Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altarpieces, portraitist, draughtsman, and colorist. Although highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori, his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.
Paintings by Andrea del Sarto
San Gallo Annunciation (1510)
The San Gallo Annunciation is an oil-on-panel painting by Andrea del Sarto, executed c. 1513–1514, now in the Palatine Gallery in Florence.
It was the middle of three works the artist produced for the Augustinian monastery the Church of San Gallo in Florence, between Noli me tangere and The Disputation on the Trinity, as recorded in the Anonimo Magliabechiano manuscript and in Vasari's Lives of the Artists. When Florence was besieged, that monastery's goods were moved to San Jacopo tra i Fossi within the city walls and its buildings razed in 1531 by Charles V's troops. The monastery rebuilt all its chapels at its new site in their former form. About a third of the painting was submerged in the 1557 flood, probably leading to the loss of the predella, though in 1986 (Serena?) Padovani theorised that that predella wholly or partly survived and is now divided up between the National Gallery of Ireland and Warwick Castle.
Madonna of the Harpies (1517)
Madonna of the Harpies (Italian: Madonna delle Arpie) is an altarpiece in oils by Andrea del Sarto, a major painter of the High Renaissance. It was commissioned in 1515 and was signed and dated by the artist in 1517 in the inscription on the pedestal; it is now in the Uffizi in Florence. It was praised by Giorgio Vasari, and is arguably the artist's best-known work.
The Virgin is standing on a pedestal which includes harpies sculpted in relief, from which the painting takes its name. At least, Vasari (and presumably his Florentine contemporaries) thought they were harpies; some modern art historians think that locusts are represented, in a reference to the Book of Revelation. Either way, they represent forces of evil being trampled on by the Virgin.
Passerini Assumption (1526)
Passerini Assumption (Italian: Assunta Passerini) is an oil-on-panel painting executed in 1526 by Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto. It is housed in the Galleria Palatina of Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.
The work was commissioned by Margherita Passerini for her private altar in church of Santa Maria fuori le mura at Cortona: the contract is dated 1526, for a price of 155 florins. In 1553 the friars of that church moved, together with their properties including this artwork, to the church of Sant'Antonio dei Servi.
The Disputation on the Trinity (1517)
The Disputation on the Trinity is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto, created c. 1517, now in the Galleria Palatina in Florence.
At the top of the painting is a vision of the Holy Trinity. Seated in the foreground are Saint Sebastian and Mary Magdalene, the latter modelled on the artist's wife Lucrezia del Fede. Behind them stand four male saints, from left to right Augustine of Hippo (with his bishop's staff), Saint Lawrence (with the gridiron of his martyrdom), Peter Martyr (holding a book, wearing a Dominican habit and with a sword in his head) and Francis of Assisi (in his order's habit and bearing the stigmata).
Sacrifice of Isaac (Andrea del Sarto) (1527)
Sacrifice of Isaac is a work by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto, existing in three versions at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (213 x 159 cm; 1527–1529), the Cleveland Museum of Art (178 x 138 cm) and the Museo del Prado (98 x 69 cm; c.1527–1530).
The Dresden version was commissioned in 1527 by Giovanni Battista Della Palla as a gift for Francis I of France, who around ten years earlier had hosted the artist at the Palace of Fontainebleau. Della Palla was imprisoned before the work could be completed and just before the artist's death, after which three versions were made, as recorded in Vasari's Lives of the Artists, with different dimensions and levels of finish. The work now in Cleveland was probably a test-piece left incomplete, whilst the Dresden version (the largest and most finished) was possibly intended for Francis but was instead seized by Alfonso d'Avalos, marchese del Vasto, who had his monogram added on the rock in the foreground. The Dresden version was in the Estense collection in Modena, from which it was sold in 1746 in the Dresden Sale.
Panciatichi Assumption (1523)
Panciatichi Assumption (Italian: Assunta Panciatichi) is a painting created c. 1522–1523 by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto. It is housed in the Galleria Palatina of Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.
The painting was commissioned by Bartolomeo Panciatichi (the Elder) for a private altar in the French church of Notre-Dame-de-Confort, in Lyon; however, when finished, it remained in Italy. It was subsequently acquired by Bartolomeo Panciatichi the Younger, the man later portrayed by Agnolo Bronzino. In 1526 Andrea del Sarto used the same composition in the Passerini Assumption, now housed in the same museum. Later, Bartolomeo gifted the work to Jacopo Salviati, who moved it to his villa del Poggio Imperiale. After all Salviati's possessions were confiscated by Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, the villa and all its content went to Paolo Giordano Orsini, husband of the duke's daughter Isabella d'Este.
Noli me tangere (Andrea del Sarto) (1510)
Noli me tangere is an oil-on-canvas painting by Andrea del Sarto, executed c. 1510, depicting Jesus and Mary Magdalene soon after the resurrection. It was the first painting he produced for the Augustinian San Gallo church in Florence, as recorded by Anonimo Magliabechiano and in Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and he later produced the San Gallo Annunciation and The Disputation on the Trinity for the same church. It is now in the Uffizi.
Noli was commissioned by Leonardo Morelli, as shown by a papal brief of 9 April 1532. During the siege of Florence the monastery's artworks were moved within the city walls to San Jacopo tra i Fossi. The original church outside the walls was razed by Charles V's troops in 1531, but all its chapels were reconstructed at San Jacopo, with Noli ending up in the Morelli chapel. About a third of the painting was underwater during a flood in 1557. The original predella is lost, probably after being damaged in the flood, and replaced by a new one in the late 16th century – the new predella was later removed and is now in the Casa Vasari museum in Arezzo.
Saint John the Baptist as a Boy (Andrea del Sarto) (1523)
Saint John the Baptist as a Boy is an oil-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto, executed c. 1525, now in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.
Vasari's Lives of the Artists mentions two works by Andrea del Sarto showing half-length figures of John the Baptist as a boy. This is the first of the two, produced for Giovan Maria Benintendi. The second was intended for the Grand Master of France, but was later sold to Ottaviano de' Medici instead and may be the one now in the Worcester Art Museum.
Tribute to Caesar (del Sarto and Allori) (1525)
Tribute to Caesar is a fresco measuring 502x536 cm by Andrea del Sarto and Alessandro Allori in the central hall of the villa medicea di Poggio a Caiano, Province of Prato, Italy. It dates to circa 1520 (first phase), and 1582 (second phase).
The work was commissioned in the 1520s when the villa was being totally redecorated and redesigned. The earliest surviving frescoes in the villa such as the lunette Vertumnus and Pomona by Pontormo, elegiacally evoke rural life, but the building's main theme instead became the glorification of the Medici family after it acquired the titles of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours and Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino in 1520.
Madonna del Sacco (Andrea del Sarto) (1525)
The Madonna del Sacco is a fresco painting created in 1525 by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto in the Chiostro Grande (also called Chiostro dei Morti) adjacent to the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530) had frescoed seven lunettes during 1514–1516 in the small cloister in front of the church facade, including the well-known Nativity of the Virgin. He returned a decade later to complete this more serene, uncrowded arrangement of the Holy Family.
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (Andrea del Sarto) (1512)
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria is an oil-on-panel painting of the sacra conversazione genre, executed c. 1512–1513 by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto. It was acquired by the imperial gallery in Prague in 1749 and now is in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, Germany.
The work was produced during an early phase of the artist's work, contemporary with his frescoes in the Chiostrino dei Voti in Santissima Annunziata, Florence, and was a major influence on his principal pupils, especially Rosso Fiorentino and Pontormo.
Nativity of the Virgin (del Sarto) (1514)
Nativity of the Virgin is a fresco painting by Andrea del Sarto in the Chiostro dei Voti of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. It is signed and dated in 1514, though most of the work on it is thought to have been carried out in 1513.
A series of documents dating to 1511–1513 document progress on the work. From them, Shearman theorises that most of the painting took place in 1513. Andrea wished to leave after completing the frescoes of the life of Philip Benizi de Damiani on the opposite side of the atrium. However, the friar in charge of the frescoes, the sacristan fra Mariano dal Canto delle Macine, insisted that Andrea paint two further lunettes with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. Andrea agreed, only in return for an increased payment for the final frescoes.