Texas, the expedition returned to the Mis-
sissippi River valley, where de Soto died of
a fever in 1542. His body was wrapped in
a blanket, weighted with stones, and sunk
in the river by his men in order to avoid a
clash with Native Americans, to whom he
had claimed to be an immortal god.
SEEALSO: Cortes, Hernán; exploration;
Pizarro, Francisco
de Vega, Lope ..................................
(1562–1635)
A prolific Spanish playwright, Félix Lope
de Vega y Carpi was born and raised in
Madrid, the son of a common tailor. He
wrote poetry and learned Latin at a young
age, and began writing plays at the age of
twelve. He joined the Spanish Armada dur-
ing a campaign against the Portuguese in
the Azores. After returning to civilian life,
he became a professional playwright. His
sharp tongue and hot temper, however,
got him banished from the capital for slan-
dering his former mistress, Elena Osorio.
In 1588 he volunteered for the Spanish
naval expedition against England; while
the powerful Armada was wrecked in the
turbulent seas of the English Channel, de
Vega survived and returned home. Penni-
less, he became a secretary to the Duke of
Alba. In 1595 he left the duke’s estate near
Toledo to return to Madrid. After a series
of misfortunes, including the loss of his
wife and son, he became a priest in 1614,
and was soon appointed an officer of the
Spanish Inquisition. In the meantime, he
wrote an astonishing number of stage
works: histories, romances, dramas, and
comedies, as well as ballads, sonnets, verse
histories and biographies, and other poetic
works. He drew on material from ancient
myths to current history, as well as his own
turbulent personal life, creating quick-
moving, cloak-and-dagger plots based on
the rivalries and adventures of Spain’s
kings and nobles. He turned out plays in a
few days or a week, making them to order
for certain actors and theaters that com-
missioned his work. Although none of his
plays was printed during his lifetime,
about 450 of them, about one-quarter of
all those he wrote, have survived to this
day.
SEEALSO: Cervantes, Miguel dedel Sartro, Andrea ...........................
(1486–1531)
Painter of Florence, Italy, born in the vil-
lage of Gualfonda. His name “del Sartro”
means the “son of a tailor;” his real name
was Andrea d’Agnolo. He apprenticed to a
goldsmith before taking up painting in the
studio of Piero di Cosimo. After finishing
his training he opened his own studio in
Florence. His works were influenced by
Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Fra Bar-
tolommeo. He had great skill in drawing
and in imitating the works of his better-
known rivals, and his art was in high de-
mand in Florence after Leonardo, Raphael,
and Michelangelo Buonarroti left the city
in the early sixteenth century. Del Sartro’s
first major work was a series of five fres-
coes for the brotherhood of the Servites,
who sought him out to decorate their Ba-
silica della Santissimia Annunziata. The
frescoes, depicting the life of a thirteenth-
century saint named Filippo Benizzi, were
so carefully drawn and executed that they
earned del Sartro the nickname of “Andrea
the Perfect.” He later completed theBirth
of the Virgin, his best-known fresco, influ-
enced by the works of Leonardo da Vinci.
For the convent of San Francesco he
painted an altarpiece, theMadonna of the
Harpies.
When two of his paintings were sent
to the royal court of the king of France atde Vega, Lope