] It is probable the
furniture matched the style of the rooms, and that much money was spent
on carved chairs and _cassoni_. Certain it is that the King of
France's commissions were unfulfilled, and his money misappropriated.
Andrea would have returned to France, but his wife, who had an Italian
woman's dread of leaving her own country, put every obstacle in his
way, adding entreaties to tears which the uxorious Andrea could not
resist. As usual he tried to please her, and she only cared to please
herself.
He fell greatly in the estimation of the King, who was justly angry;
albeit the artist salved his own too easy conscience by sending a few
of his own paintings to Francis I., one of which, the _Sacrifice of
Abraham_, still remains in France, and another a half length figure
of _S. John the Baptist_. The place of this picture is much
disputed; it is said to be at present in the Pitti Palace. Argenville
speaks of it among the French pictures as if it had returned
subsequently to Florence, while Vasari asserts that it never went
there, but was sold to Ottaviano de' Medici.
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