Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/31

Rh and no pig was forthcoming, the children seeing the season passing away, had lost all hope; when at length, a peasant of the deanery fell into their hands. This man desired to have a San Martino painted for the fulfilment of a vow, but had no other means of payment than a pig, worth five lire. Coming to Lorentino, therefore, he told him that he wished for the St. Martin, but had only the pig for payment. Whereupon they made an agreement; Lorentino painted the San Martino, and the countryman brought him the pig, and so the saint provided for the poor children of the painter. Piero da Castel della Pieve was also a disciple of Piero della Francesca, and decorated an arch over Sant’ Agostino with a figure of St. Urban for the nuns of Santa Caterina, since destroyed in the reconstruction of the church. In like manner, Luca Signorelli da Cortona was among the disciples of Piero, and did him more honour than all the others.

The works of Piero Borghese were executed about the year 1458. At the age of sixty he was attacked by a catarrh, in consequence of which he became blind, and thus lived till he had attained his eighty-sixth year. He left considerable property among which were certain houses in Borgo, which he had himself built, but which were burnt and destroyed in the strife of factions during the year 1536. He was honouraljly interred by his fellow citizens in the principal church, which originally belonged to the monks of Camaldoli, but is now the episcopate. His books, which are for the most part in the library of Frederick H., duke of Urbino, are of so much value, that they have deservedly obtained for him the name of the first geometrician of his time.