ver the altar of
a chapel in S. Maria de' Servi in that city. This work completed, he
left for Foligno, where I found still in place his fresco of The
Baptism of Christ in the Church of La Nunziatella, and from Foligno
(1507-8) he was summoned by Pope Julius to Rome to decorate the
ceilings of his Vatican Palace. Bazzi (Sodoma) and Peruzzi were
already being employed on the same work, and at Rome Perugino met his
old friends and rivals in art--Signorelli, Bramantino, and others--and
introduced to them his own pupil Caporali. When Rafaelle was accepted
by Julius II. as his final and only master in the Vatican, and bidden
by the impetuous Pontiff to destroy all work of other artists, he
spared--with that _gentilezza_ which was in his character--the ceiling
paintings of his old master Perugino, which yet remain to us in the
Camera dell' Incendio. But, eclipsed by his brilliant young pupil,
there was clearly no room for old Pietro at Rome, and he journeyed
northward with Signorelli, breaking his journey to paint a Crucifixion
for S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi, and another painting at Siena of
the same subject for the Church of S. Agostino. A fragment which is in
the collection of Miss Hertz at Rome may belong to another picture due
to this Siena visit; and later we find him painting at Bettona, and
(1512-13) in his own birthplace of Citta della Pieve.

Vasari has a gossiping story that Pietro, "who trusted no one, and, in
going and returning from Castello della Pieve, carried all the money
he had about him always on his person," was robbed on the way, and
lost his money and nearly his life. And he adds next: "Pietro was a
person of very little religion, and could never be made to believe in
the immortality of the soul; nay, with words adapted to his evil mind,
he did most obstinately refuse every good path. He placed all his
hopes in the goods of fortune, and for money would have made every bad
contract." There were two reasons why Vasari should have been unfair
to Perugino--one, that he was an Umbrian, even though long resident in
Florence, the other, that he had come, as we have seen, into collision
with his admired Michelangelo. Even so, Vasari is much too good a
judge to depreciate his art, but he attacks the Perugian master
personally, and his remarks about religion do not count for much.
Vasari lived in an age--that of the counter-Reformation--which
combined in Italy the lowest level of morals with apparent orthodox