The members were in two ranks, the "lesser"
and the "greater," a parody on the guilds of the city. They were shown
the plan of a building, and the "greater" members, furnished with
trowels, were obliged to build it in edibles, the "lesser" acting as
hodmen, and bringing materials. Pails of ricotta or goat's milk cheese
served for mortar, grated cheese for sand, sugar plums for gravel,
cakes and pastry for bricks, the basement was of meats, the pillars
fowls or sausages.
Some suppers were classical scenes, others allegorical representations,
always in the same edible form. We can imagine the wit which sparkled
round these strange tables, the jokes of the artists, the songs of the
musicians. Andrea del Sarto is said to have recited an heroi-comic poem
in six cantos called the "Battle of the frogs and mice." Biadi gives it
entire; it seems a kind of satire on Rustici's tastes, with perhaps a
hit at the government, and shows no lack of wit of rather unrefined
style; but the authorship is not proved. Some say Ottaviano de Medici
assisted Andrea in it.
It would have been well for Andrea if this innocent jollity had
sufficed for him, but unfortunately he admired a woman whose beauty was
greater than her merits.
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