In looking at them one sighs even in the midst of admiration, thinking
that if the hand which produced them had been guided by a spark of
divine genius instead of the finest talent, what glorious works they
would have been! The truth is that Andrea's was a receptive, rather
than an original and productive mind. His art was more imitative than
spontaneous, and this forms perhaps the difference between talent and
genius. The art of his time sunk into his mind, and was reproduced. He
lived precisely at the time of the culmination of art, when all the
highest masters were bringing forth their grandest works; therefore he
could not do otherwise than to follow the best examples.

He gathered the experience of all--the force of Michelangelo, the
handling of Leonardo, the sentiment of Raphael, so blending them as to
form a style seemingly his own, and in execution following closely on
their excellence.

In Giotto's or Masaccio's case the master created the art; in Andrea's
it was the art of the age which made the artist.

The question of Andrea del Sarto's birth is a mooted one. Biadi dates
it 1478, but the register he quotes is both vague and doubtful. He also
tells a curious story of his Flemish origin. Signor Milanesi has
deduced, from the archives of Florence, an authentic pedigree from
which we learn that his remote ancestors were peasants, first at
Buiano, near Fiesole, and later at S. Ilario, near Montereggi. His
grandfather, Francesco, being a linen weaver, came to live nearer
Florence; his father, Agnolo, son of Francesco, followed the trade of a
tailor--hence Andrea's sobriquet, "del Sarto"--he took a house in Via
Gualfonda, in Florence, about 1487, with his wife Constanza, and here