Chap. VII. PIETRO PERUGINO. 17? months later Vannucci chanced to visit Perugia, and he solemnly promised that he would deliver the altarpiece in March 1484, and one of its sections in the first four weeks of December 1483. The reason why it was de sirable that one portion should be done before the rest, is clear. There were eleven priors in the college; and they were only elected for a term. The lunette was to contain the Virgin of Mercy and the portraits of the priors and their notary in a kneeling posture beneath the Virgin’s cloak. The magistrates naturally wished to secure the completion of this part of the agreement be fore their tenure of office expired. But Perugino, who was perhaps on his tvay from Florence to Rome, had probably intended to leave the commission in the hands of some apprentice. At all events, he quitted Perugia without beginning the required portraits, and we see distinct symptoms of irascibility in the wording of a new contract in which the authorities excuse themselves for the breach of the old one. The order was transferred to Santi di Apollonio who took 1 the likenesses from life; but the rest was left unfinished, and it was soon discovered that no more trust was to be put in Santi than in Pietro di Galeotto, or in Perugino. Chuckling and mindless of this disappointment, the runaway was doubtless on the road to Rome, where for a time his frescos were to fill the post of honour at the Sixtine chapel. We say for a time, because a greater painter followed, and destroyed his work. Every one knows that Perugino covered the altar face of the chapel, dividing it into three fields. In the central fresco of the Assumption he intro duced the kneeling portrait of Sixtus the Fourth, in the side ones the Nativity and the Finding of Moses. Michael Angelo’s Judgment occupied their place some years later; and all that remains of Perugino is the “Moses and 1 See the documents relative to . tract is dated Nov. 28, 1483, that this incident in Mariotti, Lett. ub. j of Santi di Appollonio Dec. 31, of sup. p. 146. 7. 8. Perugino’s con-1 the same year. VOL. III. 12
