(D'Urbino), the greatest, most illustrious, and most excellent painter that has appeared, since the revival of the fine arts, was the son of an indifferent painter named Santi, and was born at Urbino on Good Friday 1482. The popes Julius II. and Leo X. who employed him, loaded him with wealth and honour; and it is said that cardinal De St Bibiana had such a value for him, that he offered him his niece in marriage. His genius is admired in all his pictures; his contours are free, his ordinances magnificent, his designs correct, his figures elegant, his expressions lively, his attitudes natural, his heads graceful; in fine, every thing is beautiful, grand, sublime, just, and adorned with graces. These various perfections he derived not only from his excellent abilities, but from his study of antiquity and anatomy; and from the friendship he contracted with Ariotto, who contributed not a little to the improvement of his taste. His pictures are principally to be found in Italy and Paris. That of the Transfiguration, preferred at Rome in the church of St Peter Montorio, passes for his master-piece. He had a handsome person, was well proportioned, and had great sweetness of temper; was polite, affable, and modest.