o
should finish it, he was not able to prevail on him to put his hand to
it. And in truth it suffered a very grievous wrong in the failure to
complete it, seeing that the hall, for one in a villa, is the most
beautiful in the world.

After returning to Florence, Andrea painted a picture with a nude
half-length figure of S. John the Baptist, a very beautiful thing, which
he executed at the commission of Giovan Maria Benintendi, who presented
it afterwards to the Lord Duke Cosimo.

[Illustration: CAESAR RECEIVING THE TRIBUTE OF EGYPT

(_After the fresco by =Andrea del Sarto=. Florence: Poggio a Caiano_)

_Alinari_]

While affairs were proceeding in this manner, Andrea, remembering
sometimes his connection with France, sighed from his heart: and if
he had hoped to find pardon for the fault he had committed, there is no
doubt that he would have gone back. Indeed, to try his fortune, he
sought to see whether his talents might be helpful to him in the matter.
Thus he painted a picture of a half-naked S. John the Baptist, meaning
to send it to the Grand Master of France, to the end that he might
occupy himself with restoring the painter to the favour of the King.
However, whatever may have been the reason, he never sent it after all,
but sold it to the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, who always valued
it much as long as he lived, even as he did two pictures of Our Lady
executed for him by Andrea in one and the same manner, which are in his
house at the present day.

Not long afterwards he was commissioned by Zanobi Bracci to paint a
picture for Monsignore di San Biause,[6] which he executed with all
possible diligence, hoping that it might enable him to regain the favour
of King Francis, to whose service he desired to return. He also executed
for Lorenzo Jacopi a picture of much greater size than was usual,
containing a Madonna seated with the Child in her arms, accompanied by
two other figures that are seated on some steps; and the whole, both in
drawing and in colouring, is similar to his other works. He painted for
Giovanni d' Agostino Dini, likewise, a picture of Our Lady, which is now
much esteemed for its beauty; and he made so good a portrait from life
of Cosimo Lapi, that it seems absolutely alive.

Afterwards, in the year 1523, the plague came to Florence and also to
some places in the surrounding country; and Andrea, in order to avoid
that pestilence and also to do some work, went at the instance of
Antoni