late. There has been
much dispute about the date of Botticelli's "Nativity," and some
defenders of Savonarola have hoped to read 1511 in the strange character
of its inscription, so that this beautiful picture, standing forth as
the work of one for many years under the influence of "the Frate," may
refute the common calumny that that influence was unfriendly to art. Our
catalogue, indeed, unhesitatingly asserts of Botticelli, that "he became
a follower of Savonarola and no doubt suffered from it;" but though
there seems to be really little doubt that the "Nativity" was painted in
1500, the inscription, with its mystic allusion to the Apocalypse, and
the whole character of the picture, afford unmistakable evidence of the
influence of Savonarola.'

Pietro Perugino, 1446, died of the plague at Frontignano in 1522.
Perugino is another painter who has been indebted to the last
Renaissance. His fame, in this country rested chiefly on the
circumstance that he was Raphael's master, whom the generous prince of
painters delighted to honour, till the tide of fashion in art rose
suddenly and floated old Pietro once more to the front. At his best he
had luminous colour, grace, softness, and enthusiastic earnestness,
especially in his young heads. His defects were monotony, and formality,
together with comparative ignorance of the principles of his art. His
conception of his calling in its true dignity was not high. His attempts
at expressing ardour degenerated into mannerism, and he acquired habits
and tricks of arrangement and style, among which figured his favourite
upturned heads, that in the end were ill drawn, and, like every other
affectation, became wearisome. In the process of falling off as an
artist, when mere manual dexterity took the place of earnest devotion
and honest pains, Perugino had a large studio where many pupils executed
his commissions, and where, working for gain instead of excellence in
art, he had the satisfaction, doubtless, of amassing a large fortune.
Among his finest works is the picture of an enthroned Madonna and Child
in the gallery of the Uffizi. Another fine Madonna with Saints is at
Cremona. His frescoes in the Sala del Campio at Perugia are among his
best works. The subjects of these frescoes are partly scriptural; partly
mythological. In the execution there is excellence alike in drawing,
colouring, and the disposal of drapery. A _chef d'oeuvre_ by the master
is the Madonna of the Certosa at Pav