1431. THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.
Ascribed to Perugino (Umbrian: 1446-1523). See 288.
Around this little picture of the Umbrian School, bought by Sir Edward Poynter at Rome in 1894, a fierce battle of the critics has raged. Sir Edward's own description may first be cited:—"A perfectly genuine work by a scholar of Perugino, probably done in his studio, and, in my opinion, possibly by the young Raphael. The most characteristic point, besides the beautiful painting of the figure of the Saviour, is the drawing of the hands, which is precisely Raphael's. On the other hand, the heads are not specially Raphaelesque, nor is the colour as pure and transparent as is usual even in his early work; at the same time, such characteristics as do not agree with what we know of his work might possibly be due to its being a youthful performance. The painting of the trees is quite peculiar, and different from the treatment to be found in the works of Perugino, or, indeed, of any work of the school that I had seen. Some two or three years afterwards I saw the predella painting of 'St. John Preaching' by Raphael, belonging to the Marquis of Lansdowne, and was very interested to find in it the same treatment of the leaves of the trees—that is to say, that, instead of the minute and delicate sprays of foliage, so characteristic of Perugino's own work and of, so far as I know, most of his followers, the trees have only a few sprays of large and freely painted leaves." According to many of Sir Edward's critics, the picture is a "detestable little production"; while one of them ascribes it, as a work of the nineteenth century, to Micheli, "a maker of old masters." (See a copious correspondence in the Athenæum and the Times, during March and April, 1907).