praparazione di Icaro

This preparatory work for the myth of Icarus, dating to around 1508, demonstrates Andrea del Sarto's early engagement with classical mythology during his formative years in Florence. Andrea, born Andrea d'Agnolo in 1486, trained under Piero di Cosimo and quickly established himself as one of Florence's leading painters alongside Fra Bartolommeo and Raphael. Andrea del Sarto, active in Florence from around 1506 until his death in 1530, was among the most accomplished painters of the Italian High Renaissance. His synthesis of the dominant Florentine tradition — Leonardo's atmospheric modeling, Raphael's compositional grace, Michelangelo's figure authority — achieved a quality of technical perfection that earned him Vasari's famous epithet "the faultless painter." Working primarily in Florence, he produced altarpieces, frescoes, and devotional panels for the city's churches, religious confraternities, and private patrons, training in his workshop the painters who would become the founders of Florentine Mannerism.

The study shows Andrea's characteristic sfumato technique and fluid handling of form, reflecting the influence of Leonardo da Vinci's atmospheric modeling that pervaded Florentine painting in the early Cinquecento.