porters, at very
great expense. To S. Giovanni in Monte at Bologna he sent a panel
with certain figures standing upright, and a Madonna in the sky.

[Illustration: FORTITUDE AND TEMPERANCE, WITH WARRIORS

(_After the fresco by =Pietro Perugino=. Perugia: Collegio del
Cambio_)

_Alinari_]

Thereupon the fame of Pietro spread so widely throughout Italy and
abroad, that to his great glory he was summoned to Rome by Pope
Sixtus IV to work in his chapel in company with the other excellent
craftsmen. There, in company with Don Bartolommeo della Gatta, Abbot
of S. Clemente at Arezzo, he painted the scene of Christ giving the
keys to S. Peter; and likewise the Nativity and Baptism of Christ,
and the Birth of Moses, with the daughter of Pharaoh finding him in
the little ark. And on the same wall where the altar is he painted a
mural picture of the Assumption of Our Lady, with a portrait of Pope
Sixtus on his knees. But these works were thrown to the ground in
preparing the wall for the Judgment of the divine Michelagnolo, in
the time of Pope Paul III. On a vault of the Borgia Tower in the
Papal Palace he painted certain stories of Christ, with some foliage
in chiaroscuro, which had an extraordinary name for excellence in
his time. In S. Marco, likewise in Rome, he painted a story of two
martyrs beside the Sacrament--one of the best works that he made in
Rome. For Sciarra Colonna, also, in the Palace of S. Apostolo, he
painted a loggia and certain rooms.

These works brought him a very great sum of money; wherefore, having
resolved to remain no longer in Rome, and having departed in good
favour with the whole Court, he returned to his native city of
Perugia, in many parts of which he executed panels and works in
fresco; and, in particular, a panel-picture painted in oils for the
Chapel of the Palace of the Signori, containing Our Lady and other
saints. In S. Francesco del Monte he painted two chapels in fresco,
one with the story of the Magi going to make offering to Christ, and
the other with the martyrdom of certain friars of S. Francis, who,
going to the Soldan of Babylon, were put to death. In S. Francesco
del Convento, likewise, he painted two panels in oil, one with the
Resurrection of Christ, and the other with S. John the Baptist and
other saints. For the Church of the Servi he also painted two
panels, one of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and in the other,
which is beside the sacristy, the Story of the Magi; bu