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The next great works were the frescoes in the Court of S. Annunziata, if indeed they were not carried on simultaneously with those in the Scalzo. This famous series of Andrea's works was obtained by cunning, and painted in emulation.
In 1518, while Andrea was in France, the monks of the Scalzo employed Francia Bigio to fill two compartments in their pretty little cloister, where Andrea had commenced his Life of S. John Baptist. These are spoken of more at length in the life of that master, who on his return took the work again in his own hands.
The fresco at Poggio a Cajano abandoned, Andrea returned to the Scalzo, where he painted the Dance of Herodias, Martyrdom of S. John Baptist, Presentation of the Head, Allegory of Hope, and the Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias. The last was paid for August 22nd, 1523. About this time there was a great wedding in Florence.
After his death, however, certain persons published engravings of the Visitation of S. Elizabeth and of the Baptism of the people by S. John, taken from the work in chiaroscuro that Andrea painted in the Scalzo at Florence.
Perhaps time would teach him to supply that want. Meanwhile there was plenty of work for the young artist, and when he set up his own studio with another young painter, he was at once invited to fresco the walls of the cloister of the Scalzo, or bare-footed friars. This was the happiest time of all Andrea's life.
While the two partners, who had differed from the beginning, and had since become rivals, were engaged in the Scalzo, a certain astute Fra Mariano, the keeper of the wax candle stores at the Servite Convent to which the church of the S. Annunziata belonged had watched well those two young painters.
Tribolo lived sixty-five years, and was interred by the Company of the Scalzo in their place of burial.
The first bit of patronage recorded is the commission for the frescoes in the Scalzo; that they had work before is proved by the words in the contract of the Barefoot Friars, "dettero ad Andrea pittore celeberrimo il dipingere nel Chiosto." The "celebrated" presupposes works already done.
Through these distractions, therefore, the love of painting of which Giovanni Antonio had given proof cooled off in great measure; but none the less, being the friend of Pier Francesco di Jacopo di Sandro, who was a disciple of Andrea del Sarto, he went sometimes with him to the Scalzo to draw the pictures and nudes from life.
Like many another desecrated church, convent, or religious house, the Government, as at S. Marco, Chiostro dello Scalzo, and S. Onofrio, charges you twenty-five centesimi to see their stolen goods.
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