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316 S A S S A S ence. This necessarily brought him into bad odour with Francis, who refused to be appeased by some endeavours which the painter afterwards made to reingratiate him- self. No serious punishment, however, and apparently no grave loss of professional reputation befell the defaulter.

In 1520 he resumed work in Florence, and executed the Faith and Charity in the cloister of Lo Scalzo. These were succeeded by the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias, the Beheading of the Baptist, the Presentation of his Head to Herod, an allegory of Hope, the Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias (1523), and the monochrome of the Visitation. This last was painted in the autumn of 1524, after Andrea had returned from Luco in Mugello, – to which place an outbreak of plague in Florence had driven him, his wife, his step-daughter, and other relatives. In 1525 he painted the very famous fresco named the Madonna del Sacco, a lunette in the cloisters of the Servi; this picture (named after a sack against which Joseph is represented propped) is generally accounted his master- piece. His final work at Lo Scalzo, 1526, was the Birth of the Baptist, executed with some enhanced elevation of style after Andrea had been diligently studying Michel- angelo's figures in the sacristy of S. Lorenzo. In the following year he completed at S. Salvi, near Florence, a celebrated Last Supper, in which all the personages seem to be portraits. This also is a very fine example of his style, though the conception of the subject is not exalted. It is the last monumental work of importance which Andrea del Sarto lived to execute. He dwelt in Florence throughout the memorable siege, which was soon followed by an infectious pestilence. He caught the malady, struggled against it with little or no tending from his wife, who held aloof, and died, no one knowing much about it at the moment, on 22d January 1531, at the comparatively early age of forty-three. He was buried unceremoniously in the church of the Servi.

Various portraits painted by Andrea are regarded as likenesses of himself, but this is not free from some doubt. One is in the London National Gallery, an admirable half-figure, purchased in 1862. Another is at Alnwick Castle, a young man about twenty years of age, with his elbow on a table. Another at Panshanger may perhaps represent in reality his pupil Domenico Conti. Another youthful portrait is in the Uffizi Gallery, and the Pitti Gallery contains more than one. Among his more renowned works not already specified are the following. The Virgin and Child, with St Francis and St John the Evangelist and two Angels, now in the Uffizi, painted for the church of S. Francesco in Florence; this is termed the Madonna di S. Francesco, or Madonna delle Arpie, from certain figures of harpies which are decoratively introduced, and is rated as Andrea's masterpiece in oil-painting. The altar- piece in the Uffizi, painted for the monastery of S. Gallo, the Fathers Disputing on the Doctrine of the Trinity – Sts Augustine, Dominic, Francis, Lawrence, Sebastian, and Mary Magdalene – a very energetic work. Both these pictures are comparatively early – towards 1517. The Charity now in the Louvre (perhaps the only painting which Andrea executed while in France). The Pieta, in the Belvedere of Vienna; this work, as well as the Charity, shows a strong Michelangelesque influence. At Poggio A Caiano a celebrated fresco (1521) representing Julius Cæsar receiving tribute, various figures bringing animals from foreign lands – a striking perspective arrangement; it was left unfinished by Andrea, and was completed by Alessandro Allori. Two very remarkable paintings (1523) containing various incidents of the life of the patriarch Joseph, executed for the Borgherini family. In the Pitti Gallery two separate compositions of the Assump- tion of the Virgin, also a fine Pieta. In the Madrid Museum the Virgin and Child, with Joseph, Elizabeth, the infant Baptist, and an Archangel. In the Louvre the Holy Family, the Baptist pointing upwards. In the Berlin Gallery a portrait of his wife. In Panshanger a fine portrait named Laura. The second picture in the National Gallery ascribed .to Andrea, a Holy Family, is by some critics regarded as the work rather of one of his scholars – we hardly know why. A very noticeable incident in the life of Andrea del Sarto relates to the copy, which he produced in 1523, of the portrait group of Leo X. by Raphael; it is now in the Naples Museum, the original being in the Pitti Gallery. Ottaviano de' Medici, the owner of the original, was solicited by Duke Frederick II. of Mantua to present it to him. Unwilling to part

with so great a pictorial prize, and unwilling also to disoblige the duke, Ottaviano got Andrea to make the copy, which was con- signed to the duke as being the original. So deceptive was the imitation that even Giulio Romano, who had himself manipulated the original to some extent, was completely taken in; and, on showing the supposed Raphael years afterwards to Vasari, who knew the facts, he could only be undeceived when a private mark on the canvas was named to him by Vasari, and brought under his eye. It was Michelangelo who had introduced Vasari in 1524 to Andrea's studio. He is said to have thought very highly of Andrea's powers, saying on one occasion to Raphael, "There is a little fellow in Florence who will bring sweat to your brow if ever he is engaged in great works."

Andrea had true pictorial style, a very high standard of correct- ness, and an enviable balance of executive endowments. The point of technique in which he excelled least was perhaps that of dis- criminating the varying textures of different objects and surfaces. There is not much elevation or ideality in his works – much more of reality. His chiaroscuro is not carried out according to strict rule, but is adjusted to his liking for harmony of colour and fused tone and transparence; in fresco more especially his predilection for varied tints appears excessive. It may be broadly said that his taste in colouring was derived mainly from Fra Bartolommeo, and in form from Michelangelo; and his style partakes of the Venetian and Lombard, as well as the Florentine and Roman – some of his figures are even adapted from Albert Dürer. In one way or other he continued improving to the last. In drawing from nature, his habit was to sketch very slightly, making only such a memorandum as sufficed to work from. The scholars of Andrea were very numerous; but, according to Vasari, they were not wont to stay long, being domineered over by his wife; Pontormo and Domenico Puligo may be mentioned.

In our account of Andrea del Sarto we have followed the main lines of the narrative of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, supplemented by Vusari, Lanzi, and others. There are biographies by Biadi (1829) and by Von Reumont. (W. M. R.)

SASANIANS. See PERSIA. SASINE. See SEISIN. SASSARI, the chief town of the northern province of the island of Sardinia (Italy), is situated in the midst of orange and olive groves at a height of 650 feet above the sea, 12½ miles from Porto Torres, on the railway to Chilivani, a junction on the main line from Terranova to Cagliari. Till about 1860-65 it was surrounded by a high wall built in the 14th century and strengthened by twenty- six large square towers from 60 to 80 feet high. The castle dates from 1327-1331. Originally built in the first half of the 15th century, when the see of Turns (Porto Torres) was removed to Sassari, the cathedral was restored in 1531 and received a new façade in the 18th century. The city besides contains a municipal palace, re- built since 1820, an episcopal palace dating originally from the 13th century, and a university (faculties of law and medicine, with 87 students in 1881-2) founded by Philip III. of Spain in 1617, as well as barracks, law courts, hospitals, and asylums. There is a white marble fountain – Fonte di Rosello – on the east side of the town, sur- mounted by a statue of St Gavinus, patron saint of the city, and from this source water is still hawked about the streets, though waterworks have recently been constructed by the municipality at a cost of upwards of £60,000. Most of the streets are narrow and tortuous, and vehicles are generally drawn by oxen. Sassari is separated by a low and swampy stretch of country from its port at Porto Torres – a village on the site of Turris Libisonis, Colonia Julia, with a basilica of the 11th century (S. Gavino) and the ruins of a temple of Fortune now called Palazzo del Re Barbaro. The population of the city was 22,945 in 1862, and 31,596 in 1881.

Sassari appears in the archives of the monastery of San Pietro di Silki in 1118 as Tathari, and the local pronunciation is still Tatari. In 1294 the town was declared an independent republic, and a very liberal code of laws was published in 1316 (edited by Don Pasqualo Tola, Cagliari, 1850). Sassari was sacked by the French in 1527, and in 1796 the Sardinian popular party seized the city, expelled the viceroy, and dismantled the castle and "palaces."

SÁSSERÁM, a subdivision of the Sháhábád district, Bengal, India, between 24° 31′ and 25° 23′ N. lat., and between 83° 33′ and 84° 30′ E. long., with an area of 1493