_Ascribed to Peruzzi_ (Sienese: 1481-1536).
Baldassare Peruzzi, an excellent draughtsman and fair painter,
was most distinguished as an architect. His life, says Sir
Edward Poynter, was one which any artist might envy. "Brought
up at his own wish as a painter at Siena, he soon gave
evidence of such talent that he was entrusted with important
commissions at Rome, making acquaintance by this means with one
of the great Roman patrons of art, Agostino Chigi, the same
for whom Raphael painted a chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo.
Baldassare found leisure to devote himself to the study of
architecture; from this time he seems to have had almost the
happiest lot that one can imagine falling to an artist, that
of building palaces and decorating them with his own hand"
(_Lectures on Art_, ch. viii.). Among these were the Farnesina
Palace for Agostino Chigi, and the Palazzo Massimi, which is
"justly considered one of the most beautiful and ingeniously
constructed in Rome." It is characteristic of the taste of the
time that what Vasari most admired in Peruzzi's buildings was
"the decoration of the Loggia at the Villa Farnesina, painted
in perspective to imitate stucco work." "This is done so
perfectly," he says, "with the colours, that even experienced
artists have taken them to be works in relief. I remember that
Titian, a most excellent and renowned painter, whom I conducted
to see these works, could by no means be persuaded that they
were painted, and remained in astonishment when, on changing
his point of view, he perceived that they were so." Baldassare
also designed the fortifications of Siena, and on the death
of Raphael was appointed architect of St. Peter's at Rome.
His life was not free from adventures. At the sack of Rome
in 1527 he was plundered of all he possessed by the Imperial
soldiers, and was forced to paint a picture of their general,
the Constable Bourbon, who had been killed in the assault of
the city. He died at Rome, not without suspicion of having been
poisoned, and was buried in the Pantheon, near the tomb of
Raphael.
There is a drawing by Peruzzi of this subject in possession of the
National Gallery, No. 167. Girolamo da Treviso (623) made a copy of
it, which is perhaps this work. The figures of the three magi are
interesting as having been portraits of Titian, Raphael, and Michael
Angelo.