Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/24

16 haps equal to any who have followed him down to the present time, as may he shown by the many fine drawings in perspective which fill his works. Among other instances of this kind is a vase, which is treated in such a manner that it can be seen before, behind, and at the sides, while the base and mouth are equally visible; without doubt a most astonishing thing. In this work the smallest minuti^ are attended to with the utmost exactitude, and each turn of every circle is foreshortened with the greatest delicacy. Having by these things acquired considerable eminence in the court of Urbino, Piero desired to make himself known elsewhere; he therefore proceeded to Pesaro and Ancona, whence, at the moment when he was most busily occupied, he was summoned by the Duke Borso, to Ferrara, where he painted many apartments of the palace. These chambers were afterwards destroyed by Duke Ercole the elder, who rebuilt the palace after the modern taste, one consequence of which was, that there now remains no work in that city from the hand of Piero, if we except a chapel in the church of Saint Agostino, which he painted in fresco, and even that has been grievously injured by the humidity of the place. From Ferrara Piero della Francesca was invited by pope Nicholas V. to Rome, where he painted two stories in the upper rooms of the palace, in company with Bramante of Milan. But these works also were destroyed in like manner by pope Julius II., to the end that Raffaello da Urbino might paint the imprisonment of St. Peter, with the miracle of the corporale of Bolsena in its place. At the same time there were likewise destroyed certain pictures which had