560 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. XVII. the head of Christ on the high altar, which Vasari praises so much, and which in a great measure deserves his en comiums, was done. 1 It is known that the Assumption for which he contracted in June (16 th ) 1515, was afterwards carried out by Pontormo. 2 The Brotherhood of the Scalzo had overbid the brethren of the SS. Annunziata, and Del Sarto had been induced to promise the continuation of the monochromes, of which a solitary example had been furnished so many years before. Before November 1515 he had finished there the allegory of Justice, and the Sermon of S. John in the desert, in which the simplicity and repose of the compo sition distinctly recall Domenico Ghirlandaio, whilst some of the personages about the saint who preaches from a stump in the centre of the space, have a wildness and angular drapery that betray a sudden and passing change in the spirit of the artist. It was the time in which the engravings of Diirer’s Passion, first published in 1511, had found their way to Italy, and received a genuine tribute of admiration. Del Sarto was tempted to imitate them, and surrendered some of his old Florentine sim plicity, in order to assume a broken system of line, and an unnatural exhibition of strong action and muscular force. 1511 and for the “Nativity” on the 25 th of the same month. Also an item for work in the garden in June 25 th , 1512, and a further no tice of the same kind in June 1513. The date of 1514 on the Nativity, and the statement of Vasari (IX. 98) that that fresco as well as that of the Magi and the Sposalizio of Francia Bigio was uncovered at one time are conclusive as to when this series at the Servi was finished (see annot. Vas. VIII. 259 to 260 and 301). There are two panels in the collection of Mr. Fuller Maitland which seem copies of Andrea’s frescos in the garden. They are by Nanaecio. The other frescos at the Servi Were in the Novitiate, now part of the Academy of Arts. No. 61 of that gallery is a naked Christ on the tomb, life size, very easily handled and transparent: The other piece is an interior in mono chrome ; in a room used as an infir mary for women (Vas. VIII. 275). 1 The head is of a warm pleas ing tone, of a fine mould for Del Sarto. The hands are crossed on the. breast (wood, oil, life size). Another head of Christ (? a re plica), on canvass, in the same place, is missing, having been sold (Vas. VIII. 279—80). 2 See the record in Vasari (an not. VIII. 302).
