This complaint, made in the fifteenth century, has continued down to the present time, and has certain justification. There is a want of originality about Perugino's conceptions beyond a certain point; but this very monotony is a most useful aid in recognising and scheduling his pictures, while individually his figures are so graceful, and his groups so well composed, that those who love Umbrian art never tire of gazing upon his fascinating pictures. [Illustration: _Hanfstaengl photo_] [_National Gallery, London_ THE CERTOSA THREE-FOLD ALTAR-PIECE] This great altar-piece was completed in 1499. In the early part of that year the Duke of Milan, Il Moro, wrote to the monks at Pavia complaining of the delay in the completion of the altar-piece he had commissioned, speaking of the large sum he had disbursed, and of his love for the Certosa and desire to see it completed, and begging the Carthusians to hurry on Perugino to complete his work. They did so, and by the end of 1499 the picture was in its place. In the following year, 1497, Perugino was in Fano, and there again in 1498. In each of these years he was probably also in Perugia, and in one of them, perhaps 1497, he was at Sinigaglia and at Cantiano, two small places close to Fano. Of his visits to Fano we have two results: a "Madonna and Child with Saints," dated 1497, and an "Annunciation," dated 1498; while at Sinigaglia there is a "Madonna and Child with Saints" closely resembling the Fano one, and at Cantiano a "Holy Family" of similar characteristics. In the intervals which enabled the artist to revisit Perugia we have evidence of his work in a "Madonna and Child," dated 1497, now in the Gallery of Perugia, and in another picture attributed to the same period and now hanging in the same gallery. Even these visits do not complete his wanderings, for on the 26th of June 1498 he was certainly in Florence. It is only an assumption on my part that the Sinigaglia and Cantiano pictures followed the Fano ones. They may have just preceded them, and should perhaps belong to that already crowded year 1496, but I am strongly of opinion that such is not the case. Again, they should perhaps be given to a later period altogether, say to 1500 or 1501; but we have no evidence whatever connecting Perugino with this remote part of the sea-coast save in 1497 and 1498, and as in style and colouring, even in composition and design, the Sinigaglia and Cantiano pictures so closely resemble those at Fano, and the places were not easy of access save from Fano, and we do not hear of the artist being in this district on any other occasion, the attribution to that period is given. [Illustration: _Alinari photo_] [_Perugia Gallery_ THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH PENITENTS, 1497]