Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/294

286 of the sketches, by the hand of Raffaello, are in our book. In this work, which is divided into ten compartments or stories, Pinturicchio was aided by numerous disciples and assistants, all of the school of Pietro Perugino. The first division or picture represents the birth of Pope Pius II., which took place in the year 1405; he was the son of Silvio Piccolomini and Victoria his wife, the baptismal name of Pope Pius II. was Eneas, and he was born in Yaldorcia, in the castle of Corsignana, now called Pienza, from his name of Pius, he having afterwards elevated the place to the rank of a city. In this picture are portraits from the life of the above-named Silvio and Victoria, and in the same work the Pope is himself seen as he proceeds with Domenico, cardinal of Capranica, to cross the Alps, which are covered with ice and snow, on his way to the Council of Basle.

In the second picture is the same Eneas, when sent by the council on various embassies and to different legations; to Strasburg namely, whither he proceeded three times; to Trent, to Constance, to Frankfort, and into Savoy. In the third picture is Eneas, when despatched by the Anti-pope Felix, as ambassador to the Emperor Frederick III. With this sovereign, the grace, address, and eloquence of Eneas, found so much favour, that he was crowned with laurel as a poet by Frederick, who appointed him protonotary, received him into the number of his friends, and made him his principal secretary. In the fourth picture Eneas is sent by the Emperor Frederick to Pope Eugeni us IV., by whom he was first made bishop of Trieste, and afterwards archbishop of Siena, his native city. In the next compartment (the fifth) is the same Emperor, who is proceeding into Italy to receive the crown of the empire, and who therefore dispatches Eneas to Telamone, a port belonging to the Sienese, for the purpose of meeting Leonora his consort, who was to come thither from Portugal. In the sixth picture Eneas is sent by the Emperor to Pope Calixtus III., in order to induce the latter to make war against the Turks; and in this compartment there also appears the above-named Pontiff, by whom Eneas is entrusted with the task of negociating