t, since
these are not of the same excellence as the other works of Pietro,
it is held to be certain that they are among the first that he made.
In the Chapel of the Crocifisso in S. Lorenzo, the Duomo of the same
city, there are by the hand of Pietro the Madonna, the other Maries,
S. John, S. Laurence, S. James, and other saints. And for the Altar
of the Sacrament, where there is preserved the ring with which the
Virgin Mary was married, he painted the Marriage of the Virgin.

[Illustration: PIETRO PERUGINO: TRIPTYCH

(_London: National Gallery, 288. Panel_)]

Afterwards he painted in fresco the whole of the Audience Chamber of
the Cambio,[4] adorning the compartments of the vaulting with the
seven planets, drawn in certain cars by diverse animals, according
to the old usage; on the wall opposite to the door of entrance he
painted the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ, with a panel
containing S. John the Baptist in the midst of certain other saints.
The side-walls he painted in his own manner; one with figures of
Fabius Maximus, Socrates, Numa Pompilius, F. Camillus, Pythagoras,
Trajan, L. Sicinius, the Spartan Leonidas, Horatius Cocles, Fabius,
Sempronius, the Athenian Pericles, and Cincinnatus. On the other
wall he made the Prophets, Isaiah, Moses, Daniel, David, Jeremiah,
and Solomon; and the Sibyls, the Erythraean, the Libyan, the
Tiburtine, the Delphic, and the others. Below each of the said
figures he placed, in the form of a written motto, something said by
them, and appropriate to that place. And in one of the ornaments he
made his own portrait, which appears absolutely alive, and he wrote
his own name below it in the following manner:

PETRUS PERUSINUS EGREGIUS PICTOR.
PERDITA SI FUERAT, PINGENDO HIC RETULIT ARTEM;
SI NUNQUAM INVENTA ESSET HACTENUS, IPSE DEDIT.
ANNO D. 1500.

This work, which was very beautiful and more highly extolled than
any other that was executed by Pietro in Perugia, is now held in
great price by the men of that city in memory of so famous a
craftsman of their own country. Afterwards, in the principal chapel
of the Church of S. Agostino, the same man executed a large panel
standing by itself and surrounded by a rich ornament, with S. John
baptizing Christ on the front part, and on the back--that is, on the
side that faces the choir--the Nativity of Christ, with certain
saints in the upper parts, and in the predella many scenes wrought
very diligently with little figures