Chap. VIII. MATTEO BALDUCCI, 301 Perugia. In private hands, but originally in S. Severo. A Virgin and child with a saint in front, and two more at the sides. Two angels attend in rear. Similar to the last. London. Dudley House. (Wood, tempera, a third life size.) Vir gin holding a bird by a string, the infant Christ in her grasp, with in an arch decorated with fruit and flowers. Like the preceding with a mixture of the schools of Squarcione and Crivelli. The painter of all these pieces is an Umbrian who preserves the stamp of his countrymen in the character, type, and action of his figures. The handling, the system of tempera, costumes and copious gildings are those of the San Severini, of Carlo and Vittorio Cri velli. Either he went early from Perugia to Sanseverino, or he was bom there. One traces the effort of a follower of Crivelli to assume the Perugian manner rather than that of a Perugian desi rous of appropriating that of Crivelli. The place where the records of Bernardino of Perugia have been found, is S. Severino. The pictures above described are like those of the San Severini and Crivelli, and those amongst them which are in the Gallery of Perugia, are attributed to Bernardino of Perugia. We therefore pos sess enough to determine the style of Bernardino who was so long confounded with Pinturicchio. Yet, we must not forget that another picture exists under the name of Bernardino of Perugia. It is in Paris. Louvre. No. 289. Subject; — the Crucifixion with numerous figures. Orsini assigns it (Guida di Perugia) to Pinturicchio with the date of 1518. It is an Umbrian work in oil, by a man of a coarse fibre, but full of power and life, a cotemporary of Giam battista Caporali, Cocchi, and Paris Alfani, but not the same artist as the author of the foregoing series, unless he completely altered his manner. A few lines also for Matteo Balducci. This third rate artist was born at Fontignano, and is known by a contract of 1509 (in which his name appears in the capacity of a witness) to have been in connexion with Pinturicchio (com. Vas. XI. 164). He had, however, gained no great proficiency there when Pinturicchio died. In 1517, he was bound apprentice to Bazzi for six years (Doc. Sen. III. 72). Gualandi has published a contract and payments for an altarpiece by him in S. Francesco di Pian Castagniano in Montamiata 1523—1524 (memorie ub. sup. ser. II. pp. 17. 18). There are returns of his property in Cittii della Pieve for the year 1543, and he was a municipal councillor in that place in 1550 and 1553 (Mezzanotte Vita di Perugino ub. sup. 286). Matteo Balducci is the author of the following pictures.
