(Città della Pieve, Perugia 1452-1523)
Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci, known as Perugino. Italian painter, prince of the Umbrian painting school and master of Raphael.
Born into a well-off family, his father sent him to attend the workshops in Perugia. His first teacher was from this region, a man who had neither great knowledge nor great talent but was endowed with a strong sense of ideal. He taught him about the cult of the painters who had lived in the first half of the 15th century in that beautiful land that stretches from Lake Trasimeno to Spoleto.
Vanucci studied the art of Piero della Francesca. Between 1479 and 1484, he was one of many who worked on the frescoes of the sacristy della Cura in Loreto, at that time collaborating with Luca Signorelli.
In 1472, Perugino resided in Florence and was part of the Compagnia dei pittori. The Italian painter worked in a monastery of San Martín, and in the convent of the Camaldolese, a San Jerónimo by him was preserved. In 1475, we find Perugino in Perugia painting the fresco in the great hall of the Palazzo Comunale, an official commission that shows he was already well-known at that time.
San Sebastián from Cerquetto; the Crucified Christ from the Museum of the Offices; and the fresco in the Sistine Chapel The Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter, are some of his most outstanding works. In this last piece, by avoiding complicated forms and giving us a sense of lightness and ease, Vanucci astonishingly expresses the idea of serenity. In this fresco, the open air makes its appearance in Italian art; light floods the landscape, the scene, and the monuments; the colors are clear and soft.
In early 1497, Vanucci met in Florence with Venoso Gozzoli, Cosimo Rosselli, and Filippino Lippi to assess the paintings of Baldovinetti in the Gian Figliacci chapel in Santa Trinità. In 1499, a resident of Orvieto commissioned him a Resurrection, and the Perugian company of San José commissioned him to place the altar painting in the chapel itself, while for the last time, those from Orvieto demanded the famous painter for their Cathedral, and Luis el Moro insisted that Vanucci and Filippino Lippi finish the paintings for the Carthusian monastery of Pavia.
The Adoration of the Child Jesus from the Villa Albani is one of the richest sets of youth and freshness from the artist. But the first work executed by Vanucci was the Assumption in the Municipal Museum of San Sepolcro, a painting that the artist, burdened with work, took eight years to deliver. The Virgin is represented high up within a mandorla, and two angels crown her; there are musician angels on either side of the celestial mandorla; four saints in the foreground: Francis, Jerome, Louis, and Clara; the apostles in the background, in small size, in front of the empty sarcophagus of the Virgin.
Vanucci's contemporaries especially appreciated the charm of his Virgins, their young and delicate features. The Virgin between the Child Jesus and Saint John, the child, from the National Gallery in London, has a regular physiognomy and a small mouth. According to some, all reproduce the features of Clara Fancelli, who later became his wife.
Vanucci was also enamored with beautiful anatomical forms, which he treated repeatedly with care and pleasure, especially in the theme of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
At the beginning of the 16th century, Vanucci was at the height of his glory. By around 1500, Perugino had already executed some of his most typical works and was the most admired painter in Umbria and Tuscany, unable to fulfill all the commissions that flowed into his workshops in Florence and Perugia, where some already famous artists or those who would soon be famous worked: Raphael. It was then that Isabella d'Este, wishing to have a work of his, commissioned him the Fight of Love and Chastity, which is now preserved in the Louvre Museum.
Active and tireless, Vanucci sought commissions even if they were of little importance, and he, who had directed famous workshops in Florence and Perugia, had no qualms about replacing one of his disciples, Gianniciola di Paolo Manni, who renounced a commission he had received in Spello; Vanucci painted the Virgin and the Pietà that his disciple was supposed to have painted.
Upon his death, Pietro Perugino left the memory of an attractive painter, whose glory for many years equaled that of the greatest painters.
Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci, known as Perugino. Italian painter, prince of the Umbrian painting school and master of Raphael.
Born into a well-off family, his father sent him to attend the workshops in Perugia. His first teacher was from this region, a man who had neither great knowledge nor great talent but was endowed with a strong sense of ideal. He taught him about the cult of the painters who had lived in the first half of the 15th century in that beautiful land that stretches from Lake Trasimeno to Spoleto.
Vanucci studied the art of Piero della Francesca. Between 1479 and 1484, he was one of many who worked on the frescoes of the sacristy della Cura in Loreto, at that time collaborating with Luca Signorelli.
In 1472, Perugino resided in Florence and was part of the Compagnia dei pittori. The Italian painter worked in a monastery of San Martín, and in the convent of the Camaldolese, a San Jerónimo by him was preserved. In 1475, we find Perugino in Perugia painting the fresco in the great hall of the Palazzo Comunale, an official commission that shows he was already well-known at that time.
San Sebastián from Cerquetto; the Crucified Christ from the Museum of the Offices; and the fresco in the Sistine Chapel The Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter, are some of his most outstanding works. In this last piece, by avoiding complicated forms and giving us a sense of lightness and ease, Vanucci astonishingly expresses the idea of serenity. In this fresco, the open air makes its appearance in Italian art; light floods the landscape, the scene, and the monuments; the colors are clear and soft.
In early 1497, Vanucci met in Florence with Venoso Gozzoli, Cosimo Rosselli, and Filippino Lippi to assess the paintings of Baldovinetti in the Gian Figliacci chapel in Santa Trinità. In 1499, a resident of Orvieto commissioned him a Resurrection, and the Perugian company of San José commissioned him to place the altar painting in the chapel itself, while for the last time, those from Orvieto demanded the famous painter for their Cathedral, and Luis el Moro insisted that Vanucci and Filippino Lippi finish the paintings for the Carthusian monastery of Pavia.
The Adoration of the Child Jesus from the Villa Albani is one of the richest sets of youth and freshness from the artist. But the first work executed by Vanucci was the Assumption in the Municipal Museum of San Sepolcro, a painting that the artist, burdened with work, took eight years to deliver. The Virgin is represented high up within a mandorla, and two angels crown her; there are musician angels on either side of the celestial mandorla; four saints in the foreground: Francis, Jerome, Louis, and Clara; the apostles in the background, in small size, in front of the empty sarcophagus of the Virgin.
Vanucci's contemporaries especially appreciated the charm of his Virgins, their young and delicate features. The Virgin between the Child Jesus and Saint John, the child, from the National Gallery in London, has a regular physiognomy and a small mouth. According to some, all reproduce the features of Clara Fancelli, who later became his wife.
Vanucci was also enamored with beautiful anatomical forms, which he treated repeatedly with care and pleasure, especially in the theme of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
At the beginning of the 16th century, Vanucci was at the height of his glory. By around 1500, Perugino had already executed some of his most typical works and was the most admired painter in Umbria and Tuscany, unable to fulfill all the commissions that flowed into his workshops in Florence and Perugia, where some already famous artists or those who would soon be famous worked: Raphael. It was then that Isabella d'Este, wishing to have a work of his, commissioned him the Fight of Love and Chastity, which is now preserved in the Louvre Museum.
Active and tireless, Vanucci sought commissions even if they were of little importance, and he, who had directed famous workshops in Florence and Perugia, had no qualms about replacing one of his disciples, Gianniciola di Paolo Manni, who renounced a commission he had received in Spello; Vanucci painted the Virgin and the Pietà that his disciple was supposed to have painted.
Upon his death, Pietro Perugino left the memory of an attractive painter, whose glory for many years equaled that of the greatest painters.
