As
for the viands, the sculptors displayed their talents in moulding
classical subjects in pastry, and turning boiled fowls into figures of
Ulysses and Laertes. The architects built up temples and palaces of
jellies, cakes, and sausages; the goldsmith, Robetta, produced an anvil
and accoutrements made of a calf's head, the painters treated roast pig
to represent a scullery-maid spinning.
Andrea del Sarto built up the model of the Baptistery with all kinds of
eatables, with a reading desk of veal, and book with letters inlaid
with truffles, at which the choristers were roast thrushes with open
beaks, while the canons were pigeons in red mantles of beetroot--an
idea more droll than reverential.
After this, in 1512, another club, called that of the "Trowel," was
instituted, of which Andrea was not a member, but was chosen as an
associate. The first supper was arranged by Giuliano Bugiardini, and
was held on the _aja_ or threshing floor of S. Maria Nuova, where
the bronze gates of the Baptistery had been cast.
In this no two members were allowed to wear the same style of dress
under penalty of a fine.
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