erugia, or in the Rome of the Renaissance
Popes. Here, then, before we proceed further with the story of his
art, which is practically the story of his busy life, there are some
points on which we shall not waste time in lingering. We saw how
Perugino, like Giotto himself and almost every great master of Italian
painting, had perfected his knowledge and trained his eye and hand in
the practice of fresco-painting; and we have next to notice that he
obtained fame among his contemporaries, as well as patronage, from his
knowledge and use of the new oil medium. Vasari on this point is most
explicit: "Certainly colouring was a matter which Pietro thoroughly
understood, and this both in fresco as well as in oil ..." and again
he mentions certain pictures specially as being painted in oil.

Of course one cannot set up even such direct evidence from Vasari as
conclusive, for we know there are many slips in his invaluable
chronicle; and this very point of the master's medium for his panel
pictures has been questioned by modern critics.

Dr. G. C. Williamson in his excellent monograph on Perugino refers to
Mr. Herbert Horne--a critic whose opinion on Italian art carries great
weight--as saying that "all Perugino's pictures were painted in
tempera on a gesso background," and suggests at least that an entirely
different technique can be traced in the Albani altar-piece and that
of the Certosa. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their notice of Perugino,
have analysed very carefully his technique, and shown how his flesh
tints were worked up from a warm brown undertone, through a
succession of glazes, each lighter in colour and fuller in body
than the last, "receiving light from without and transparency from
within," till the highest light was reached.

[Illustration: PLATE IV.--ST. MARY MAGDALEN

(In the Pitti Palace, Florence)

A very lovely figure idealised in type, and recalling, though younger,
the Virgin of the great Crucifixion in S. Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi at
Florence. Across the bosom, embroidered, runs the legend "S. Maria
Maddalena."]

In this analysis the authors have obviously and entirely the oil
medium in view; but there is another view which, as it seems to me,
may throw light upon the question.

Experiments have, as I understand, been made in late years in Germany
to combine the use of tempera with that of oil-painting--the object
being to combine the brilliancy and richness of oil with the lasting
colour of temp