Chap. I LUCA SIGNORELLI. 23 chapel in the Duomo, and a picture of S. Mary Mag dalen of that date. 1 From this time forward, Signorelli resided frequently in Sienna, where Pinturicchio, Bazzi, and himself, assisted by Genga and others, competed with the Paccliiarottos, Pacchias, and their local guild-brethren. There was plenty to do for them all, in a city where such enterprising per sons as the Piccolomini and the Petrucci, contended with each other in display as well as in wealth and power. The cartoons which Signorelli completed there in 1506 for the pavement of the Duomo, were never put in hand; 2 but they would occupy his leisure hours, and leave him time to compose, paint, and set together the numerous panels which form the great altarpiece of 1507 in S. Me- dardo at Arcevia. There are not many liner or more pleasing creations of his than this, although it has suf fered so much from scaling and from dust. The central Virgin and child are still Umbrian, but the five pre- della pieces, Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration, Flight into Egypt, and Massacre of the Innocents, have a pecu liar charm on account of their grace and carefulness, and a Peruginesque feeling in the fine proportions and move ment of draped or naked figures, which remind one of the youth of Raphael. 3 1 The Magdalen is now in the “opera”;it is inscribed: “Conservat pa. pacis conservatrici ex se con- sueto MDIIII.” There is a record of the payment to Signorelli for this piece. Yet the rude handling of it might suggest the exclusive em ployment of an assistant. 2 Gaetano Milanesi, Discorso etc. ub. sup. 131 and annot. Vas. (VI. 158). 3 Arcevia is near Fabriano in the heart of the Umbrian country. The altarpiece is in courses with pilasters containing seven half lengths of saints apiece. In the principal course the Virgin and child are enthroned between SS. Sebastian Andrew, Rocli, and an other saint. In the upper course the Eternal is between the Baptist and three apostles. The arms of the “comune” of Arcevia are on panels at the extremities of the predella. One reads on the step of the throne: “Lucas Signorellus pingebat MDVII.” In the cappella del Sacramento of the same collegiate church of S. Medardo is an altarpiece, in the centre of which is a Baptism of Christ inscribed on a scroll: “Lu cas Signorelli da Cortona.” Yet it looks like a feeble imitation of the j master’s style by a pupil. Four in- I cidents fill each of two pilasters and are painted by a rude hand of ! the school of Alitnno. The base of