era, in which yolk of egg was used with the pure
colours--and I believe that certain results have been attained. Now
this was just the position of painting in Perugino's day, when upon
the old tempera panels of the Giottesques and their successors the oil
technique of the Van Eycks was asserting its advantages; and I would
suggest that our master in this period of transition used both
mediums, and perhaps sometimes in the same picture may have passed
from one to the other. Here, too, his connection with the Gesuati may
have aided him materially, for Vasari tells us expressly how these
friars, for whom he worked very frequently, were practised in the art
of colours as well as enamel and glass-painting, and it was perhaps
from them that he had learned the secret which makes his altar-pieces
still so transparent and so pure in colour.

Another point which we cannot fail to notice at this period of
Pietro's life is his immense activity, his careful business relations
in contracts for his work, and his continual industry. He is so
constantly on the move that we begin to wonder how he found time for
his paintings: he is so continually productive that we wonder no less
that he found it possible to travel. His wanderings might be normal in
these days of Pullman-cars and express trains, but in an age when any
journey was a matter of difficulty and often personal danger they seem
almost phenomenal. From Orvieto (1490) he goes to Florence, from
Florence to Perugia, and thence to Rome; in 1493 he is married at
Fiesole to Chiara Fancelli; in 1494 he is at Venice, and probably at
Cremona, painting there his altar-piece at S. Agostino; then back
again to Florence, at Perugia in March of 1496, making his contract
for the famous Vatican Madonna, and at Pavia in October of the same
year, working at his no less famous altar-piece of the Certosa.

In all these visits he was either arranging for fresh work or leaving
some lovely altar-piece as a memorial of his presence; and next we
shall notice that the two real points of attraction in all this busy
life are Perugia, his native city, if not actually his birthplace, and
Florence. Rome, though he spent some time there, and completed much
important work, never, I think, had the same hold upon him; but
between Florence and Perugia he often seems to hesitate. And this is
really important, because the two tendencies, the Umbrian and the
Florentine, are always present in his art. He had complete