Andrea was born, he being the eldest of a family of five--three girls
and two boys. From the tax papers of a few years later it is proved
that Andrea was born in 1487. His full name is Andrea d'Agnolo di
Francesco. It is by mistake that he has been called Vannucchi.

His parents were young, his father being only twenty-seven years of age
at Andrea's birth. They lived at that time in Val Fonda, where
Albertinelli had his shop, but in 1504 they removed to the popolo, or
parish, of S. Paolo. Boys were not allowed to be idle in those days,
but were apprenticed at an early age; thus Andrea, like most artists of
his time, was bound to a goldsmith. It would be interesting to
investigate the great influence of the guild of goldsmiths on the art
of the Renaissance. The reason why youths who showed a talent for
design were entered in that guild is easy to assign--it was one of the
"greater" guilds, that of the painters being a lesser one, and merged
in the "Arte degli Speziali." At seven years old he left the school
where he had learned to read and write, and entered his very youthful
apprenticeship; but he showed so much more aptitude for the designing
than for the executive part of his profession that _Giovanni
Barile_, who frequented the bottega, was induced to counsel his
being trained especially as a painter, offering himself as instructor.
If Andrea, a contadino by birth, an artisan by education, was not
originally of the most refined nature, his artistic training did not go
far towards refining him. Giovanni Barile was a coarse painter and a
rough man; he had, however, generosity enough to see that the boy was
worthy of better teaching, and got him entered in the bottega of Piero
di Cosimo, who had attained a good rank as a colourist, his
eccentricities possibly adding to his reputation.

Accordingly in 1498, Andrea being then eleven years of age, a life of