Andrea del Sarto, Master Renaissance Draftsman

"Portrait of a Young Man" (c.1517-1518), by Andrea del Sarto. The National Gallery (London)
"Portrait of a Young Man" (c.1517-1518), by Andrea del Sarto. The National Gallery (London)

“Portrait of a Young Man” (c.1517-1518), by Andrea del Sarto. The National Gallery (London)

One cannot write in depth about an artist without placing him or her within the context of the era in which they lived and cavorted, and to write about Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530) is to instantly shuffle him into the shadow of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and perhaps others such as Titian and Correggio. But now, with the Getty’s sturdy if not exactly overwhelming exhibition, “Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action,” del Sarto can reclaim some of the attention he truly deserves.

That’s not to say the man has been hovering in obscurity, and anyone with a smattering of Italian Renaissance art history knows his name and perhaps some of his work. After all, the most famous biographer of the time, Giorgio Vasari, discoursed at great length on del Sarto in his “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.”

Vasari was one of del Sarto’s pupils (others of note being Jacopo Pontormo and Francesco Salviati) and thus had a personal familiarity and presumably some kind of rapport that he did not have with many of his other subjects. However, Vasari’s assessment of his former master is a bit harsh, as apparently he believed that del Sarto could have achieved even greater heights had it not been for his domineering wife, Lucrezia, whom del Sarto utilized as a model for multiple Madonnas and Magdalenes. Who knows, perhaps the young apprentice and the mistress of the house had some sort of falling out, with nobody around to capture the spat on their iPhone.

Even so, most of the information about del Sarto that has filtered down through the ages comes by way of Vasari, while in recent times John Shearman has added heavily to the scholarship.

"Study of the Head of a Young Woman" (c.1523), by Andrea del Sarto. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

“Study of the Head of a Young Woman” (c.1523), by Andrea del Sarto. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Although del Sarto was a key figure in the Florentine art world of the 1510s and 1520s, he was also one of those poor souls cut down in the prime of life, at the age of 43, when yet another nasty plague swept through the city–a later plague than the one that sent Boccaccio’s storytellers fleeing to the countryside. As to what befell his personal effects, his studio, his widow, all that remains unclear. In fact, despite the prominence of both the show and catalogue’s subtitle–”The Renaissance Workshop in Action,” for those of you who’ve already forgotten it–“we do not know how the workshop was structured,” writes curator Julian Brooks, or “who was responsible for such tasks as the transferring of the cartoon to the panel, or even how much Andrea was involved.”

(I did ask Mr. Brooks whether one should refer to the artist as “del Sarto” or as “Andrea,” and it seems that either is acceptable. Brooks himself prefers Andrea, and having been immersed in this project for so many years he certainly has earned the right to refer to his subject on a first-name basis. On the other hand, del Sarto’s father worked as a tailor, and “Sarto” is the Italian word for tailor, which of course brings to mind Thomas Carlyle and his “Sartor Resartus,” or the tailor retailored.)

Being the son of a tailor may seem like a poor start in life, but as Brooks also writes, “Unless nude, the figures in his (del Sarto’s) paintings are always extremely well-clothed, and his understanding of the fall of cloth, of texture, and of the weight of fabric is the knowledge of a tailor’s son.”

Furthermore, as Marzia Faietti points out in the catalogue, “It is hardly accidental that Andrea, in his daily habits, preferred to associate with sculptors rather than his fellow painters.”

In short, del Sarto knew how to portray and convey the human figure–and he knew how to clothe it, too.

What’s on view?

What’s on view at the Getty? About 51 drawings from a surviving corpus of about 180. Of this amount, half are in the Uffizi (in Florence), 40 or so in the Louvre (in Paris), nine in the British Museum, and it declines rapidly from there, although the Getty’s four drawings are the most in any North American collection. However, since del Sarto made about 150 drawings for each major commission, it’s clear that thousands were dropped into the wastebasket of history.

And yet, with the exception of four paintings, del Sarto’s most impressive work isn’t on view here in Los Angeles, and largely that’s because his frescoes are immovable and ditto, perhaps, for his major works in oil.

"Study of an Infant Praying" (1525-1529), by Andrea del Sarto. Musee du Louvre, Department des Arts Graphiques

“Study of an Infant Praying” (1525-1529), by Andrea del Sarto. Musee du Louvre, Department des Arts Graphiques

Getting back to the drawings, red chalk was del Sarto’s medium of choice, although it’s more of an orange-brown in reality. Now, many of these sketches were dashed off in minutes, and while they’re better than doodles their value as true works of art is open to debate. If it wasn’t open to debate, we’d be looking at 10,000 del Sarto drawings today.

Nonetheless, Julian Brooks–who wrote most of the catalogue entries–is concise and informative, relating certain drawings to specific paintings, showing how the latter were adjusted this way or that, pointing out various compositional techniques, who commissioned or owned the works, and so on and so forth. I read every single one of these entries and, I won’t deny it, my eyes often clouded over. A hand, a foot, part of a shoulder, it does get tedious. Additionally, almost all of the chalk sketches are for religious paintings, and the majority of these are variants of the Madonna and Child. It may seem silly to ask, but didn’t del Sarto long to draw and paint something else? Didn’t he want to draw dinosaurs and spaceships like the rest of us?

I say that somewhat facetiously, but unlike the recent J.M.W. Turner show at the Getty, with which Brooks was also involved, it’s hard to fully embrace certain bodies of work without some knowledge of the artist himself or herself, sort of what I said in my opening sentence. Pictures like these simply don’t emerge from a vacuum, and invariably we want to know more about the mind that brought them to fruition.

To some degree, Sanne Wellen comes to our rescue a little more than halfway through the catalogue, but again most of this information emerges by way of Vasari, and so once more we’re reduced in the main to the viewpoint of just one man. Yes, I know, the work speaks for itself, and yet…

As for the paintings, where del Sarto’s reputation is on solid ground, a great many are reproduced in the catalogue but just four are in the exhibition. Happily, this includes the “Portrait of a Young Man” (c.1517-18) from the National Gallery in London, and “The Medici Holy Family” (1529) from the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The latter is notable for its pentimenti, meaning that some of the pigments have become transparent over time, revealing various alterations in the placement of a leg, a tilt of the head, and so on. None of this detracts from the beauty of the work itself, the soft coloring, the thoughtful and skillfully executed composition.

"The Medici Holy Family" (1529), by Andrea del Sarto. Istituti museali della Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Galleria Palatina

“The Medici Holy Family” (1529), by Andrea del Sarto. Istituti museali della Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Galleria Palatina

Lastly, in addition to a painting of Saint John the Baptist (c.1523), notable attention is given to “The Sacrifice of Isaac” (c.1528), the unfinished version on loan from the Cleveland Museum of Art, which is one of three variants. Because the work was only partially completed, we can literally peer into del Sarton’s working methods, especially when the results of an infrared reflectogram are thrown into the mix. It’s almost like being able to look over the painter’s shoulder as he painted, paused, stepped back, mulled over his canvas, and made adjustments.

It’s hard to imagine this being among the most popular exhibitions of the season, but for those who care about these things it is a most commendable achievement, deserving of high and mighty praise.

Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action is on view through September 13 at the J. Paul Getty Museum in the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. It’s being partnered with the Frick Collection in New York, where the show will be seen from Oct. 7 through January 10, 2016. Getty curator Julian Brooks gives a talk, “Andrea del Sarto: Secrets of Renaissance Creativity,” at 3 p.m., July 19, in the museum’s lecture hall. He’ll also lead a tour of the exhibition at 2:30 p.m. on July 21 and August 25. The catalogue ($59) is available in bookstores or through Getty Publications: (800) 223-3431. Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Free; parking, $15 per car. (310) 440-7300 or go to getty.edu. ER

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