His tendencies were essentially
towards form; his mind more occupied by the expression of his thought
than the thought itself. Like Taine, he considered it a greater
achievement to write three really fine lines, than to win a pitched
battle. His _Story of the Hermaphrodite_ imitated in its structure
Poligiano's _Story of Orpheus_ and contained lines of extraordinary
delicacy, power and melody, particularly in the choruses of hybrid
monsters--the Centaurs, Sirens and Sphinxes. His new tragedy, _La
Simona_, of moderate length, possessed a most singular charm. Written
and rhymed though it was, on the ancient Tuscan rules, it might have
been conceived by an English poet of Elizabeth's time, after a story
from the _Decameron_, and it breathed something of the strange and
delicious charm of certain of the minor dramas of Shakespeare.
On the frontispiece of the single copy, the author had signed his work:
A. S. CALCOGRAPHUS AQUA FORTI SIBI TIBI FECIT.
Copper had greater attractions for him than paper, nitric acid than ink,
the graving-tool than the pen. One of his ancestors before him, Giusto
Sperelli, had tried his hand at engraving. Certain plates of his,
executed about 1520, showed distinct evidences of the influence of
Antonio del Pollajuolo by the depth and acidity, so to speak, of the
design. Andrea used the Rembrandt method _a tratti liberi_ and the
_maniera nera_ so much affected by the English engravers of the school
of Green, Dixon, and Earlom.
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