Unlike Mantegna, Signorelli never entered the service of a prince, though we have seen that he executed commissions for Lorenzo de’ Medici and Pandolfo Petrucci.  He bore a name which, if not noble, had been more than once distinguished in the annals of Tuscany.  Residing at his native place, Cortona, he there enjoyed the highest reputation, and was frequently elected to municipal office.  Concerning his domestic life very little is known, but what we do know is derived from an excellent source[216].  His mother was the sister of Lazzaro, great-grandfather of Giorgio Vasari.  In his biography of Signorelli, Vasari relates how, when he was himself a boy of eight, his illustrious cousin visited the house of the Vasari family at Arezzo; and hearing from little Giorgio’s grammar-master that he spent his time in drawing figures, Luca turned to the child’s father and said, “Antonio, since Giorgio takes after his family, you must by all means have him taught; for even though he should pay attention to literature as well, drawing cannot fail to be a source of utility, honour, and recreation to him, as it is to every man of worth.”  Luca’s kindness deeply impressed the boy, who afterwards wrote the following description of his personal qualities:  “He was a man of the most excellent habits, sincere and affectionate with his friends, sweet of conversation and amusing in society, above all things courteous to those who had need of his work, and easy in giving instruction to his pupils.  He lived splendidly, and took delight in dressing handsomely.  This excellent disposition caused him to be always held in highest veneration both in his own city and abroad.”

To turn from Signorelli to Perugino is to plunge at once into a very different atmosphere[217].  It is like quitting the rugged gorges of high mountains for a valley of the Southern Alps—­still, pensive, beautiful, and coloured with reflections from an evening sky.  Perugino knew exactly how to represent a certain mood of religious sentiment, blending meek acquiescence with a prayerful yearning of the impassioned soul.  His Madonnas worshipping the infant Jesus in a tranquil Umbrian landscape, his angels ministrant, his pathetic martyrs with upturned holy faces, his sexless S. Sebastians and immaculate S. Michaels, display the perfection of art able by colour and by form to achieve within a narrow range what it desires.  What this artist seems to have aimed at, was to create for the soul amid the pomps and passions of this world a resting-place of contemplation tenanted by saintly and seraphic beings.  No pain comes near the folk of his celestial city; no longing poisons their repose; they are not weary, and the wicked trouble them no more.  Their cheerfulness is no less perfect than their serenity; like the shades of Hellas, they have drunk Lethean waters from the river of content, and all remembrance of things sad or harsh has vanished from their minds.  The quietude of holiness expressed in this ideal region was a legacy to Perugino from earlier Umbrian masters; but his technical supremacy in fresco-painting and in oils, his correct drawing within certain limits, and his refined sense of colour enabled him to realise it more completely than his less accomplished predecessors.  In his best work the Renaissance set the seal of absolute perfection upon pietistic art.