_Perugino_ (Umbrian: 1446-1523). _See 288._
A very "Peruginesque" example--full, that is, of the peculiar sentiment
and apparent affectation which caused Goldsmith to make the admiration
of him the test of absurd connoisseurship.[208] But "what is commonly
thought affected in his design," says Ruskin, "is indeed the true
remains of the great architectural symmetry which was soon to be lost,
and which makes him the true follower of Arnolfo and Brunelleschi,"
the great Florentine builders (_Ariadne Florentina_, § 72). The picture
displays also in perfection "that quality of tone in which Perugino
stands unsurpassed; and the rich and liquid, but subdued colour is
steeped in a transparent atmosphere of pale golden glow" (Burton).
The history of this picture affords a good instance of that enrichment
of the National Gallery with "graceful interludes by Perugino," saved
from "the wreck of Italian monasteries," of which Mr. Ruskin speaks
in his preface to this work. It was painted by Perugino in 1507, to
be placed over an altar in memory of a master-carpenter at Perugia.
It afterwards passed into the possession of the monks who owned the
church. They sold it, with the chapel in which it was placed, to the
Cecconi family, from whom it passed by inheritance to the family Della
Penna. In 1822 the head of this family removed it to his palace,
leaving a copy of it in its place in the church, and in 1879 the
picture itself was bought from the Baron della Penna for the Nation.
1077. ALTAR-PIECE (dated 1501).
_Borgognone_ (Lombard: about 1455-1523). _See 298._
A picture of the "man of sorrows." On either side of the infant Christ
are shown the scenes of his suffering[209]--
In stature grows the Heavenly Child,
With death before his eyes;
A Lamb unblemished, meek and mild,
Prepared for sacrifice.
For sacrifice--but also for redemption, and so above the throne are
the angels of God, playing the glad music of death swallowed up in
victory. In the right-hand compartment is Christ bearing his cross; in
the left his agony in the garden. The three disciples are here crouched
asleep lower down, and behind a wall are the Roman soldiers, whilst
from above an angel brings a cup with a cross, two spears, and a crown
of thorns in it: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared an
angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him" (Luke xxii. 42, 43).