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Five weeks later, some alterations having been made in the lighting and arrangement of the studio, Isabella sent fresh directions for the painter's benefit. Still Angelo was unable to report progress, and in April, Isabella wrote indignantly, demanding Perugino to restore her twenty ducats, if his picture were not ready in a month's time, and telling Tovaglia to appeal to the Gonfaloniere in case of the master's refusal to refund the money. After writing this angry letter, the Marchesa apparently thought better of it, and sent a young Mantuan painter, Lorenzo Leombruno, to Florence, with a letter of recommendation to Perugino, desiring him to report on the state of the picture, and, if it were not yet begun, to claim her ducats. But when Leombruno reached Florence, at the end of April, Perugino had gone to Umbria, and did not return till the following autumn. Then, however, he professed the greatest anxiety to fulfil his obligations to the Marchesa, and Isabella sent him the following letter on the 31st of October, the same day on which she wrote to Leonardo asking him to paint a Christ:—

"Perusino,-We have seen, by two letters which you wrote to M. Angelo Tovaglia, that you hope soon to finish our Storia, which gives us great pleasure. But, as we feel the greatest impatience in the world to see it, we beg that you will finish it and let us have it as soon as possible. Farewell."

In point of fact, the picture had only just been sketched out on the canvas, as we learn from Agostino Strozza, the cultured Abbot of Fiesole, who, at Tovaglia's suggestion, visited Perugino's shop, and sent his report to Isabella early in November. Yet another agent was employed by the impatient

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Marchesa, in the person of Luigi Ciocca, who promised Isabella to pay the patriarch, as he called him, frequent visits, and accepted the commission the more readily because of the lovely maidens whom he found sitting as models to the painter. Perugino now pleaded poverty in excuse for his delays, saying that he lived from hand to mouth, and was compelled to do work which brought him ready money, and put off other commissions, but promised to finish the Marchesa's picture by Easter. When, however, Ciocca ventured to criticise the drawing of certain fauns in the picture, Perugino replied with so much arrogance that Ciocca's anger was roused, and he would have given him a rude answer if it had not been for the presence of the maidens. This remark alarmed Isabella, who wrote at once to Abbot Strozza, upon whose judgment in artistic matters she could rely, begging him to inspect Perugino's drawing, as she would rather give up the picture than have one which neither did her nor the painter honour. Leonardo's pupil, Salaï, was now called in to give his opinion, as Ciocca explains in the following letter:

"Most illustrious Madonna,-To-day the Reverend Abbot of Fiesole and I spent some time with Perugino, and told him our opinion of the work, and succeeded in persuading him to carry it swiftly to perfection, so much so that he has promised to use the greatest art, diligence, and attention to satisfy his honour and duty, and meet your wishes. I am also glad to tell you that a pupil of Leonardo Vinci, Salaï by name, young in years but very talented, whom I sent to Perugino, praises the fantasia greatly, and has corrected some of the small defects

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SALAI OFFERS HIS SERVICES which the abbot and I had pointed out. We will continue to do our utmost, in order that Your Excellency may be satisfied. This Salaï has a great wish to do some gallant thing for Your Excellency himself, so if you desire a little picture, or anything else from him, you have only to tell me the price you are ready to give, and I will see that you are pleased. Your servant, ALOISIUS CIOCCA."1 Florence, Jan. 22, 1505.

At Salaï's suggestion the artist rectified certain errors of drawing which satisfied Ciocca, who told the abbot that he thought the picture was as good as could be expected from Perugino, who excelled in the treatment of larger forms, but had little experience in handling small-sized figures and crowded compositions. Another point which disturbed Isabella considerably was that she heard Perugino had represented Venus as a nude figure, contrary to her express directions. This, she told the abbot, must not be allowed, since, if one single figure were altered, the whole meaning of the fable would be ruined.2

When the Marchesa's letter reached Fiesole, the abbot hastened to Perugino's shop, but it was only to find that the painter had left Florence. "I cannot understand the man's behaviour," he wrote to Isabella on the 22nd of February 1505, "and begin to fear he will prove me to be a liar. I find it is already a fortnight since he left Florence, and I cannot discover where he has hidden himself, and when he is likely to return. His wife and friends either do not know where he is or else they are hiding it from me, probably because, contrary to all his promises, he has undertaken some other work. 1 Braghirolli, op. cit. 2 Yriarte, op. cit.

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Not a day passes without my sending to inquire of him, and as long as he was working at the picture I called at least once a week. Perhaps a fresh advance of money might fire his zeal; but he is an unaccountable fellow, who does not seem to see any difference between one person and another. I never met a man in whom art can accomplish such great things, where nature has done so little." This contrast between the ideal beauty of Perugino's creations and the baseness of his conduct, his unscrupulous behaviour and greed for money, seems to have been felt by all who came in contact with the great Umbrian master, and agrees with Vasari's unfavourable estimate of his character.

A month later the abbot told Isabella that Perugino was still absent, but that, as he now discovered, he had gone to Perugia, and was detained there by a lawsuit on behalf of a friend. In reality the master had accepted a commission to paint a fresco at his native town of Citta della Pieve, which, after much bargaining, he executed in March 1505 (O.S. 1504). He went on to paint a S. Sebastian at the neighbouring town of Panicale, and did not return to Florence until the beginning of May, when Ciocca upbraided him with the shameful way in which he had treated the Marchesa. Upon which," writes Ciocca, "he declared, as usual, that he was sorely pressed for money, and muttered between his teeth that he knew he should be left with the picture on his back, and have to wait for his ducats. I told him to remember that he was not dealing with men of Spoleto or the March, but with a Marchioness of Mantua, a generous lady, who showed the highest appreciation of all that was good and beautiful, and,

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338 THE TRIUMPH OF CHASTITY above all, of works of art. Let him only finish his picture, and make it as perfect as possible, and Her Highness will show him that she keeps her engagements in a very different manner!" Once more the painter promised, for the hundredth time, to finish the picture in a fortnight, and, "strange as it seems," wrote Ciocca, "this time he has really kept his word!”

On the 7th of June, Isabella wrote to the painter herself, addressing him as her very dear and famous friend, and sending him the eighty ducats that were still due to him. Before her letter reached Florence the picture had been sent to Mantua, and on the 14th Perugino composed a letter, with the help of a less illiterate friend, thanking the Marchesa for the money, and saying that he hopes his work will satisfy her wishes and his reputation, since he, as is well known, has never failed to prefer honour to gain. He further explained that he had painted the picture in tempera, because Leombruno had told him that Messer Andrea Mantegna's pictures in the Marchesa's studio were executed in this medium.

On the 30th of June, Isabella wrote: "The picture has reached me safely, and pleases me, as it is well drawn and coloured; but, if it had been more carefully finished, it would have been more to your honour and to our satisfaction, since it is to hang near those of Mantegna, which are painted with rare delicacy. I am sorry that the painter Lorenzo of Mantua advised you not to employ oils, for I should have preferred this method, as it is more effective. None the less, I am, as I said before, well satisfied, and remain kindly disposed towards you." 1

1 Braghirolli, op. cit.