Andrea Del Sarto Biography | Oil Paintings

The son of a tailor, Sarto in Italian, hence his nickname, Andrea del Sarto was originally apprenticed to a goldsmith but his early aptitude for drawing led to him being sent to Piero di Cosimo for training in draftsmanship and coloring. The measure of how well he learned his lessons is evident, not only in his surviving works but also in the epithet applied to him in his lifetime as 'Andrea the Unerring'.

The link between the great masters of the early sixteenth century and the emergence of the 'modern manner” is Andrea del Sarto, described by Vasari as “the flawless painter” and whose school produced the most daring innovators. He is the go-between humanism's vanished certainties and the tensions of Mannerism. In his oil paintings, his figures assume eloquent poses effortlessly, as shown in Holy Family Barberini, while his group compositions freely interpret the traditional triangular scheme of fifteenth-century art.

Andrea del Sarto the link to the first stirrings of Mannerism.

Between 1509 and 1514 he was employed by the Brotherhood of the Servites to paint a series of frescoes illustrating the life of the Servite Saint Filippo Benizzi, and this established his reputation for his extraordinary mastery of color and tone. Andrea del Sarto is regarded as the finest fresco painter of his generation, Sarto was later commissioned by Francis I of France I in 1518 and spent some time in Paris before returning to Florence, where most of his later religious paintings were executed. In 1519 he painted the last great Last Supper of the Florentine Renaissance. Though Leonardo's influence is evident, his is an extremely elegant composition that is expressive without being overly emotional.

His reputation in France, however, was ruined. When he left France, the king gave him some money to buy new artwork for the court, and with the money he bought himself a house in Florence, assuring that he could never return. As well as large wall paintings, he excelled in smaller, more intimate portraits and he would undoubtedly have gone to the greater things had he not been struck down by the plague at a relatively young age.

Art Movement History: Renaissance, Mannerism.
Artists Influencing Del Sarto: Gian Barile, Piero di Cosimo, Raffaellino del Garbo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo.
He Traveled To: France.
Painters Del Sarto Influenced: Jacopo Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Salviati.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist.