Arrived in Perugia, Pietro's first work, as we are told by Mariotti and Orsini, was to collect certain sums of money due to him for pictures he had painted. From the town authorities for the "Cambio" he drew 350 ducats. From Città della Pieve he claimed twenty-five florins, but accepted, on March 29th, 1507, a house from the municipality in settlement of his claim. To the town of Panicale he wrote for payment of the balance due to him for the "San Sebastian," but in his letter made a generous offer to the authorities. Two years before, says Mariotti, he had lent fourteen painted banners to Panicale for a Corpus Christi procession, and he now wrote that the town might, if it desired so to do, keep the banners as a gift from him, but that if that was done he considered he ought to be paid the balance of the eleven florins that was still due to him. The Priori accepted his kindly offer, and on September 1st, 1507, sent him the eleven florins, for which he gave them a receipt, and they accepted his gift of the banners. An interesting commission reached him in Perugia in 1507. The executors of one, Giovanni Schiavone, a master carpenter, commissioned an altar-piece for Sta. Maria Nuova de Servi, and this commission Perugino executed with great care. The picture, which now hangs in the National Gallery, is a remarkable one in many ways. The painter was over sixty years old; he had just finished a very poor and slovenly work. He was, a little later, to execute some works even more strange in their stiffness, formality, and want of accurate drawing, but in this picture much of his old fire is to be seen. The colouring is notable, as the picture is full of that living golden haze or glow which marks his finest works, and is so typical of them. It has caught and imprisoned the sunshine, and is forever brightening the room in which it hangs. The composition, too, is original; the two angels in the air do not appear in other pictures. As far as I know never did Perugino, save in this picture, represent the Madonna being crowned by angels, nor did his angels bear palms. In the figure of St. Francis he does not follow his usual type or pose, and the divine Child possesses far more vigour of life, and is far better drawn and proportioned than is generally the case. Is it possible that the master's old studies and cartoons were still in Florence or _en route_ for Perugia, and that in their absence he was compelled to design a work of unusual character, and on original lines? The Schiavone picture completed, Perugino left for Foligno, where a "Baptism of Christ" had been commissioned for the church of SS. Annunziata. It was commissioned by one Giovanni Batista, whose name appears upon it, and who was probably Giambattista Caporali of Perugia, but the church is now disused and neglected, and the fresco is in very damaged condition. [Illustration: _Hanfstaengl photo_] [_National Gallery, London_ THE SCHIAVONE ALTAR-PIECE, 1507]