Probably he began by mere artistic
appreciation of her personal charms, for she sat to him for the
_Madonna of the Visitation_, which was painted in 1514, two years
before their marriage. This Lucrezia della Fede was the wife of a
hatter who lived in Via San Gallo. Her husband dying after a short
illness, Andrea del Sarto married her, and whatever were her faults,
she retained his life-long love. Biadi and Reumont give the date 26th
of December, 1512, as that of the death of her husband, but Signor
Milanesi, from more authentic sources, proves it to have been in 1516.
A great deal has been said and written of the evil influence this woman
had on him, and his very house bears an inscription recording his fame
together with "affanni domestici," but it would seem that posterity has
taken for truth more than the facts of the time imply. That she was
proud, haughty, exacting, and not of a high moral nature, that she was
selfish, and begrudged his helping his own family, her every action
proves. That her manners were not conciliating to the pupils is
possible, perhaps their manners savoured too much of familiarity for a
woman who believed in her own charms; but that she was faithless, which
her biographers assert on the strength of Vasari's phrase, "that Andrea
was tormented by jealousy," there is literally nothing to show.
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