244 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. VII. all cases where, death ensued from the contagion. 1 Peru- gino died and was buried in a field at Fontignano. His sons 2 piously contracted with the monks of S. Agostino (1524) that his body should be taken out of its uncon secrated resting-place to hallowed ground. 3 In return for this service they agreed to pay for the completion of unfinished portions of the altarpiece of their father. 4 If, during the subsequent days of disturbance which history has chronicled, their tender solicitude was deceived, it is not to them that blame can be attached. The mortal shell of their father remained in the grave to which it had been first consigned, and no one knows where lie the bones of Pietro Perugino. 5 A duty that now claims performance is, to notice works of Perugino (or bearing his name in various galleries) which have not been described in the foregoing nar rative : — Perugia. S. Maria Nuova, but now in Gallery, No. 2. Transfigu ration, wood, tempera. This is a reduction from the cartoon of the same subject used for the fresco of the Cambio; the figures being reversed. Old varnish has given a crystalline reddish appearance to it. Extensive retouching has also taken place. The predella (now unnumbered in gallery) contains the Nativity between the An nunciation and the Baptism (tempera). The beauty and freshness of its colour tell how fine the Transfiguration may have been. The compositions are the usual ones. The conception of the Annuncia tion recalls that of the Fano altarpiece; and the Virgin’s movement is a Florentine reminiscence. The Baptism is in so far varied that 1 Mezzanotte ub. sup. 184, and Tranquilli in Mariotti, Lett. ub. sup. p. 189. 2 Perugino left three sons, Fran cesco, Michael-Angelo, and Giov. Battista. See the root of the fami ly in Orsini, ub. sup. p. 237. 3 It had been Perugino’s wish that he might be buried in S. M. de’ Servi at Florence; he had pur chased a burial place there for himself and his descendents in 1515. The record is in Gualandi, Memorie ub. sup. Ser. IV. p. 115. 4 The record in full is in Ma riotti Lett., notes to pp. 182 and foil*. 5 Vasari says (VI. p. 51): that Pe rugino was honorably buried, but there is every reason to doubt this assertion. See the Memorie of Gia como Giappesi in Mariotti, Lett. p. 186.