172 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. VII. rentine examples, have told him the wonders of the Car mine, of Santa Croce, S. Maria Novella, and S. Marco. We know that he frequented the Carmine; 'and in the Brancacci chapel he might meet all the rising men of his generation, 1 Michael Angelo, Credi, and Leonardo, whom Santi couples with him in the lines: “Due giovin par d’etate e par d’amori Leonardo da Vinci e’l Perusino Pier della Pieve ch’e un divin pittore.” 2 After leaving Piero della Francesca, from whom per spective and the chymistry of painting had received so great an impulse, he would strive for admission into an atelier in which his knowledge in these branches might be improved. 3 For chymical researches he could not find a better place than Verrocchio’s shop. He would be the companion of Leonardo to whom the science of art owes its chief progress, and to whom the perfection of the innovating system of mediums at Florence is due. Both might labour simultaneously to fathom the secrets of co lours and of mediums, the one with the precision of a trained mathematician, the other with the feeling of a colourist. 4 Both would necessarily go deep into the tcchnica, seeking and seai'ching like the Van Eycks, and applying the results according to the powers with which nature had endowed them. It would thus happen 1 Vasari says lie studied in the Brancacci (Vol. III. 162). 2 See the Rhyme chronicle in Pungileoni, Elogio storicodi Gio. Santi p. 73. 3 We may believe that Perugino learnt perspective fromPiero della Francesca. But at Perugia he might also have perfected his knowledge of the science under Pacioli who had a chair of mathe matics there in 1478. See Tira- boschi, Stor. della Lett. Vermi- glioli, vita di Pinturicchio ub. sup. p. 254, and Mariotti, Lett. ub. sup. p. 127. 4 Quest’ arte (painting in oil) says Vasari, . . . Andrea del Casta- gno la insegno agli altri Maestri; con i quali si andh ampliando l’arte ed acquistando sino a Pietro Peru- gino, a Leonardo da Vinci ed a Rapliaello da Urbino. Vas. Intro- duz. I. p. 163. 4; and again: “Cer- tamente i colori furono della intel- ligenza di Pietro conosciuti, e cosi il fresco come Polio; onde obligo gli lianno tutti i periti artefici che per suo mezzo hanno cognizione de’ lumi che per le sue opere si veggono”. Vas. VI. 39.
