_Ascribed to Perugino_ (Umbrian: 1446-1523). _See 288._
Around this little picture of the Umbrian School, bought by Sir Edward
Poynter at Rome in 1894, a fierce battle of the critics has raged. Sir
Edward's own description may first be cited:--"A perfectly genuine
work by a scholar of Perugino, probably done in his studio, and, in my
opinion, possibly by the young Raphael. The most characteristic point,
besides the beautiful painting of the figure of the Saviour, is the
drawing of the hands, which is precisely Raphael's. On the other hand,
the heads are not specially Raphaelesque, nor is the colour as pure
and transparent as is usual even in his early work; at the same time,
such characteristics as do not agree with what we know of his work
might possibly be due to its being a youthful performance. The painting
of the trees is quite peculiar, and different from the treatment to
be found in the works of Perugino, or, indeed, of any work of the
school that I had seen. Some two or three years afterwards I saw the
predella painting of 'St. John Preaching' by Raphael, belonging to the
Marquis of Lansdowne, and was very interested to find in it the same
treatment of the leaves of the trees--that is to say, that, instead
of the minute and delicate sprays of foliage, so characteristic of
Perugino's own work and of, so far as I know, most of his followers,
the trees have only a few sprays of large and freely painted leaves."
According to many of Sir Edward's critics, the picture is a "detestable
little production"; while one of them ascribes it, as a work of the
nineteenth century, to Micheli, "a maker of old masters." (See a
copious correspondence in the _Athenæum_ and the _Times_, during March
and April, 1907).