Giorgio Vasari

“ THE SCULPTOR ANDREA OF FIESOLE, AND OTHER FIESOLAN ARTISTS.
[Flourished from the latter part of the fifteenth century, to about the middle of the sixteenth century.]
The sculptor is required to be as well acquainted with the use of the chisel as is the painter with the management of colours, but it will sometimes happen that those who are very capable of working in clay are afterwards found but poorly prepared for the carrying to perfection of such labours as require to be executed in marble. ”

“ Having at length become old, Andrea confined his attention entirely to smaller works, and being a man of modest character and upright mind, he was more desirous of quiet than of any other thing whatever. He was commissioned by Madonna Antonio Vespucci to prepare the sepulchral monument of her husband Messer Antonio Strozzi, but not being able to work much himself, he suffered the two Angels to be executed for him by his scholar Maso Boscoli of Fiesole, who afterwards performed numerous labours in Rome and elsewhere, while the Madonna of that work was executed by Silvio Cosini of Fiesole. ”

“ It is indeed almost wonderful to see the manner in which some sculptors, though not even knowing how to draw on paper, will yet execute works with their chisels, and will even bring the same to a good and praiseworthy conclusion; an instance whereof has been seen in the case of Andrea di Piero di Marco Ferrucci, [1] a sculptor of Fiesole. ”

“ He one night drew the corpse of a man who had been hanged the day before, from his grave, and having first dissected it, in reference to the purposes of his art, he next fiayed the body, and being a person who believed in wizards, enchantments, and such follies, he prepared ’this skin according to the method which he had been taught, and from it he made himself a jerkin, which he wore for some time over his shirt, believing it to be possessed of some great virtue, but without suffering any one beside himself to be made acquainted with the matter. ”

“ Flor. 1832-8. ↑ This tomb is now on the right hand of the entrance; it has been built into the wall.—Ibid. ↑ There are two Angels of marble in the cathedral of Pisa, both of which bear the name of Silvio Cosini, and Vasari himself affirmed in the first edition that this artist “made two Angels in marble at the high altar of the cathedral of Pisa.” ↑ Raffaello Maffei, a man of great piety as well as learning. This tomb is in the church of San Lino.— Bottari. ”

“ For this office Andrea received sixty gold ducats yearly, with a horse. Many interesting documents relating to these, and other facts connected with tlie cathedral, will be found in Gaye, ut supra. ↑ Where it still remains. ↑ The Angels of Boscoli, and the Madonna of Cosini are still to be seen on the tomb of the Strozzi family, in the church of Santa Maria, in Florence. ”