Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/293

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As many are aided by fortune, without being endowed with extraordinary ability, so are there numbers of able men, on the contrary, who are constantly persecuted by an adverse destiny. From this we perceive clearly, that fortune’s favourite children are those who depend on her only, unaided by ability of any kind, for it pleases her to exalt such by her favour, as would never have made themselves known by means of their own merit, and of this we have an instance in Pinturicchio, of Perugia; who, although he performed many labours, and received aid from many persons, had nevertheless a much greater name than was merited by his wmrks. Pinturicchio did indeed obtain much opportunity for practice, and had considerable facility in the execution of works of a large kind; he constantly kept about him a large number of assistants, from whom he had much help in his works. Having painted many pictures in his youth, under Pietro Perugino, his master, for which he obtained the third part of all the gains made by them; Pinturicchio was invited to Siena, where he was employed by cardinal Francesco Piccolomini to paint the library which had been erected in the cathedral of that city by Pope Pius II. It is indeed true, that the sketches and cartoons for all the stories which he executed in that place were by the hand of Raffaello da Urbino, then a youth, who had been his companion and fellow disciple with the above-named Pietro, whose manner had been perfectly acquired by RatFaello. One of these Cartoons is still to be seen in Siena, and some