sari's account, which is still of first value save where it is
opposed by stronger evidence, is that he was sent as a poor boy to
grind colours and run errands in the "bottega" of some Perugian
painter. The impression which is here given of his extreme poverty is
probably exaggerated. The Vannucci family had enjoyed the citizenship
of Perugia since 1427, nor was it in Perugia but in their native
township of Castel (later Citta) della Pieve that his son Pietro was
born to Cristofano Vannucci.

But we may take it that he left the paternal roof while yet a child
(he was probably not more than nine years old), and was apprenticed,
as above stated, in Perugia--though to what artist Vasari does not
tell us. Here, therefore, conjecture is rife, and Buonfigli,--that
delightful decorator of the Perugian Palazzo Pubblico,--Fiorenzo di
Lorenzo, and even Niccolo da Foligno himself have been assigned by
various critics as his teacher. Personally, I incline to Fiorenzo di
Lorenzo, whose easel paintings in the Gallery of Perugia seem to
foreshadow the typical Perugino background; but it is yet more
probable that either as a master or (as suggested by Crowe and
Cavalcaselle) as a journeyman associate he may have come under the
influence of Piero della Francesca, and gained from him that intimate
knowledge of perspective which appears in all his later works.

In any case this unknown master--if we are to believe Vasari--was an
inspiring influence; for not only "did he never cease to set before
Pietro the great advantages and honours that were to be obtained from
painting ... but when the boy was wont to frequently inquire of him in
what city the best artists were formed ... he constantly received the
same reply, namely, that Florence was the place above all others wherein
men attain to perfection in all the arts, but more especially in
painting." I spare to my reader the long harangue which Vasari here puts
into the mouth of young Pietro's unknown teacher, and which the critic
pretty certainly evolved out of his own inner consciousness; and
come to his conclusion, which is, that our Pietro, with every goodwill
to improve himself, came to Florence, and entered the famous bottega of
Andrea del Verrocchio. Nor do I see any sufficient ground to reject this
statement, though Morelli in his "Italian Painters" (vol. i. p. 107)
emphasises very properly the importance of his earlier training, "in all
probability at Perugia, under Fiorenzo di Lo