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Chap. VIII. BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO. 275 and he desires that in all things he should be con sidered as 'one of ours’”. 1 It is clear from this that Pinturicchio had been employed at Rome by the son of Alexander the Sixth. Whether he reaped any further advantage from the connection is hard to say, though it seems likely that the Duke of Valentino was too much absorbed from that time forward in his purpose of carving a principality out of Tuscany to think much of painting. We are too little acquainted with the relations between Pinturicchio and Perugino at this period to describe their relative position at Perugia. But it is obvious that Van- nucci held a higher rank than his friend, having been called from Florence to the Audience of the Cambio when Pinturicchio might have been engaged on the spot, but there is no suggestion in books or in tradition of the existence of any jealousy or rivalry between them. Both had their patrons; both had frequently more orders to execute than they could well attend to. Whilst Vannucci was finishing the Cambio, Pinturicchio was beginning a series for Trojolo Baglioni, protonotary and prior of the collegiate church of Spello. 2 In this remote locality, visited twenty years later by Peru gino, the wallpaintings of Pinturicchio are slowly mould ering away from the effects of damp. The Annunciation, the Nativity, and Christ disputing with the Doctors, are the subjects of the walls; four sybils are depicted in the ceiling; they are highly characteristic of the master. The composition of the Annunciation, essentially Um brian in its conception, and rich in the luxuriant archi tectural adornment peculiar to the Perugian school, is 1 This order is in the Connesta- 1 Kunstblatt (Stuttgart and Tiibin- bile-Alfani Archive at Perugia, gen) for 1860. and was communicated by Conte Gian Carlo Connestabile della ! 2 Areliiv. of S. M. Maggiore di Staffa to Mr. Alfred Reumont who Spello in Verm. ub. sup. pp. 88. published it in No. 47 of the 242. 18*