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the capital of Urbino, whpre a house, hired from the brotherhood of S. M. della Misericordia, sheltered them. Saute, Giovanni’s father, succeeded, on the death of Peruz- zolo, to a huckster and general dealer’s business, 1 which prospered with him so that he was enabled to purchase lands of some value in 1457 and 1461, and in 1464 to buy a double house in the Contrada del Monte at Urbino famous now as the birth place of Raphael. Giovanni Santi alludes to the vicissitudes which his family under went, in a dedicatory epistle, written towards the close of his life to Guidubaldo of Montefeltro, describing the paternal homestead devoured by fire, the loss of sub stance and the struggles of the succeeding time. He was not bred to art, he admits, but, “having tried various ways of getting a livelihood, he gave himself up at last to the wonderful art of painting, of which he does not disdain to be called a follower.” 2 It is still a question when he began that art and under whom he learnt it. We have not to recapitulate how the Dukes of Urbino fostered architecture, sculpture, and painting in their capital, or to enumerate afresh the artists who laboured there. We do not know the date of Giovanni Santi’s birth; but we infer from the vivid memory which he had of the sack of Colbordolo, that in 1446 he was of an age to realize the terrors of the siege and of the cruelties which accom panied it. Raphael was box-n in the house which his grandfather Sante had purchased in 1464; and it may therefore be presumed that Giovanni Santi lived and kept shop in common with his father. We are induced to think that he had some standing as a painter in Urbino when Paolo Uccelli appeared in 1468, and when the com pany of the Corpus Domini charged him with the de fraying of expenses attending the stay of Piero della Francesca in 1469. That his own talents were considered subordinate to theirs might be deduced from their ern- ' Sante, Giovanni’s father, is j leoni. Elogio Stor. di Gio. Santi, called “triculus” a huckster in ub. sup. p. 129. a record of May 14G0. up. Fungi- | 2 Sec the dedicatory epistle in
