ful altar-piece, which is divided into six compartments, the
central panel being occupied by the "Nativity," with above the
"Crucifixion" and "Annunciation," and at the sides the figures of four
adoring saints. The landscape background is here of extraordinary
beauty, reflecting the quiet serenity of the kneeling figures, and on
the pillars of the colonnade behind the "Nativity" the master has
signed his work--

PETRUS DE PERUSIA PINXIT 1491.

The Albani altar-piece had always ranked as one of Perugino's
loveliest and most typical creations, worthy to stand beside the
beautiful altar-piece of the Certosa of Pavia, of which England is now
the fortunate possessor in her National Gallery; but to this busy and
fertile period in the master's career belong a number of attractive
and interesting works, which we must now endeavour in some measure to
classify and analyse.

I have already alluded to the altar-piece of S. Domenico at Fiesole;
but Pietro painted another altar-piece for the same church in 1493,
which is now in the Uffizi Gallery, a "Virgin Enthroned," between
Saints Sebastian and John Baptist, dated and signed, as usual, "Petrus
Perusinus." The "Crucifixion" of La Calza (Florence), showing very
markedly the influence of Luca Signorelli, may have probably preceded
this; but to the same year of 1493 belongs the beautiful "Pieta" (Dead
Christ) of the Florence Accademia, and the wonderful and most
impressive "Crucifixion" of S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi (Florence)
was commissioned by Pietro Pucci in 1493, though it was not completed
till April of 1496. Unsurpassed here is the master in the solemnity,
the sense of aloofness from earthly things, which he conveys to us in
these six figures--the Crucified, with as spectators His mother, the
beloved disciple, and kneeling saints, seen against the wide stretch
of such an Umbrian background as we may see from Perugia or Cortona or
Assisi; and next in importance to this masterpiece of religious art is
the famous "Pieta" of S. Chiara, of which Vasari speaks with such
enthusiasm.

"He worked out for the ladies of Santa Chiara a painting of the dead
Christ, with colouring so lovely and so fresh that by good craftsmen
it was held a thing marvellous and excellent. In this work certain
very lovely heads of old men are to be seen, and likewise certain
Maries who, with weeping faces, regard the dead man with reverence and
wondrous love; and moreover he made a l