Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/398

368 Painting in Umbria. one time studied under Verrocchio at Florence. Among his earlier works we must notice the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (1480), representing the Journey of Moses and Zip- porah, the Baptism of Christ, and the Investiture of S. Peter (see p. 361). To his best manner belong the Madonna with four Saints, in the Vatican ; a Descent from the Cross, in the Pitti Palace ; an Ascension in the museum of Lyons, and the frescoes in the Cambio at Perugia. Our National Gallery possesses three paintings by Perugino — a Madonna and Child, a Madonna adoring the Infant Christy with the Archangels Michael and Raphael, and a Madonna and Child with SS. Francis and Jerome. Perugino's best works are remarkable for an enthusiastic earnestness of expression and a grace and softness of colouring seldom surpassed ; they are, however, somewhat wanting in energy of composition and variety. Our illustration (Fig. 131) may serve to give some idea of his peculiarities. Perugino's greatest pupil was Raphael, of whom we shall presently speak. We must here name Bernardino di Biagio, called Pinturicchio (1454 — 1513), who was a pupil of Perugino, and who probably assisted his master in the Sistine Chapel, and executed some fine frescoes in the cathedral of Spello, and in the Libreria of the cathedral of Siena, — his masterpiece, scenes from the Life ofEnea Silvio Piccolomini, — besides several easel pictures — of which the best, the Virgin between SS. Jerome and Augustine, is in the Academy at Perugia — and four good specimens (one, the Story of Griselda, is in three parts) in the National Gallery ; we must also notice the Spaniard, Giovanni di Pietro (called Lo Spagno), who died about 1530. An Ecce Homo by him is in the National Gallery. The Glorification of the Virgin, there, is doubted by some writers, who ascribed to him the