tion: FREDERICK III CROWNING THE POET AENEAS SYLVIUS

(_After the fresco by =Bernardino Pinturicchio=. Siena: Sala
Piccolominea_)

_Brogi_]

In the Castello di S. Angelo he painted a vast number of rooms with
grotesques; and in the Great Tower, in the garden below, he painted
stories of Pope Alexander, with portraits of the Catholic Queen,
Isabella; Niccolo Orsino, Count of Pittigliano; Gianjacomo Trivulzi,
and many other relatives and friends of the said Pope, in particular
Caesar Borgia and his brother and sisters, with many talented men of
those times. At Monte Oliveto in Naples, in the Chapel of Paolo
Tolosa, there is a panel with an Assumption by the hand of
Pinturicchio. This master made an infinite number of other works
throughout all Italy, which, since they are of no great excellence,
and wrought in a superficial manner, I will pass over in silence.
Pinturicchio used to say that a painter could only give the greatest
relief to his figures when he had it in himself, without owing
anything to principles or to others. He also made works in Perugia,
but these were few. In the Araceli he painted the Chapel of S.
Bernardino; and in S. Maria del Popolo, where, as we have said, he
painted the two chapels, he made the four Doctors of the Church on
the vaulting of the principal chapel.

[Illustration: POPE ALEXANDER VI ADORING THE RISEN CHRIST

(_After the fresco by =Bernardino Pinturicchio=. Rome: The Vatican,
Borgia Apartments_)

_Anderson_]

Afterwards, having reached the age of fifty-nine, he was
commissioned to paint the Nativity of Our Lady on a panel in S.
Francesco at Siena. To this he set his hand, and the friars assigned
to him a room to live in, which they gave to him, as he wished,
empty and stripped of everything, save only a huge old chest, which
appeared to them too awkward to remove. But Pinturicchio, like the
strange and whimsical man that he was, made such an outcry at this,
and repeated it so often, that finally in despair the friars set
themselves to carry it away. Now their good fortune was such, that
in removing it there was broken a plank which contained 500 Roman
ducats of gold; at which Pinturicchio was so displeased, and felt so
aggrieved at the good luck of those poor friars, that it can hardly
be imagined--nay, he took it so much to heart, being unable to get
it out of his thoughts, that it was the death of him. His pictures
date about the year 1513.

A companion and friend of Pint