by the big three artists that we discuss, but del Sarto is the first one who merges their style into something new. Join me next time as we look at the life and art of the first great modern art historian, Vasari. Thank you for listening.