While he was engaged in
painting the _S. Jerome_ for the queen-mother, a letter from
Lucrezia aroused his longings for home to the uttermost; she--the wife
who has been branded by the name of faithless--wrote that she was
disconsolate in his absence, and that if he did not soon return he
would find her dead with grief.
Vasari, quoting this exaggerated letter, says in his first edition that
she only wanted money to give her friends, but this also he retracts in
the second. Whether it expressed her feelings truly or not, the letter
had such an effect on Andrea's mind that he decided to return home at
any cost.
During Andrea's absence the house in Via S. Sebastiano, behind the
Annunziata, was being prepared under her superintendence and with his
sanction. His scholars had decorated the walls and ceilings with
frescoes, and no doubt Lucrezia was as anxious for him to see the new
house as he was to adorn her with Parisian brocades and jewellery.
Being able to satisfy her ambitious soul, Andrea too readily flung away
all his brilliant prospects to return, and willingly take again the
yoke of the burden of his wife and her family.
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