aving returned to Florence, then, Simone placed him to learn art with
Antonio del Pollaiuolo, under whom Andrea made such proficience, that in
a few years he became a very good master. In the house of that Simone,
on the Ponte Vecchio, there may still be seen a cartoon executed by him
at that time, of Christ being scourged at the Column, drawn with much
diligence; and, in addition, two marvellous heads in terra-cotta, copied
from ancient medals, one of the Emperor Nero, and the other of the
Emperor Galba, which heads served to adorn a chimney-piece; but the
Galba is now at Arezzo, in the house of Giorgio Vasari. Afterwards,
while still living in Florence, he made an altar-piece in terra-cotta
for the Church of S. Agata at Monte Sansovino, with a S. Laurence and
some other saints, and little scenes most beautifully executed. And no
long time after this he made another like it, containing a very
beautiful Assumption of Our Lady, S. Agata, S. Lucia, and S. Romualdo;
which altar-piece was afterwards glazed by the Della Robbia family.

[Illustration: ALTAR-PIECE

(_After_ Andrea dal Monte Sansovino [Andrea Contucci]. _Florence: S.
Spirito_)

_Alinari_]

Then, pursuing the art of sculpture, he made in his youth for Simone del
Pollaiuolo, otherwise called Il Cronaca, two capitals for pilasters in
the Sacristy of S. Spirito, which brought him very great fame, and led
to his receiving a commission to execute the antechamber that is between
the said sacristy and the church; and since the space was very small,
Andrea was forced to use great ingenuity. He made, therefore, a
structure of grey-stone in the Corinthian Order, with twelve round
columns, six on either side; and having laid architrave, frieze, and
cornice over these columns, he then raised a barrel-shaped vault, all of
the same stone, with a coffer-work surface full of carvings, which was
something novel, rich and varied, and much extolled. It is true, indeed,
that if the mouldings of that coffer-work ceiling, which serve to divide
the square and round panels by which it is adorned, had been contrived
so as to fall in a straight line with the columns, with truer proportion
and harmony, this work would be wholly perfect in every part; and it
would have been an easy thing to do this. But, according to what I once
heard from certain old friends of Andrea, he used to defend himself by
saying that he had adhered in his vault to the method of the coffering
in the Ritonda at