Chap. VI. BONFIGLI. 149 were, the humbler claims of men of whom they might at first have been but the apprentices. Pinturicchio’s connection with Bonfigli, as handed down to us by Vasari, was that of an assistant and friend. 1 As Timo- teo Viti, after leaving Francia, might have placed his experience at young Raphael’s disposal in the years of his upward struggle, and afterwards, by a natural change of parts, become the aid of his own pupil, so Bonfigli might have followed Pinturicchio to Rome, and helped him in the decorations of the Vatican. Vasari’s curt remark, that Bonfigli’s productions there were numerous, is expanded by Taia into a description of several frescos and copious “ grotesques ” executed at the Stanze during the reign of Innocent the Eighth (1482-92). 2 There are, however, in our days no frescos suggestive of Bonfigli in Rome except a Crucifixion and apostles in the centre of the nave and transept of S. Gio. Later- ano. 3 What we know of Perugian chronology is not against a visit to Rome by Bonfigli between 1484 and 1486. That he was disagreably busy in litigation with his own wife, Gioliva di Menicuccio, in 1483 and 1486, is proved by records in Mariotti; 4 whilst documents of a later date (1489), discovered by the same author, 5 show that his relations with his partner in life were cu riously improved when a third party forced him to defend an action in her favour. It is probable that this troublesome lady left him a widower shortly after, for in his will, dated July 6 th 1496, he bequeathed his landed property to a couple of churches, and the residue to S. * Vas. V. 275. * Vas. V. 275. Taia: Descr. of the Vatican, pp. 385. 407 to 409. ap. Vermiglioli 24. 56. 3 These subjects on the wall fac ing the tribune, lead one to sup pose they were originally by Bon figli or Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, yet an inscription declares that they and those on the other sides, which are copiously overpainted, are due to a Florentine under Urban the V th (1362^; and were restored (!) under Pius the VII th . 4 Lett. pitt. ub. sup. p. 141. 6 lb.ib.
