[Illustration: _Anderson photo_] [_Borgia Apartments, Vatican, Rome_
POPE ALEXANDER VI. ADORING THE RISEN CHRIST]
The "Descent of the Holy Spirit" has suffered more than any of the frescoes from damp and restoration. The scene is placed in an open field--an arbitrary action of the painter intended to give unity to the background by making it a landscape like the other spaces, in Pintoricchio's special manner. The usual harmony of design is lacking here, and the lower part of the scene is out of harmony with the upper. We trace the Lombard style again, particularly on the left hand, while some figures on the right recall the Sienese. The two inner figures of prophets on the vault are in the style of Fiorenzo. It is not likely that Pintoricchio would himself have worked at these, but Perugian pupils were certainly working with him.
In the remaining fresco of the "Assumption," the composition is entirely Umbrian, and may be compared with that in Santa Maria del Popolo, and in the Vatican. In St. Thomas, and in the angels on the right, Schmarsow sees the style of Perugino, but that master was a _protégé_ of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, and at this time was busied on work for his patron; in any case, he would not have been likely to take service under his old pupil. Of course, Pintoricchio must have had designs by him in his possession. The Madonna in some degree recalls the much more beautiful one Pintoricchio afterwards painted for the monks of Monte Oliveto. But the figure which gives its artistic importance to the fresco is that of the man in black who kneels on the right of the open tomb, facing St. Thomas. This figure alone, in grandeur and simplicity of attitude, in intensity of expression, in fine drawing and handling, and in depth of colour, would vindicate Pintoricchio's claim to be called a great painter--taken in conjunction with the Pope on the opposite wall, it carries conviction of the power and the insight of the man who could produce two such diverse and striking types, though the art that produced them may be empirical rather than scientific. We do not know who this last may be. There are no signs of his rank in his dress, no cardinal's hat by his side; but it is evident that he must have been a person of importance. It is conjectured that he is Francesco Borgia, the Pope's brother, who, in 1493 became Bishop of Teano, and Papal treasurer.[24]