no doubt also, that of the figures which so long adorned the front of S. Maria del Fiore. Andrea was born at Pontedera * 1 in the Pisan territory, and is supposed to have served his apprentice-ship to Gio vanni Pisano, as early as 1305. 2 His father was one Ugolino Nini; and he inscribed his works with his own, his father’s and his grandfather’s name. Taking example from the works of his Pisan predecessors and from those of Giotto, he displayed precocious talents in certain works at S. Maria a Ponte in Florence; but, if Vasari truly assigns to him the plans of the castle of S. Barnabas, called the Scarperia, he must as early as 1306 3 have acquired all the knowledge necessary for the profession of the archi tect and engineer. Yet the great works of Andrea date no further back than 1330, when he completed the bronze gate of the Baptistery of Florence, in which, to the per fection of composition and distribution due to Giotto, he added a clear and simple language free from all redun dance, — expressing the leading idea of his subject in the clearest form. He displayed a novel power in the re production of the nude, — and the most perfect knowledge of proportion and harmony of parts allied to elegance of outline and beauty of modelling. His drapery, in itself simple, nobly clad his figures. These qualities are to be found in the eight reliefs of the Virtues, in which the emblematic character of each figure is impressed upon it with unmistakeable force. The sense of hope had not been more ably rendered by Giotto himself than it was by Andrea in the sitting figure of a youthful and beautifully clad female, raising her head and arms with supreme lon ging to the crown which she awaits. Nerve and force could not have been better rendered than they were in the muscular arm and frame of Fortitude, clad in the 1 See the document to that ef fect in Bonaini, Memorie ned. ub. sup. p.p. 60—61. 127. 8—9. * Ciampi and Morrona assume Ihat “Andreuccius Pisanus, famu- | lus Magistri Johannis,” who ap- I pears in a document of the Pisan archives, is no other than Andrea di Pontedera. 3 Giovanni Villani. Lib. VII. C. 86.
