appears truly more than
alive; wherefore Modanino was remunerated by him with very great
rewards. But when the King died, as it has been said, Polito and
Benedetto returned to Florence; where, no long time after, Polito
followed Giuliano into eternity. The sculptures and pictures of these
men date about the year of our salvation 1447.

[Illustration: S. SEBASTIAN

(_After the marble by =Benedetto da Maiano=. Florence: Oratorio della
Misericordia_)

_Alinari_]

FOOTNOTE:

[2] Inlaying with various kinds of coloured wood.

PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

LIFE OF PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

[_PIERO BORGHESE_]

PAINTER OF BORGO A SAN SEPOLCRO

Truly unhappy are those who, labouring at their studies in order to
benefit others and to make their own name famous, are hindered by
infirmity and sometimes by death from carrying to perfection the works
that they have begun. And it happens very often that, leaving them all
but finished or in a fair way to completion, they are falsely claimed by
the presumption of those who seek to conceal their asses' skin under the
honourable spoils of the lion. And although time, who is called the
father of truth, sooner or later makes manifest the real state of
things, it is none the less true that for a certain space of time the
true craftsman is robbed of the honour that is due to his labours; as
happened to Piero della Francesca of Borgo a San Sepolcro. He, having
been held a rare master of the difficulties of drawing regular bodies,
as well as of arithmetic and geometry, was yet not able--being overtaken
in his old age by the infirmity of blindness, and finally by the close
of his life--to bring to light his noble labours and the many books
written by him, which are still preserved in the Borgo, his native
place. The very man who should have striven with all his might to
increase the glory and fame of Piero, from whom he had learnt all that
he knew, was impious and malignant enough to seek to blot out the name
of his teacher, and to usurp for himself the honour that was due to the
other, publishing under his own name, Fra Luca dal Borgo, all the
labours of that good old man, who, besides the sciences named above, was
excellent in painting.

Piero was born in Borgo a San Sepolcro, which is now a city, although it
was not one then; and he was called Della Francesca after the name of
his mother, because she had been left pregnant with him at the death of
her husband, his father,