Beneath each of these figures is a sentence in the manner of a motto, taken from the writings or sayings of the personage represented above, and appropriate in some sort to the place wherein the artist has painted it. In one of the ornaments of this work Pietro placed his own portrait, which has a very animated appearance, and beneath it he wrote his name in the following manner:[1]—
Petrus Perusinus egregius pictor,
Perdita si fuerat pingendo Me retulit artem;
Si nunquam inventa esset hactenus, ipse dedit.
Anno D. md.
This work, an exceedingly fine one, and which has been more highly extolled than any other executed by Pietro in Perugia,[2] is still held in great estimation by the people of that city, as the memorial of so renowned an artist of their native place.[3] In the church of Sant’ Agostino, also in Perugia, he painted the Baptism of the Saviour by St. John, in the principal chapel; this is a very large picture, entirely isolated, and surrounded by a very rich “ornament” or frame work, and on the back, or that side opposite to the choir, the master further depicted the Birth of Christ, with heads of saints in the upper part of the painting; in the predella are several historical scenes, represented by small figures very carefully executed. In the chapel of San Niccolo, in the same church, he painted a picture for Messer Benedetto Calera.[4]
Having afterwards returned to Florence, Pietro painted a picture for the monks of the Cestello, representing San Bernardo; as he also did another, with our Saviour on the Cross, the Virgin, San Benedetto, San Bernardo, and San Giovanni, for the Chapter House. At Fiesole, in the church
- ↑ The inscription was not written by Pietro, but by his fellow citizens; nor was his portrait introduced without an invitation to the master to place it where it is found.
- ↑ It has been engraved by Cecchini. Over the figures are female forms representing such virtues as the personages beneath were supposed to be distinguished by; over Fabius Maximus, Socrates and Nuraa Pompilius, is Prudence, for example; over Camillus, Pittacus, and Trajan Justice, &c., &c. The figure of Daniel is said to be a likeness of Raphael in his youth. —See Mariotti, Lettere Perugine.
- ↑ The Hall of the Exchange, observes an Italian writer, is to the fame of Pietro Perugino, as are the Stanze of the Vatican to that of Raphael.
- ↑ For minute details respecting these works, which are still in the church, see Orsini, as before cited.
