Volltext Seite (XML)
At S. Giuliano in Florence, Andrea is said to have painted a fresco. 1 The convent, much altered since Vasari’s time, still contains a crucifixion in a lunette above the portal. Yet the style and execution are unlike those of Andrea. There are not four figures at the sides of the cross, as Albertini and Vasari state; and the work is that of a painter who lived in the sixteenth century. 2 According to Vasari, one of the tabernacles on the road to L’Anchetta outside Florence was painted by Castagno. 3 But, from Porta S. Croce to L’Anchetta, not one of the numerous tabernacles contains paintings in his style. The only work of his time, indeed, is a Virgin and child dated 1408 and noticed amongst the works of the Gerini. One may conclude, either that Vasari is in error, or that the tabernacle painted by Castagno has perished. This fate indeed befel most of his works; including the frescos at S. Miniato which are recorded to have been finished in 1456. 4 Amongst the pictures assigned to Andrea del Castagno in the public Galleries of Florence one is a bust portrait of a beardless man, in the Galleria Pitti. 5 The head is that of a powerful person, in the strength of manhood, with heavy lips and a volume of hair tufted on the fore head, beneath a barret. The drawing of the parts is bold and decisive and carried out with a breadth characteristic of cartoon, pricked and pounced in the usual manner. The shadows and outlines are verde. 1 The crucifixion with four fig ures was, according to Vasari and Albertini, above the portal. (Vas. Vol. IV. p. 142. Alb ertini, Mem. uh. sup. p. 12.) 2 YetRosini engraves the piece as by Castagno (Plate XLI.), and the annotators of Vasari follow his opinion. (Vol. IV. note 2 to p. 143.) The subject of the pre sent painting in the lunette of the portal of S. Giuliano is the Redeemer crucified, the Magda len at the foot, S.S. Julian and John Evangelist at the sides, of the cross. 3 Vas. Vol. IV. p. 149. 4 Vide Cenni di S. Miniato, p. 161. The works of Andrea which are no longer visible may be enu merated: a figure of S. Andrew in the cappella di Luca at S. Tri- nita (Vas. Vol. IV. p. 141); a standard for processions in the Company dell’ Evangelista at Flo rence (ib. p. 142); scenes from the life of S. Julian, in the chapel of that name; S. Jerom and a Trinity, in the chapel of S. Giro lamo; a Lazarus, Martha, and the Magdalen, in the chapel of Orlando de’ Medici, at the Servi of Flor ence (ih. p.p. 142—3); a flagella tion in the cloister of S. Croce (ib. p. 143); a nude of charity in La Scarperia in Mugello (ib.p. 160); a picture in S. Miniato fra le Torri (ib. p. 148, Albertini, Me,m. ub. s up.p.14), executedin 1456,accord ing to an inscription on the picture itself copied by Baldinucci, Opere. ub. sup. Vol. 5. p. 335. 5 Pitti Gallery No. 372.