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to secure him to decorate its walls with frescoes ; and accordingly the work was entrusted to "the celebrated painter Andrea to paint the cloister," and they covenanted to give him, so the contract runs, " per le pitture grandi lire 56 Tuna, e le piccole lire 21 (for the larger pictures 56 lire each, and for the smaller 21).* * Libro della stessa compagnia di lett. B. 15 al 1526, preserved in Archivio di Stato. 6 ANDREA DEL SARTO The frescoes were to be twelve in number, and were to represent incidents from the life of their patron, St John Baptist, while the four virtues, Charity and Justice, and Faith and Hope were to flank the two sides of the doors, and all were to be painted in chiaro- scuro, or, as Vasari calls it, " terretta" which means literally in earth-colours. Andrea accepted the commission, and he and Francia- bigio began together and painted the Baptism of Christ. This fresco was painted long before the rest of the work was completed. Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle speak of it as " a valuable and perhaps unique product of the association between Andrea and Franciabigio." Compared with the frescoes which follow, there is a certain dryness and regularity in the central figure which may be due to the influence of Franciabigio, but the two kneeling angels are undoubtedly the work of Andrea's own hand, and are of extraordinary beauty.