200 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Ciiap. VII- saints for the Magistracy, and that of the Virgin and child for S. Pietro Martire, of Perugia. In every in stance he maintained the ground he had previously won, or he exhibited his fullest powers as a colourist. We may be grateful indeed for the preservation of these ex amples in their original loveliness, and value them for affording that insight into Perugino’s progress in oilpaint ing which is denied in the faded though still beautiful ones of the same period previously described. The Christ on the Mount is now in the Academy of Florence, 1 where one sees how well Perugino has placed the Redeemer on an elevation, kneeling and praying, whilst an angel brings the cup. The three apostles lie sleeping on the foreground as Iscariot, in the distance, leads the soldiers to the capture. With much thought in the conception, and much freshness in the types, the picture gains an ad ditional charm from the hour with which Perugino marks the time of the action. The sun has just set; and a strong reflection still rests on the Saviour and apostles who detach themselves in gloom from the pale horizon of the sky. In this twilight the forms are finely brought out by well modelled relief. In the Crucifixion, the Virgin and S. Jerom stand at the sides of the cross in a landscape after sunset; and in order to strengthen the melancholy of the scene, Perugino gives it a mysterious depth of atmosphere in a low key of warmth, and thus corrects the defects of figures made out with less than usual care and conscientiousness. 2 The Madonna and saints executed in 1496 for the chapel of the Magistracy at Perugia, and now at the Va tican, is, unlike the two last, a bright day-light piece. The Madonna is enthroned in front of a colonnade on a pedestal between the four patron saints of the city. Her shape is slender, and her appearance extremely gentle. 1 Academy of Arts. Salle des grands Tableaux, ifo. 53. 2 Academy of Arts. Galerie des grands Tableaux. No. 56, noticed in its original place by Richa (Cliiese II. 301).