ky above; on the right of this is the
Archangel Raphael with the young Tobias; on the left the lovely figure
of the Archangel Michael, fully armed, with legs apart set firmly on
the ground, and left hand resting on his shield--a figure which the
master repeated more than once, notably in the great Assumption of the
Virgin in the Florence Academy.

Perugino was married at this time to the beautiful Chiara Fancelli,
and there is little doubt that she appears in more than one of his
pictures; in particular, she is said to have posed for the Archangel
Raphael of this Certosa altar-piece. Next to the beauty of type in
this and other figures, we have to notice the pure rich colouring and
the extraordinary beauty, in the central panel, of the landscape
background. All the Umbrian sense of space is there, in this valley
with its winding stream and blue distances, while in the middle
distance the delicately drawn trees are mirrored against the clear
sky. It is a picture one would love to live with, and, without
possessing the rapt devotion, the deep inner spirit, which pervades
the paintings of Angelico, its atmosphere is calm, restful, and in
that sense prayerful.

A whole group of other paintings, attractive and interesting, though
of lesser interest, belongs to this splendidly fertile period of
Pietro's genius. The Fano altar-piece--a Virgin and Child with
Saints--dates from a visit in 1497, and an Annunciation followed in
the next year, while at Sinigaglia and Cantiano there are very similar
works. Both the Fano pictures, which I have not seen, have been
carefully described by Dr. Williamson in his monograph on this artist.
The Madonna Crowned, with the Child on her knee and a group of
kneeling penitents behind, now in the Perugian Gallery, was painted
for the confraternity of San Pietro Martire in 1497; and there is in
the same gallery a somewhat similar work, painted for another
confraternity, with two saints (one of whom is St. Bernardino)
kneeling in the foreground, and in the distance Perugia, with the yet
untouched towers of the Baglioni.

To the same period have been attributed the Family of St. Anne, at
Marseilles, and the Virgin in Glory, of the Bologna Gallery, with its
armed St. Michael and its lovely female figure of St. Apollonia; and
now we come to a creation which, in its fine drawing and composition
and its atmosphere of tranquil beauty, takes a place beside the
Certosa altar-piece or that of the Perugian