From Library Journal
Natali, director of Renaissance and Mannerist paintings at Florence's Uffizi Gallery, presents a summation of decades of work on del Sarto (1486-1530), one of the creators of the Mannerist style in Florence and France. Natali sets his vision of the artist against the traditional view, begun by Vasari, that del Sarto was a timid soul who wasted his talent. Instead, he shows del Sarto to have chosen a path that he rigorously followed in light of his humility and in a circle of like-minded friends and fellow artists. Not a catalogue raisonn?e (Natali defers to Sydney J. Freedberg's Andrea del Sarto, 1963, and John Shearman's Andrea del Sarto, 1965, as essentially complete catalogs), this book is rather a meditation based on a close reading of the artist's environment and a close look at the pictures. The text is readily accessible to the general reader, with a clear translation from the Italian original, excellent illustrations of del Sarto's Mannerist colors and forms, and a generous layout; beyond that, Natali's revisionist argument will attract an academic audience.AJack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
ARTnews, 1/00
Readable and stimulating... richly illustrated, beautifully produced...Natali's book opens up an entirely different side of del Sarto....
Library of Congress
"The most important painter working in Florence when Raphael and Michelangelo were active in Rome, Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530) was a master of tone and color, the teacher of Pontormo, Rosso, Vasari, and other Mannerists. In this monograph illustrated with almost 200 reproductions, Antonio Natali reviews Andrea's art and life, proposing a new understanding of the man and the poetics of his paintings."--BOOK JACKET.
