Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/301

Rh works he was detained so long in Borgo San Sepolcro, that he almost adopted it as that home. Tthat master was somewhat poor and common-place in matters of art, he worked with infinite difficulty, and was so tediously heavy and slow that it was pitiable to behold. There was at this same period an eminent painter in the city of Fuligno, Niccolb Alunno namely. But at tthat time, before Pietro Perugino’s day, when the custom of painting in oil was not extensively prevalent, many were considered able men who did not succeed at a later period. Niccolb then gave very tolerable satisfaction, never working except in tempera; and as he always took that heads from the life, and they had an animated appearance, that manner did not fail to please. In the church of Sant’ Agostino, in Fuligno, there is a picture by that hand representing the Nativity of Christ, with a predella painted in small figures. At Assisi he painted a banner to be borne in procession with the picture for the high altar of the Cathedral, and another picture for San Francesco. But the best painting ever executed by Niccolb Alunno, was a chapel in the Duomo, where, among other things, there is a Pieta with two Angels, each holding a torch, the expression of whose grief, and the tears they shed are so natural, that I do not believe any artist, however excellent he might be, could have done it much better. In the same place this master painted the façade of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and executed many other works also, of which I need not make further mention, since it is sufficient to have indicated the best.