Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/296

first antiquities which at that time began to be held in esteem.^[1] This library, in which were placed all the books left by Pope Pius^[2] II., was not entirely completed when the above-named Cardinal Francesco, nephew of Pius II., was himself elected Pope. In memory of his uncle he determined to take the name of Pius III., and the same Pinturicchio was then commissioned to depict the coronation of Pope Pius III., in a very large painting, over that door of the library which opens into the cathedral.^[3] This picture occupies the whole extent of the wall; it has many portraits from the life, and beneath it is the following inscription:—

Pius III. Senensis, Pii II. nepos mdiii. Septembris xxi, apertis electus suffragiis, octavo Octobris coronatus est.

While Pinturicchio was working in Pome with Pietro Perugino, during the pontificate of Pope Sixtus, he had been also in the service of Domenico della Povere, Cardinal of San Clemente, wherefore, that prelate having built a very fiue palace in the Borgo Vecchio, determined that the whole should be painted by Pinturicchio, who was commanded to place on the façade of the building the arms of Pope Sixtus, with two boys for supporters.^[4] The same artist also executed certain works for Sciarra Colonna, in the palace of Sant’ Apostolo;^[5] and no long time after, in the year 1484 that is to say. Pope Innocent VIII., who was a Genoese, caused Pinturicchio to paint some of the halls and loggie in the palace of the Belvidere. In this building, among other things, he painted a Loggia entirely with landscapes, according to the command of the same Pope, and depicted therein Pome, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Naples, after the manner of the Flemings, and this, being a thing .

1. This group has also been engraved by Lasinio.
2. The books here alluded to were principally the beautiful choral books richly illuminated and full of exquisite miniatures by Fra Benedetto da Matera and Fra Gabriello Mattei, a Servite Monk of Siena, they were very numerous, but some were carried into Spain by the Cardinal of Burgos, and others were presented to the Public Library of Siena. —Masselli.
3. The upper part of this fresco will be found engraved in the Famiglie celebri, &c., of Litta. Famiglia, Piccolomini-Todeschini.
4. No vestige of these works now remains.
5. Of these paintings it is impossible to discover any trace.