Natali, director of Renaissance and Mannerist paintings at Florence's Uffizi Gallery, presents a summation of decades of work on del Sarto (1486-1530), one of the creators of the Mannerist style in Florence and France. Natali sets his vision of the artist against the traditional view, begun by Vasari, that del Sarto was a timid soul who wasted his talent. Instead, he shows del Sarto to have chosen a path that he rigorously followed in light of his humility and in a circle of like-minded friends and fellow artists. Not a catalogue raisonn?e (Natali defers to Sydney J. Freedberg's Andrea del Sarto, 1963, and John Shearman's Andrea del Sarto, 1965, as essentially complete catalogs), this book is rather a meditation based on a close reading of the artist's environment and a close look at the pictures. The text is readily accessible to the general reader, with a clear translation from the Italian original, excellent illustrations of del Sarto's Mannerist colors and forms, and a generous layout; beyond that, Natali's revisionist argument will attract an academic audience.AJack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago

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