I T is a curious fact that, considering the number of documents which exist relating to Signorelli, and thc paintings time has spared, so little should be known beyond the merest outline of his life. The very dates of his birth and death are indirectly acquired; the documents leave his youth and early manhood an absolute blank, and there are only two of his numerous works which can with certainty be placed before his thirty-third year.l Ve are, therefore, forced to fall back upon traditionary record, and by the aid of his biographcr Vasari, andA· the evidence of youthful. studies which his paintings contain, to patch together a probable account of his life, up to the time when the documents begin. On Vasari, in this case, we can depend with a certain amount of confidence, since SignorelH was his kinsman. and they had been in such personal communication as was possible between an o1d man and a child. 1 The "~1~donna" (No. 281), and "The Flagellation)t (No. 262), BTable of Contents LIST...