Pietro
Perugino, real name Pietro Vanucci, Italian painter, master of the Umbria
School, was born near Perugia in Umbria (southeast of Tuscany). We do not
know about his initial training, but his early development was decisively
influenced by Verrocchio
and years spent in Florence, where he worked in the studio of Verrocchio,
simultaneously with Leonardo da
Vinci. An important role in his artistic development was played by
the paintings of Piero della Francesca.
In 1472, he was admitted to the Florentine guild and practically all his
life he continued to get commissions from Florence. Besides Florence, Perugino
worked in Perugia, Rome, Venice, Mantua, and other cities.
In 1482, Perugino, among the important painters of central Italy, including
Botticelli
and Ghirlandaio, was
invited to carry out the large cycle of Old and New Testament Scenes in
the Sistine Chapel. His fresco The Delivery
of the Keys (1482) is ranked as his finest achievement, it
depicts St. Peter, who as the first pope, is receiving the Keys to the
Kingdom of Heaven from Christ Himself.
Among his other works are: The Vision of
St. Bernard (1489), which is considered a masterpiece, The
Crucifixion with the Virgin, St. John, St. Jerome and St. Mary Magdalene
(c.1485), The Virgin and Child Surrounded
by Two Angels, St. Rose, and St. Catherine, Pietà
(1493-1494), The Combat of Love and Chastity.
He
was known as a good portrait painter: Portrait
of Francesco delle Opere (1494).
Perugino played an important role in formation of his outstanding pupils
Pinturiechio and Raphael, the
most classic master of the High Renaissance, whose fame outshined the fame
of his teacher.
Note
Francesco delle Opere, a
businessman, came from a family of rich Florentine cloth merchants who
had been perfecting the production of valuable silk cloths for generations.
See: Pietro Perugino. Portrait of Francesco
delle Opere.
Bibliography: Pietro Perugino. by N.E. Eliasberg. Moscow. 1966.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Perugino by Pietro Scarpellini. Publisher: Electa.
Pietro
Perugino: Master of the Italian Renaissance by Joseph Antenucci
Becherer, Perugino, Katherine R. Smith Abbott. Rizzoli, 1997.
