hat were therein were by the hand of
our Pietro Perugino.

[Illustration: THE DEPOSITION

(_After the panel by =Pietro Perugino=. Florence: Pitti, 164_)

_Anderson_]

Returning at length to this Pietro, I have to say that of the works
that he made in the said convent none have been preserved save the
panels, since those executed in fresco were thrown to the ground,
together with the whole of that building, by reason of the siege of
Florence, when the panels were carried to the Porta a S. Pier
Gattolini, where a home was given to those friars in the Church and
Convent of S. Giovannino. Now the two panels on the aforesaid
partition-wall were by the hand of Pietro; and in one was Christ in
the Garden, with the Apostles sleeping, in whom Pietro showed how
well sleep can prevail over pains and discomforts, having
represented them asleep in attitudes of perfect ease. In the other
he made a Pieta--that is, Christ in the lap of Our Lady--surrounded
by four figures no less excellent than any others in his manner;
and, to mention only one thing, he made the Dead Christ all
stiffened, as if He had been so long on the Cross that the length of
time and the cold had reduced Him to this; wherefore he painted Him
supported by John and the Magdalene, all sorrowful and weeping. In
another panel he painted the Crucifixion, with the Magdalene, and,
at the foot of the Cross, S. Jerome, S. John the Baptist, and the
Blessed Giovanni Colombini, founder of that Order; all with infinite
diligence. These three panels have suffered considerably, and they
are all cracked in the dark parts and where there are shadows; and
this comes to pass when the first coat of colour, which is laid on
the ground (for three coats of colour are used, one over the other),
is worked on before it is thoroughly dry; wherefore afterwards, with
time, in the drying, they draw through their thickness and come to
have the strength to make those cracks; which Pietro could not
know, seeing that in his time they were only just beginning to paint
well in oil.

Now, the works of Pietro being much commended by the Florentines, a
Prior of the same Convent of the Ingesuati, who took delight in art,
caused him to make a Nativity, with the Magi, on a wall in the first
cloister, after the manner of a miniature. This he brought to
perfect completion with great loveliness and a high finish, and it
contained an infinite number of different heads, many of them
portrayed from life,