Andrea del Sarto (1486 - 1530). Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. Though 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. Andrea del Sarto was born Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore in Florence on 16 July 1486. Since his father, Agnolo, was a tailor, he became known as del Sarto. Since 1677 some have attributed the surname Vannucchi with little documentation. By 1494 Andrea was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and then to a woodcarver and painter named Gian Barile, with whom he remained until 1498. According to his late biographer Vasari, he then apprenticed to Piero di Cosimo, and later with Raffaellino del Garbo. Andrea and an older friend Franciabigio decided to open a joint studio at a lodging together in the Piazza del Grano. The first product of their partnership may have been the Baptism of Christ for the Florentine Compagnia dello Scalzo, the beginning of a monochrome fresco series. By the time the partnership was dissolved, Sarto's style bore the stamp of individuality. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is marked throughout his career by an interest, exceptional among Florentines, in effects of colour and atmosphere and by sophisticated informality and natural expression of emotion. From 1509 to 1514 the Servite Order employed Del Sarto, Franciabigio and Andrea Feltrini in a programme of frescoes at Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze. Sarto completed seven frescoes in the forecourt or atrium before the Servite church, five of which illustrated the Life and miracles of Filippo Benizzi, a Servite saint who died in 1285. He executed them rapidly, depicting the saint healing a leper through the gift of his undertunic; predicting the bad end of some blasphemers; and restoring a girl possessed with a devil. The two final frescoes of the series depicted the healing of a child at the death bed of Filippo Benizzi and the curing of sick adults and children through his relic garment held at the church. All five frescoes were completed before the close of 1510. The original contract also required him to paint five scenes of the life and miracles of St Sebastian, but he told the Servites that he no longer wished to continue with the second cycle, most likely due to the low remuneration. The Servites convinced him to do two more frescoes in the forecourt, though of a different subject matter: a Procession of the Magi finished in 1511 and a Nativity of the Virgin. These paintings met with respect, the correctness of the contours being particularly admired, and earned for Sarto the nickname of Andrea senza errori. Towards 1512 he painted an Annunciation in the monastery of S. Gallo and a Marriage of Saint Catherine. By 1514 Andrea had finished his last two frescoes, including his masterpiece, the Nativity of the Virgin, which fuses the influence of Leonardo, Ghirlandaio and Fra Bartolomeo. By November 1515 he had finished at the Scalzo the Allegory of Justice and the Baptist preaching in the desert, followed in 1517 by John Baptizing, and other subjects. Before the end of 1516, a Pieta of Del Sarto's composition, and afterwards a Madonna, were sent to the French Court. This led to an invitation from Francois I, in 1518, and he journeyed to Paris in June of that year, along with his pupil Andrea Squarzzella, leaving his wife, Lucrezia, in Florence. According to Giorgio Vasari, Andrea's pupil and biographer, Lucrezia wrote to Andrea and demanded he return to Italy. The King assented, but only on the understanding that his absence from France was to be short. He then entrusted Andrea with a sum of money to be expended in purchasing works of art for the French Court. By Vasari's account, Andrea took the money and used it to buy himself a house in Florence, thus ruining his reputation and preventing him from ever returning to France. The story inspired Robert Browning's poem-monologue Andrea del Sarto Called the Faultless Painter, but is now believed by some historians to be apocryphal. In 1520 he resumed work in Florence, and executed the Faith and Charity in the cloister of the Scalzo. These were succeeded by the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias, the Beheading of the Baptist, the Presentation of his head to Herod, an allegory of Hope, the Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias and the monochrome Visitation. This last was painted in the autumn of 1524, after Andrea had returned from Luco in Mugello, whence an outbreak of bubonic plague in Florence had driven him and his family.