Although the name of Sixtus, as a friend of letters and arts, has been dimmed by the more glorious ones of Nicolas V. and Leo X., which at no long intervals preceded and followed him, the memorials remaining of his judicious patronage are interesting and important. Innocent III., in building the Hospital of S. Spirito, had embellished it with six frescoes illustrative of its destination. To these Sixtus added twenty-seven others, forming a cycle of the personal and public incidents of his life, from his mother's miraculous vision, to his anticipated introduction into Paradise by St. Paul, in recompense of his piety. These paintings are no longer visible; nor do we know from whose pencils the vast series emanated, but in the Sistine Chapel, which perpetuates his name, and was his most important artistic undertaking, his choice was unexceptionable. Apart from the celebrity conferred upon it by the subsequent impress of Buonarroti's stupendous inventions, the series wherein the lives of our Saviour and of Moses are contrasted constitutes a chapter of scarcely equalled importance in the progress of Christian painting. Who can view the mighty themes of that oratory,--the types and antitypes of scriptural history on its walls, the creations of Omnipotence on its roof, the final Judgment over its altar,--without gratitude to the della Rovere pontiffs, by whom these triumphs were commissioned, and for the most part carried out? This may, indeed, be called the foundation of the Roman pictorial school. Giotto, Fra Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano, and Masaccio had, indeed, visited the metropolis of Christendom, but no pontiff before Sixtus had summoned hither, and at once employed, all the most distinguished artists of Central Italy. The glorious band, though headed by Perugino,[*215] consisted of Florentines,--Signorelli, Botticelli, Rosselli, della Gatta, and Ghirlandaio; but these soon returned to the art-loving and art-inspiring Arno, leaving on the plain of the Tiber few other works, and a most transient influence, in exchange for the classical ideas which they had imbibed in "august, imperial Rome," and which quickly supplanted the sacred traditions of their native school. Although Pinturicchio was not associated in their labours upon the Sistine, he was busy upon other not less important mural decorations, which still adorn the churches of Aracoeli, Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, and S. Onofrio. But Sta. Maria del Popolo was especially the scene of his triumphs, under the auspices of various Cardinals della Rovere, and other members of the consistory, who were instigated by example of his Holiness to such laudable employment of their exorbitant incomes. [Footnote *215: Pinturicchio was also among them; neither can Signorelli be called a Florentine. Dennistoun is (_infra_) mistaken in thinking that Pinturicchio did not work in the Sixtine Chapel. The Baptism of Christ and the Journey of Moses are both from his hand.]