to one by the Erato, and the surface has the polished enamel of the Florentines of this time. The type, shape, and figures are almost as much Francia Bigio’s as are those of the Bathsheba at the Dresden Gallery, or the frescos in the Scalzo. 1 Diligence and a cautious attention to the rules of proportion were, in Vasari’s opinion, the quali ties of Francia Bigio’s oldest creations. 2 They would have been more enticing,, if hardness and ungainly heavi ness had not disfigured them. But, independently of their intrinsic value, they interest us by laying open the current of thought and of study in the master, and by revealing the influences exerted on him by the teacher from whom he learnt to admire Fra Bartolommeo, and the friend, towards whom he was attracted by conformity of taste and inclinations. They cause us also to remem ber that Leonardo and Raphael were the idols of their fellow artists, and that they more or less affected most of the rising men of their age. We shall see that it was to be Francia Bigio’s constant chance to have his best performances called after Raphael and Bel Sarto. That they should have received the last of these names, might seem an easy consequence of the connection between two men who were comrades at school and kept a joint ate lier afterwards. But that the first should have been still more frequently used, is a distinction of no common kind. We have no sure grounds for assuming any fixed date for the association with Andrea del Sarto; Vasari’s state ments being too general to permit of any safe deductions on that point, and Francia Bigio’s works being from the beginning affected by the acquaintance of his future com panion. We are inclined, however, to place before the Sposalizio of 1513, in the court of the Servi at Florence, the Virgin and child between SS. John Evangelist and Job, now at the Uffizi, the two angels at the sides of Sansovino’s S. Nicholas in S. Spirito, and the Calumny 1 The cartoon of this Madonna, was considered by him as from the once in possession of Mr. Wicar, hand of Francia Bigio. 2 Vasari IX. 98.