renzo, and then at Arezzo
under Piero della Francesca," and will not have him described "as
unconditionally the pupil of Verrocchio." The point to notice here is
that Pietro must have been a fairly advanced artist when he went,
obviously to "finish" himself, to Florence, and that in his earlier work
it is not so much the direct influence of Verrocchio which counts as
that of his countrymen, the Umbrians.

[Illustration: PLATE II.--ST. SEBASTIAN

(In the Musee du Louvre, Paris)

Perugino painted this Saint many times, there being more than six
different renderings still existing. The picture reproduced here is
one of the best, both in the modelling of the nude and the sentiment
of the figure and the lovely Umbrian landscape. It came (in 1896) from
the Sciarra Colonna Gallery. Underneath the figure will be seen the
words, _Sagitte tue infixe sunt michi_.]

But at Florence he must certainly have been in these years, going
there (as the author I have just quoted suggests) "soon after 1470,"
probably, for a time at least, within Verrocchio's workshop, and
drinking in all the glorious message of Florentine art in the company
of the younger generation of her craftsmen, among whom Giovanni Santi,
in his rhyming chronicle of art, mentions directly another pupil of
Verrocchio, the young Leonardo da Vinci, as his friend and associate:

"_Due giovin par d'etate e par d'amori
Leonardo da Vinci e'l Perusino
Pier della Pieve_...."

That he must have been already advanced in his art in those days is
borne out by the fact that only ten years later (1481) he was summoned
by Pope Sixtus to Rome, to decorate, in the company of the great
Florentine masters--Ghirlandajo, Cosimo Rosselli, and Botticelli--the
walls of the "Sistine" Chapel in fresco. Prior to this great
commission, Milanesi notes (1475) frescoes painted by him in the great
hall of the Perugian Palazzo Pubblico, which have entirely
disappeared, and others (1478) in a chapel at Cerqueto, of which only
a "St. Sebastian," very Umbrian in character, now survives.

"Whence it came about," says Vasari, "that the fame of Pietro was so
spread abroad within Italy and without that, to his great glory, he
was brought by Pope Sixtus to work at Rome in his chapel, in company
with other excellent craftsmen: in the which place he made the story
of Christ where he gives to St. Peter the keys, and likewise the
'Nativity' and 'Baptism of Christ' and the 'Finding of Moses'