d by Pier dei Franceschi, now by
Signorelli, and again later by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. If it be true that
the really splendid painting of the Sistine Chapel is due to him
entirely, it is, of course, his masterpiece, and reaches, indeed, a
level not very inferior to that of Signorelli himself. His most
important undisputed works are the above-mentioned painting in the
church of S. Francesco, Castiglione Fiorentino, the altar-piece in the
Collegiata of the same town, a S. Rock in the Gallery, and a fresco of
S. Jerome, in the Bishop's Palace, Arezzo, etc.

Another imitator of importance, Girolamo Genga, impressionable as his
nature was, yet has much individual excellence to distinguish him from
the rest of Signorelli's assistants. Born at Urbino in 1476, he was
placed, at the age of fifteen, in the studio of Signorelli, with whom,
according to Vasari, he remained for twenty years, becoming "one of the
best pupils that he had."[83] After assisting the master in the painting
of the Cappella Nuova, Orvieto, Genga (always according to the same
authority) placed himself to study perspective with Perugino, at the
time that Raffaelle was also under the influence of that painter. This,
as well as the fact that he was a native of Urbino, and had probably
also felt the impression of Timoteo Viti, would account for the enormous
influence Raffaelle's painting had upon his later work. He seems to have
had an extraordinary facility for changing his style; for, while under
the influence of Signorelli, as in the Petrucci Palace frescoes (Nos.
375 and 376 in the Gallery of Siena), his work bears so much resemblance
to that of the master, that so observant a critic as Morelli declared
the composition of both to be most certainly by Luca himself.[84] Genga
seems to have caught, not the superficial forms only, but also the
spirit of Signorelli in these frescoes, for in one--"The Flight of AEneas
from Troy"--there is an exaggeration of the characteristic energy and
movement, which, almost hysterical though it be, is yet successful and
full of real life; while in the swaggering strength of the nude figures
in "The Rescue of Prisoners" there is something of Luca's own dignity
and impressiveness. In his later work, although he never departs from
certain likenesses to his first master, yet he gives himself up to the
influence of Raffaelle unreservedly, as may be best seen in the Cesena
altar-piece, now in the Brera, Milan. Morelli writes of him: "Th