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tender adoration, and female saints in gorgeous apparel standing by in elegantly sought attitude; there is a calm sweetness about them all; they seem so innocent and gently happy; it would be pity to disturb them. Yet, this dreamy impression is created by no cloudiness of form or yearning after effect. The graceful and slender figures are drawn with a clear outline. The dresses are crisp in fold, the hems are minutely overlaid with golden borders and jewels; the veils are subtle in texture and lightly disposed. True harmonies of pure colour variegate the vestments where the bright cloth turns its bright lining to the eye, or the mantle decks the tunic. Tempera was never handled with more skill to yield by stippling a warm flesh-tone of a light fair yellow, fused with great softness into grey shadow. Still one sees something of the anxious care natural to one who has not yet settled into the resolute assertion of himself. The child is affected and a little unmeaning, the dra peries are not yet cast with breadth. The contours are too sharp, and the forms are a little lean. Perugia, how ever, had not as yet boasted of an artist equal to such a work as this, and if Vannucci had produced it, there it is probable that the fact would have been chronicled and preserved. The names of painters without renown, and the contracts into which they entered at Perugia, whilst Pietro was refusing commissions at Florence, exist to this day. They interest us indirectly by proving that none of the great Perugians, Bofifigli, Fiorenzo, Perugino, or Pinturicchio, were open to public engagements in their own town during three or four seasons preceding the close of 1483. An altarpiece, intended for the chapel of the Magistracy, was ordered from an obscure artist called Pietro di Maestro Galeotto in 1479, who stipulated for two year’s time to finish it, and who died in May 1483 without having done any more than the frame. 1 Six 1 See the contract of June 7,1479, in Mariotti, Lott.. (p. 144) records of advances in 1480 (ib. 145), and the registry of Pietro di Galeotto’s death. May 1483. (ib. 146.)
