Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/328

320 Beneath each of these figures is a sentence in the manner of a motto, taken from the writings or sayings of the personage represented above, and appropriate in some sort to the place wherein the artist has painted it. In one of the ornaments of this work Pietro placed his own portrait, which has a very animated appearance, and beneath it he wrote his name in the following manner: — Petrus Perusinus egregius pictor,
 * Perdita si fuerat pingendo Me retulit artem;
 * Si nunquam inventa esset hactenus, ipse dedit.
 * Anno D..

This work, an exceedingly fine one, and which has been more highly extolled than any other executed by Pietro in Perugia, is still held in great estimation by the people of that city, as the memorial of so renowned an artist of their native place. In the church of Sant’ Agostino, also in Perugia, he painted the Baptism of the Saviour by St. John, in the principal chapel; this is a very large picture, entirely isolated, and surrounded by a very rich “ornament” or frame work, and on the back, or that side opposite to the choir, the master further depicted the Birth of Christ, with heads of saints in the upper part of the painting; in the predella are several historical scenes, represented by small figures very carefully executed. In the chapel of San Niccolo, in the same church, he painted a picture for Messer Benedetto Calera. Having afterwards returned to Florence, Pietro painted a picture for the monks of the Cestello, representing San Bernardo; as he also did another, with our Saviour on the Cross, the Virgin, San Benedetto, San Bernardo, and San Giovanni, for the Chapter House. At Fiesole, in the church