ter having seen the figures that Michelagnolo had begun and
partly finished for the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, set his hand to
executing this last scene. In this, giving the final proof of his
improvement, he painted the Birth of S. John the Baptist, with figures
that were very beautiful and much better and stronger in relief than the
others made by him before in the same place. Most beautiful, among
others in this work, are a woman who is carrying the newborn babe to the
bed on which lies S. Elizabeth, who is likewise a most lovely figure,
and Zacharias, who is writing on a paper that he has placed on his knee,
holding it with one hand and with the other writing the name of his son,
and all with such vivacity, that he lacks nothing save the breath of
life. Most beautiful, also, is an old woman who is seated on a stool,
smiling with gladness at the delivery of the other aged woman, and
revealing in her attitude and expression all that would be seen in a
living person after such an event.

Having finished that work, which is certainly well worthy of all praise,
he painted for the General of Vallombrosa a panel-picture with four very
lovely figures, S. John the Baptist, S. Giovanni Gualberto, founder of
that Order, S. Michelagnolo, and S. Bernardo, a Cardinal and a monk of
the Order, with some little boys in the centre that could not be more
vivacious or more beautiful. This panel is at Vallombrosa, on the summit
of a rocky height, where certain monks live in some rooms called "the
cells," separated from the others, and leading as it were the lives of
hermits.

After this he was commissioned by Giuliano Scala to paint a
panel-picture, which was to be sent to Serrazzana, of a Madonna seated
with the Child in her arms, and two half-length figures from the knees
upwards, S. Celso and S. Julia, with S. Onofrio, S. Catharine, S.
Benedict, S. Anthony of Padua, S. Peter, and S. Mark; which panel was
held to be equal to the other works of Andrea. And in the hands of
Giuliano Scala, in place of the balance due to him of a sum of money
that he had paid for the owners of that work, there remained a lunette
containing an Annunciation, which was to go above the panel, to complete
it; and it is now in his chapel in the great tribune round the choir of
the Church of the Servi.

The Monks of S. Salvi had let many years pass by without thinking of
having a beginning made with their Last Supper, which they had
commissioned Andrea to execut