little praise; and this may have been because Andrea, who worked well
without over-exerting himself or forcing his powers, is believed to have
tried in this work to force himself and to paint with too much care.

As for the many pictures that he executed after this for Florence, it
would take too long to try to speak of them all; and I will only say
that among the most distinguished may be numbered the one that is now in
the apartment of Baccio Barbadori, containing a full-length Madonna with
a Child in her arms, S. Anne, and S. Joseph, all painted in a beautiful
manner and held very dear by Baccio. He made one, likewise well worthy
of praise, which is now in the possession of Lorenzo di Domenico
Borghini, and another of Our Lady for Leonardo del Giocondo, which at
the present day is in the hands of Piero, the son of Leonardo. For Carlo
Ginori he painted two of no great size, which were bought afterwards by
the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici; and one of these is now in his
most beautiful villa of Campi, while the other, together with many other
modern pictures executed by the most excellent masters, is in the
apartment of the worthy son of so great a father, Signor Bernardetto,
who not only esteems and honours the works of famous craftsmen, but is
also in his every action a truly generous and magnificent nobleman.

Meanwhile the Servite friar had allotted to Franciabigio one of the
scenes in the above-mentioned cloister; but that master had not yet
finished making the screen, when Andrea, becoming apprehensive, since it
seemed to him that Franciabigio was an abler and more dexterous master
than himself in the handling of colours in fresco, executed, as it were
out of rivalry, the cartoons for his two scenes, which he intended to
paint on the angle between the side-door of S. Bastiano and the smaller
door that leads from the cloister into the Nunziata. Having made the
cartoons, he set to work in fresco; and in the first scene he painted
the Nativity of Our Lady, a composition of figures beautifully
proportioned and grouped with great grace in a room, wherein some women
who are friends and relatives of the newly delivered mother, having come
to visit her, are standing about her, all clothed in such garments as
were customary at that time, and other women of lower degree, gathered
around the fire, are washing the newborn babe, while others are
preparing the swathing-bands and doing other similar services. Among
them is