The work was painted for the church of the convent of San Giusto alle mura together with the
Crucifixion. Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari saw them in side altars of the church of San Giovanni Battista alla Calza, after the original location had been destroyed during the Siege of Florence
in 1529. It was moved to the Uffizi in the 20th century.
The dating of the work is disputed: it varies from 1482, the year of Perugino's return from Rome, to a slightly later period, although before the end of the century, when the artist started to use only line oil, which in these works is used only at an experimental level.
The painting was restored in 1998.
Description
The scene of the
Madonna with Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian
). The serene landscape with light trees is also common in his paintings of the period.
Such as in the German
Vesperbilder
, Jesus's body is horizontal and quite rigid, also held by John the Evangelist on the left and Mary Magdalene on the right. At the sides are further saints, a young one (Nicodemus) on the left, with the hands joined in his chest, and an aged one (Joseph of Arimathea) on the right, looking down.
The use of less pale tonalities for Mary Magdalene is similar to that used by Luca Signorelli at the time.
Sources
Garibaldi, Vittoria (2004). "Perugino". Pittori del Rinascimento (in Italian). Florence: Scala.
