Pietro Perugino

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Pietro Perugino
The Delivery of the Keys
MovementItalian Renaissance

Pietro Perugino (US: /ˌpɛrəˈn, -rˈ-/ PERR-ə-JEE-noh, -⁠oo-,[1][2][3] Italian: [ˈpjɛːtro peruˈdʒiːno]; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci;[4] c. 1446/1452 – 1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famous pupil.

Early years

Pietro Vannucci was born in Città della Pieve, Umbria, the son of Cristoforo Maria Vannucci. His nickname characterizes him as from Perugia, the chief city of Umbria. Scholars continue to dispute the socioeconomic status of the Vannucci family. While certain academics maintain that Vannucci worked his way out of poverty, others argue that his family was among the wealthiest in the town.[5] His exact date of birth is not known, but based on his age at death that was mentioned by Vasari and Giovanni Santi, it is believed that he was born between 1446 and 1452.[5]

Pietro most likely began studying painting in local workshops in Perugia such as those of Bartolomeo Caporali or Fiorenzo di Lorenzo.[5] The date of the first Florentine sojourn is unknown; some make it as early as 1466-1470, others push the date to 1479.[5] According to Vasari, he was apprenticed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, Filippino Lippi, and others. Piero della Francesca is thought to have taught him perspective form. In 1472, he must have completed his apprenticeship since he was enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of St Luke. Pietro, although very talented, was not extremely enthusiastic about his work.[6]

Perugino was one of the earliest Italian practitioners of

.

Rome

, Rome

Perugino returned from Florence to Perugia, where his Florentine training showed in the

Last Judgement
.

Between 1486 and 1499, Perugino worked mostly in Florence, making one journey to Rome and several to Perugia, where he may have maintained a second studio. He had an established studio in Florence, and received a great number of commissions. His Pietà (1483–1493) in the Uffizi is an uncharacteristically stark work that avoids Perugino's sometimes too easy sentimental piety.

According to

Vasari, Perugino was to return to Florence in September 1493 to marry Chiara, daughter of architect Luca Fancelli.[7] The same year, Perugino made Florence his permanent home once again,[8]
though he continued to accept some work elsewhere.

Later career

In 1499, the guild of the cambio (money-changers or bankers) of Perugia asked him to decorate their audience-hall, the

Sala delle Udienze del Collegio del Cambio. The humanist Francesco Maturanzio acted as his consultant. This extensive scheme, which may have been finished by 1500, comprised the painting of the vault, showing the seven planets and the signs of the zodiac (Perugino being responsible for the designs and his pupils most probably for the execution), and the representation on the walls of two sacred subjects: the Nativity and Transfiguration; in addition, the Eternal Father, the cardinal virtues of Justice, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Cato as the emblem of wisdom, and numerous life-sized figures of classic worthies, prophets, and sibyls figured in the program. On the mid-pilaster of the hall Perugino placed his own portrait in bust-form. It is probable that Raphael
, who in boyhood, toward 1496, had been placed by his uncles under the tuition of Perugino, bore a hand in the work of the vaulting.

Perugino was made one of the

Basilica dell'Annunziata in Florence, in which he replaced Filippino Lippi
. The work was a failure, being accused of lack of innovation. Perugino lost his students; and toward 1506 he once more and finally, abandoned Florence, going to Perugia, and thence in a year or two to Rome.

Stanza dell'Incendio del Borgo

Incendio del Borgo in the Vatican City; but he soon preferred a younger competitor, Raphael, who had been trained by Perugino; and Vannucci, after painting the ceiling with figures of God the Father in different glories, in five medallion-subjects, retired from Rome
to Perugia from 1512. Among his latest works, many of which decline into repetitious studio routine, one of the best is the extensive altarpiece (painted between 1512 and 1517) of the church of San Agostino in Perugia, also now dispersed.

Perugino's last

the plague
. Like other plague victims, he was hastily buried in an unconsecrated field, the precise spot now unknown.

Vasari is the main source stating that Perugino had very little religion and openly doubted the soul's immortality. Perugino in 1494 painted his own portrait, now in the

Uffizi Gallery, and into it, he introduced a scroll entitled Timete Deum
(Fear God: Revelation 14:7). That an open disbeliever should inscribe himself with Timete Deum seems odd. The portrait in question shows a plump face, with small dark eyes, a short but well-cut nose, and sensuous lips; the neck is thick, the hair bushy and frizzled, and the general air imposing. The later portrait in the Cambio of Perugia shows the same face with traces of added years. Perugino died with considerable property, leaving three sons.

Pietà, c. 1490

In 1495, he signed and dated a Deposition for the Florentine convent of Santa Chiara (

S. Pietro of Perugia, (Municipal Museum, Lyon
); the other portions of the same altarpiece are dispersed in other galleries.

In the chapel of the Disciplinati of Città della Pieve is an

Saint Jerome and Saint Francis, now in the Palazzo Penna. In the church of S. Onofrio in Florence is a much lauded and much debated fresco of the Last Supper, a careful and blandly correct but uninspired work; it has been ascribed to Perugino by some connoisseurs, by others to Raphael
; it may more probably be by some different pupil of the Umbrian master.

Among his pupils were Raphael, upon whose early work Perugino's influence is most noticeable,

Giovanni di Pietro
(lo Spagna).

Monuments

Monument to Pietro Vannucci, Perugia

Perugia dedicated an important monument to Perugino built in 1923 by the sculptor Enrico Quattrini and today visible in the Carducci Gardens.

Major works

Madonna with Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian
, 1493
Apollo and Marsyas, c. 1490
  • Religious works, details, portraits
  • Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1506)
    Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1506)
  • Decemviri Altarpiece (1495)
    Decemviri Altarpiece (1495)
  • The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis (c. 1507)
    The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis (c. 1507)
  • Virgin and Child between Saints Rosa and Catherine (c. 1493)
    Virgin and Child between Saints Rosa and Catherine (c. 1493)
  • Detail, Madonna
    Detail, Madonna
  • Detail, Prophets and Sibyls, fresco
    Detail, Prophets and Sibyls, fresco
  • Detail, Prophets and Sibyls, fresco
    Detail, Prophets and Sibyls, fresco
  • Detail, The Delivery of the Keys, fresco
    Detail, The Delivery of the Keys, fresco
  • Portrait of a boy (1495)
    Portrait of a boy
    (1495)
  • Portrait of Francesco delle Opere
    Portrait of Francesco delle Opere
  • Detail, Madonna with Child
    Detail, Madonna with Child
  • Portrait of Lorenzo di Credi
    Portrait of Lorenzo di Credi

See also

References

  1. ^ "Perugino". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  2. ^ "Perugino". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Perugino". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  4. ^ Vasari, Giorgio (1897) [1550]. "Pietro Perugino, Painter". In Blashfield, Edwin Howland; Blashfield, Evangeline Wilbour; Hopkins, Albert Allis (eds.). Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. Vol. 2. Translated by Foster, Mrs. Jonathan. London: C. Scribner's sonsGeorge Bell and Sons. p. 316. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  5. ^ .
  6. .
  7. ^ Becherucci, Luisa (1969). The Complete Work of Raphael. New York: Reynal and Co., William Morrow and Company. p. 12.
  8. ^ Becherucci, Luisa (1969). The Complete Work of Raphael. New York: Reynal and Co., William Morrow and Company. p. 14.
  9. ^ a b c Catalogo dei quadri che si conservano nella Pinacoteca Vannucci in Perugia, by Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, (1903).

Sources

External links