And to what
perfection he carried design! Not a figure was drawn except its lines
harmonised with the geometric rhythm in the artist's mind. His groups
fall by nature into kaleidoscopic figures of circles, triangles,
ellipses, crosses, &c. Not a cartoon was sketched in which the lights
and shadows were not as gradated and finished as a painting, although
they were merely drawn with charcoal. The following was the method of
work in the "bottega." The panels were prepared with a coating of
plaster of Paris, over which, when dry, a coat of under colour, ground
in oil, was passed. The preparing of the panels fell to the work of one
of the monk scholars, Fra Andrea.[Footnote: The books of the convent
have a note of payment to Fra Bartolommeo for 20th March, 1512, "per
parte di lavoro di Fra Andrea converse per mettere d'oro, et ingessare
alle tavole nella bottega in diversi lavori" (Padre Marchese,
_Memorie_, lib. ii. chap. in. p. 70).] Then the master made his
sketch in white, or "sgraffito" (i.e. graven on the plaster), as in the
architectural lines of the pictures of patron saints in the Uffizi, and
the _Marriage of S.
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