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Andrea del Sarto again Franciabigio outraged Alessio Baldovinetti Piero de' Medici's church An Easter Sunday congregation Andrea's "Madonna del Sacco" "The Statue and the Bust" Henri IV The Spedale degli Innocenti Andrea della Robbia Domenico Ghirlandaio Cosimo I and the Etruscans Bronzes and tapestries Perugino's triptych S. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi "Very sacred human dust".
From S. Marco it is an easy step, along the Via Sapienza, to the Piazza dell' Annunziata, where one finds the church of that name, the Palazzo Riccardi-Mannelli, and opposite it, gay with the famous della Robbia reliefs of swaddled children, the Spedale degli Innocenti. First the church, which is notable for possessing in its courtyard Andrea del Sarto's finest frescoes.
The present statue at the Pont Neuf is, however, a modern substitute. The façade of the Spedale degli Innocenti, or children's hospital, when first seen by the visitor evokes perhaps the quickest and happiest cry of recognition in all Florence by reason of its row of della Robbia babies, each in its blue circle, reproductions of which have gone all over the world.
Etchings and Engravings Medal of Honor. Frank Brangwyn, Annex. Gold Medals. R. G. Goodman, Annex; Willy Pogany, Annex; Bela Uitz, Annex. Medals Gold Medal. Ede Telcs, Annex. Italian Section. Oil Painting Grand Prize. Ettore Tito, 21. Medals of Honor. Onorato Carlandi, 21; Camillo Innocenti, 21. Gold Medals.
The family "Degli Innocenti" is very frequently met with in Tuscany; but the bearers of the name do not, for the most part, take great heed of their family ties. The "Innocenti," in a word, is the name of the foundling-hospital in Florence; and those of whose origin nothing is known save that they have been brought up by that charity, are often called after it, and known by no other name.
In 1419 Giovanni increased his popularity by founding the Spedale degli Innocenti, and in 1421 he was elected gonfalonier, or, as we might now say, President of the Republic. Giovanni died in 1429, leaving one son, Cosimo, aged forty, a second, Lorenzo, aged thirtyfour, a fragrant memory and an immense fortune.
On the west wall is the work of Ettore Tito, the winner of the grand prize, five canvases demonstrating both his versatility and his mastery of color. On the north and south walls are the medal-of-honor pictures of Onorato Carlandi and Camillo Innocenti, the latter striking in their golden tone.
Unstable, improvident, unthrifty, fond of pleasure, and not fond of work, nothing had succeeded with him. Nevertheless, a cleverer man in his own line, or a shrewder judge of the article he dealt in, than Quinto Lalli did not exist in all Italy. And his judgment did not fail him when he fell in with little Bianca degli Innocenti.
The first work of Ghirlandaio which the boy saw in the making was the beautiful "Adoration of the Magi," in the Church of the Spedale degli Innocenti, completed in 1488, and the S. Maria Novella frescoes, and it is reasonable to suppose that he helped with the frescoes in colour grinding, even if he did not, as some have said, paint with his own hand the beggar sitting on the steps in the scene representing the "Presentation of the Virgin". That he was already clever with his pencil, we know, for he had made some caricatures and corrected a drawing or two.
That votive picture fell not many years ago into the hands of Giorgio Vasari, who presented it to the reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini, the Director of the Hospital of the Innocenti, who holds it dear. For the Black Friars of the Badia Francesco painted three little scenes on a Tabernacle of the Sacrament made by the carver Tasso in the manner of a triumphal arch.
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