of antiquity, the prophets and the sibyls who announced Christ's advent. The roof is covered with arabesques of delicate design and dainty execution, labyrinths of fanciful improvisation, in which flowers and foliage and human forms are woven into an harmonious framework for the medallions of the seven planets. The woodwork with which the hall is lined below the frescoes, shows to what a point of perfection the art of intarsiatura had been carried in his school. All these decorative masterpieces are the product of an ingenuous style. Uninfluenced by the Roman frescoes imitated by Raffaelle in his Loggie of the Vatican, they breathe the spirit of the earlier Renaissance, which created for itself free forms of grace and loveliness without a pattern, divining by its innate sense of beauty what the classic artists had achieved. Take for an example the medallion of the planet Jupiter. The king of gods and men, hoary-headed and mild-eyed, is seated in his chariot drawn by eagles; before him kneels Ganymede, a fair-haired, exquisite, slim page, with floating mantle and ribands fluttering round his tight hose and jerkin. Such were the cup-bearers of Galeazzo Sforza and Gianpaolo Baglioni. Then compare this fresco with the Jupiter in mosaic upon the cupola of the Chigi chapel in S. Maria del Popolo at Rome. A new age of experience had passed over Raffaelle between his execution of Perugino's design in the one and his conception of the other. He had seen the marbles of the Vatican, and had heard of Plato in the interval the simple graces of the earlier Renaissance were no longer enough for him; but he must realise the thought of classic myths in his new manner. In the same way we may compare this Transfiguration with Raffaelle's last picture, these sibyls with those of S. Maria della Pace, the sages with the school of Athens, these warriors with the Battle of Maxentius. What is characteristic of the full-grown Raffaelle, is his universal comprehension, his royal faculty for representing past and present, near and distant, things the most diverse, by forms ideal and yet distinctive. Each phase of the world's history and of human activity receives from him appropriate and elevated expression. What is characteristic of the frescoes in the Sala del Cambio, and indeed of the whole manner of Perugino, is that all subjects, sacred or secular, allegorical or real, are conceived in the same spirit of restrained and well-bred piety. There is no attempt at historical propriety or dramatic realism. Grave, ascetic, melancholy faces of saints are put on bodies of kings, generals, sages, sibyls, and deities alike. The same ribands and studied draperies clothe and connect all. The same conventional attitudes of meditative gracefulness are repeated in each group. Yet the whole effect, if somewhat feeble and insipid, is harmonious and thoughtful. We see that each part has proceeded from the same mind, in the same mood, and that the master's mind was no common one, the mood itself was noble. Good taste is everywhere apparent the work throughout is a masterpiece of refined fancy. To Perugino the

representative imagination was of less importance than a certain delicate and adequately ideal mode of feeling and conceiving. The consequent charm of his style is that everything is thought out and rendered visible in one decorous key.'-7. A. Symonds.

The second chamber, an exquisitely beautiful chapel, is painted by Giannicola Manni, a contemporary of Perugino, with the Meeting of the Virgin and S. Elizabeth, the Birth of the Baptist, the Feast of Herod, the Beheading of the Baptist, and the history of S. John the Baptist. The Sibyls on

either side of the entrance are believed to have been executed before the Sibyls in S. Maria della Pace; the Fathers on the ceiling, and the Apostles surrounding God the Father, are glorious works of art. The altarpiece, of the Baptism of our Saviour, is by Perugino.

Close to the Sala del Cambio (on the left) is the immense and stately Palazzo Pubblico, of mutilated but rich Italian Gothic. The splendid round-headed door has seven varieties of Gothic ornaments and huge griffins and lions in the lunette are the three protectors of Perugia, S. Lorenzo, S. Ludovico, and S. Ercolano. Above are two long ranges of beautiful Gothic windows. Between those in the lower range are some richly wrought iron cressets. In the interior there is not much to see except a fresco in the Sala del Consiglio Comunale of Julius III. restoring to the city the magistrates who had been taken away by Paul III.; and, in the chapel of the Priors, a fresco of Benedetto Bonfigli, 1460.

Between the palace and the cathedral is the beautiful Fountain designed by Fra Bevignato and Boninsegna, and adorned with sculpture by Niccolò Pisano, who was then in his seventy-fourth year, and his son Giovanni. The bronze work, of 1277, was by Maestro Rosso of Perugia, called 'Il Padellaio.'

6

In the year 1274, Niccolò Pisano went to Perugia to design a fountain for the piazza. He did not, however, reside there during the time necessary for its construction; but after planning out its details returned to Pisa, whence he sent the statuettes which he had undertaken to make for the upper basin to his son Giovanni, who remained at Perugia to superintend the work, and sculpture the bas-reliefs about the lower basin.

In the upper of these basins, stands a column supporting a bronze tazza, from which rises another column with nymphs round its base, and griffins and lions upon its summit. The twenty-four statuettes attributed to Niccolò, which are set against pilasters, are simply designed, broadly-draped figures, the best of which represent Melchizedek, SS. Peter, Paul, and John, and the Catholic Church. The fifty bas-reliefs sculptured by Giovanni Pisano represent the months, the signs of the zodiac, the trivium and quadrivium, prophets, apostles, emperors and kings, some of Aesop's fables, and various heraldic devices. Proud of their beautiful fountain, the magistrates enacted severe laws for its preservation, in which it is mentioned as the most valuable possession of the city, and as unique not only in Italy, but in the world; encomiums which, even in its present state of decay, seem little exaggerated.'—Perkins's Tuscan Sculptors.

The fountain seldom or never plays, but the water bursts forth beneath. The grey fountain with the dark end of the cathedral, here inlaid with red and white marble, is a beautiful subject for an artist. So also is the site of the Palazzo Pubblico towards the fountain. It has a loggia supported by three arches of red and white marble, and is adorned with bronze beasts, the Griffin for Perugia, the Lion as the emblem of the Guelfs. Opposite, at the corner of the Via del Commercio, is another old Gothic palace.

Attached to the cathedral is the pulpit whence Fra Roberto da Lecce in 1448 used to move audiences of 15,000 persons to cries of 'Misericordia.' From the same pulpit, S. Bernardino had preached twenty-three years before during one of those religious revivals which were even more frequent in Italy in the Middle Ages than in England in the 19th century.

"On September 23, 1425," says Graziani, the chronicler of Perugia, "there were, as far as we could reckon, upwards of 3,000 persons in the cathedral. The sermon of San Bernardino da Massa was from the sacred scripture, reproving men of every vice and sin, and teaching Christian living. Then he began to rebuke the women for their paints and cosmetics, and such-like wanton customs and in like manner the men for their cards and dice-boards and masks and amulets and charms : insomuch that within a fortnight the women sent all their false hair and gewgaws to the convent of S. Francis, and the men their dice, cards, and such gear, to the amount of many loads. And on October 29, Fra

Bernardino collected all these devilish things on the piazza, where he erected a kind of wooden castle between the fountain and the Bishop's Palace; and in this he put the said articles, and set fire to them; and the fire was so great that none durst go near; and in the fire were burned things of the greatest value, and so great was the haste of men and women to escape the fire that many would have perished but for the quick aid of the burghers." Together with this onslaught upon vanities, Fra Bernardino connected the preaching of peace and amity. It is noticeable that while his sermon lasted and the great bell of S. Lorenzo went on tolling, no man could be taken or imprisoned in the city of Perugia.'-7. A. Symonds.

'Often and often have those steps of the Duomo run with blood of Baglioni, Oddi, Arisposti, and La Staffa. Once the whole church had to be washed with wine and blessed anew before the rites of Christianity could be resumed in its desecrated aisles. It was here that within the space of two days, in 1500, the catafalque was raised for the murdered Astorre and for his traitorous cousin Grifonetto Baglioni. Here, too, if more ancient tradition does not err, were stretched the corpses of twenty-seven members of the same great house at the end of one of their grim combats.'-7. A. S.

The Cathedral of S. Lorenzo is Gothic, of the end of the 15th century. Externally it is rugged and unfinished, but not without grandeur. The interior is modernised, poor and gaudy.

Right, 1st Chapel. Surrounded by a beautiful screen of wrought iron. A Deposition by Baroccio (1569), considered to be his masterpiece, and some beautiful wood-carving by Ercoli di Tommaso and Jacopo Fiorentino. The painted window, representing the preaching of S. Bernardino of Siena, was executed by Constantino da Rosaro and Fra Brunacci of Monte Casino from a drawing by Arrigo Fiamingo (1565). Close by is a fine tomb of a bishop, 1451.

The 2nd Chapel (the Baptistery) has a canopy in low relief, by Pietro Paolo da Como (1477).

The 3rd Chapel (of the Sacrament), designed by Galeazzo Alessi, has frescoes by Leopardi.

On the left wall of the Right Transept is a monument with a papal tiara over the grave of three Popes-the great Innocent III., who died here on his way to Pisa, to reconcile that city with Genoa, July 11, 1216; Urban IV., 1264, the French enemy of Manfred, who sum

Richard of S. Germano, after reporting the death of Innocent III. in the simple words-Languore correptus, feliciter expiravit '-quotes from a contemporary poet

the lines

'Nox accede, quia cessit sol; lugeat orbis

In medio lucis lumen obisse suum.'

moned his fellow-countryman Charles of Anjou to the throne of Sicily; and Martin IV., 1282.

The Winter Choir contains an altar-piece by Luca Signorelli, 1484. A Madonna enthroned with saints, which,' says Kugler, combines

a very harsh naturalism with a noble sentiment.'

The 1st Chapel on left, also with a beautiful screen, is called Il Santo Anello, from an ancient ring of onyx, believed to have been the wedding-ring of the Virgin. It is preserved in a beautiful tabernacle by Roscetto (1517). Here was the famous Sposalizio of Perugino, now at Caen, in Normandy.

The stalls of the choir are by Giulio da Majano and Domenico Tasso Fiorentino (1491).

In the neighbouring Canonica four papal councils were held, viz., under Honorius III., 1226; Clement IV., 1265; Coelestine V., 1294; Clement V., 1305.

At the north-west of the cathedral, in the Piazza del Papa, is the famous bronze Statue of Pope Julius III., erected by the citizens in gratitude for his restoration of privileges which his predecessor had taken away, and executed by Vincenzio Danti in 1555.

Through all this petty tumult which keeps beguiling one's eyes and upper strata of thought, it is delightful to catch glimpses of the grand old architecture that stands round the square. The life of the flitting moment, existing in the antique shell of an age gone by, has a fascination which we do not find in either the past or present, taken by themselves. It may seem irreverent to make the gray cathedral, and the tall, time-worn palaces echo back the exuberant vociferation of the market; but they do so, and cause the sound to assume a kind of poetic rhythm, and themselves look only the more majestic for their condescension.

'On one side, there is an immense edifice devoted to public purposes, with an antique gallery, and a range of arched and stone-mulliored windows, running along its front; and by way of entrance it has a central Gothic arch, elaborately wreathed around with sculptured semicircles, within which the spectator is aware of a stately and impressive gloom. Though merely the municipal council house and exchange of a decayed country town, this structure is worthy to have held in one portion of it the parliament hall of a nation, and in the other, the state

''L'anello, con quale S. Giuseppe sposò Marià Vergine, è una pietra d'un color trasparente azzurro, e d'un contorno assai grosso; ecco com' io l'ho veduto; ma dicono che quell' anello cambia miracolosamente colore e forma, a misura degli occhi diversi che se gli avvicinano.'-C. Goldoni, Memorie, cap. 11.