I allude to the _Sposalizio_ (A.D. 1513) in the
courtyard of the Servite church, where Andrea did his series of
frescoes from the life of Filippo Benizzi. The composition is grand and
carefully thought out, the colouring bright and pleasing; perhaps in
emulating Andrea's luxurious style of drapery he has gone a little too
far, and crowded the folds. The bridegroom is a noble figure, and shows
in his face his gladness in the blossoming rod. A man in the foreground
breaks a stick across his knees. The commentators of Vasari have taken
this to emblematize the Roman Catholic legend of the Virgin having
given rods to each of her suitors, and chosen him whose rod blossomed.
Graceful women surround the Virgin, but there is perhaps a too marked
sentimentality about these which suggests a striving after Raphael's
style. There is, however, a great touch of nature in a mother with a
naughty child, who sits crying on the ground, much to the mother's
distress. Francia Bigio commenced this in Andrea's absence in France,
which so excited his former comrade's emulation that he did his
_Visitation_ in great haste, to get it uncovered as soon as
Francia Bigio's.
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