The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Cortona, in Tuscany, 1440. Died 1521. Aged 81.] An ancestor of Vasari, the author of “Lives of the Painters,” and a distinguished painter of the early Tuscan school. Assisted in the works of the Sistine Chapel at Rome; and his pictures there, according to Vasari, are superior to those of his contemporaries. His great frescos in the Cathedral of Orvieto, representing the Day of Judgment and the History of Antichrist, are his principal works. His productions show too great anxiety to mark the form with anatomical correctness. In this he was the precursor of Michael Angelo; and Fuseli has frequently imitated him. As a man he was upright, sincere, and kind-hearted. He lived and decorated himself with great splendour. [By Pietro Pierantoni.]