The reason why youths who showed a talent for
design were entered in that guild is easy to assign--it was one of the
"greater" guilds, that of the painters being a lesser one, and merged
in the "Arte degli Speziali." At seven years old he left the school
where he had learned to read and write, and entered his very youthful
apprenticeship; but he showed so much more aptitude for the designing
than for the executive part of his profession that _Giovanni
Barile_, who frequented the bottega, was induced to counsel his
being trained especially as a painter, offering himself as instructor.
If Andrea, a contadino by birth, an artisan by education, was not
originally of the most refined nature, his artistic training did not go
far towards refining him. Giovanni Barile was a coarse painter and a
rough man; he had, however, generosity enough to see that the boy was
worthy of better teaching, and got him entered in the bottega of Piero
di Cosimo, who had attained a good rank as a colourist, his
eccentricities possibly adding to his reputation.
Accordingly in 1498, Andrea being then eleven years of age, a life of
earnest study began.
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