The silence of the historians of art as to the claims of Giovanni Sanzio is less surprising than their omitting to notice the importance of his city and province at the period in question. The duchy of Urbino, at the close of the fifteenth century, could boast, as Sismondi justly remarks, a population as warlike, and a court as lettered and polished as any in Italy. The hereditary dukes of the ancient family of Montefeltro ranked high among the captains of the age, and among the distinguished patrons of science. Federigo da Montefeltro, who died a few months before the birth of Raphael, had employed the talents of some of the best painters of Italy, and of other countries, to adorn his capital. Among the native artists, Fra Carnevale was one of the earliest who attempted perspective; and to him, or at least to his works, Bramante, as well as Raphael, may have been indebted for a knowledge of the rudiments of architecture; Pietro della Francesca, whose compositions on mathematics and geometry enriched the ducal library, was domiciliated with Giovanni Sanzio; Lucian, a painter and architect of Dalmatia, superintended for a time the building of the castle; but the most remarkable guest was Justus van Ghent, called by the Italians Giusto da Guanto; a considerable work painted by him contained portraits of the Duke Federigo and his successor Guid’ Ubaldo, under whose auspices again the talents of the celebrated Luca Signorelli were put in requisition. Pictures by most of these artists probably still exist at Urbino, and undoubtedly were seen and studied by Raphael in his early youth. Among the first reputed works of the great artist himself, which are preserved in his native city, may be mentioned a Madonna, originally painted on the wall in his father’s house, and a holy family on wood in the church of S. Andrea. It is difficult to fix with precision the time when Raphael first studied under Perugino; but if, as Rumohr supposes, that painter only settled finally at Perugia about 1500, his distinguished scholar must have joined him at the age of sixteen or seventeen, and not some years earlier, as has been generally assumed. Even at this age it is sufficiently wonderful that the scholar should have been fitted to select the best qualities in his master’s style, and indeed very soon to improve upon them.