Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/11

Rh having no other, as indeed he never had more, should herself be the nurse of the child. Giovanni further desired that in its tender years, the boy should rather be brought up to the habits of his own family, and beneath his paternal roof, than be sent where he must acquire habits and manners less refined, and modes of thought less commendable, in the houses of the peasantry, or other untaught persons. •As the child became older Giovanni began to instruct him in the first principles of painting, perceiving that he was much inclined to that art and finding him to be endowed with a most admirable genius; few years had passed therefore before Raphael, though still but a child, became a valuable assistant to his father in the numerous works which the latter executed in the State of Urbino.

At length this good and affectionate parent, knowing that his son would acquire but little of his art from himself, resolved to place him with Pietro Perugino, who, according to what Giovanni had been told, was then considered to hold the first place among the painters of the time. Wherefore, proceeding to Perugia for that purpose, and finding Pietro to be absent from the city, he occupied himself, to the end that he might await the return of the master with the less inconvenience in the execution of certain works for the church of San