Pietro Perugino

Painter

• Born: c. 1450
• Place of Birth: Città della Pieve, Italy
• Died: February/March 1523
• Place of Death: Fontignano, Italy

• Significance: Pietro Perugino was an Italian Renaissance painter perhaps most famous for his fresco on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter (c. 1482). He is known for his use of perspective to create the illusion of three dimensions within a two-dimensional space.

Background

Pietro Perugino was born Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci around 1450 in Città della Pieve, Italy. He earned the nickname Perugino from the city where he worked—Perugia—which was not far from Città della Pieve. Perugino's father was a landowner who belonged to the town council.

Concrete details about Perugino's early life are sparse, but historians have pieced together some facts they believe to be true. It is likely that Perugino began to study painting in the Perugia-based workshop of artist Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. By 1470, he had moved to Florence and was serving as an apprentice for Andrea del Verocchio alongside other Renaissance greats, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. Perugino later studied under Piero della Francesca, whom historians believe influenced his use of perspective.

In 1472, Perugino became a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, an artists' guild. His early works, such as Adoration of the Magi (c. 1476), show the influences of his teachers, including intricate details and vibrant colors.

Life's Work

In 1479, Pope Sixtus IV hired Perugino to come to Rome to paint frescoes for the Cappella della Concezione in Old St. Peter's Basilica (later destroyed) in Rome. Perugino's success there led to another commission to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel between 1480 and 1482, along with contemporaries including Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Rosselli. Among Perugino's contributions at this time were several frescoes painted on the altar wall: Finding of Moses, Nativity of Christ, and Assumption. These three works were later destroyed to make room for Michelangelo's Last Judgment (1536–1541). Some of Perugino's works from this period still survive on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Among them are Baptism of Christ and Moses Leaving for Egypt.

Perhaps Perugino's most well-known painting from the Sistine Chapel is Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter (also known as Delivery of the Keys). The painting documents the moment at which Jesus Christ hands the keys to the kingdom of Heaven to Saint Peter. These two figures are situated at the center of the painting and are surrounded by the disciples. The whole scene is set in an Italian piazza, an open-air town square. Overlooking the piazza are a temple and two large Roman arches. Although the painting is two-dimensional, Perugino's use of one-point linear perspective creates the illusion of three dimensions. The square tiles on the ground of the piazza create diagonal lines that gradually fade into a vanishing point in the background of the painting. The painting has been praised for its simplicity and order as well as its composition.

The wall frescoes that Perugino painted in the Sistine Chapel helped launch his career. Over the next two decades, he received many commissions and became one of the most popular artists in Italy. He headed two workshops: one in Florence and one in Perugia. In the 1490s, he joined a second artists' guild, Arte de Medici e Speziali. In 1496, Perugino received a commission to decorate the Sala delle Udienze of the Collegio del Cambio in Perugia. Completed in 1500, Perugino considered this his most monumental work. About the time he finished his work on the Sala delle Udienze, Perugino is believed to have taken on a pupil, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, in his workshop. That pupil later went on to become the Renaissance artist better known simply as Raphael.

Throughout his career, Perugino's work evolved, although he continued to work mostly with oils for the duration. Unlike his earliest paintings, his later works employed a pastel palette and included rather delicate figures. After 1505, Perugino's work began to decline. His paintings became very formulaic, and in some cases, he simply copied earlier compositions. Many of the figures in his paintings featured the same relaxed posture and slightly tilted head. Still, he continued to receive commissions, including one from Pope Julius II to paint a ceiling in the Stanza dell'Incendio di Borgo in the Vatican between 1507 and 1508.

Perugino died from the plague in 1523.

Impact

From 1480 through about 1505, Perugino was one of the most in-demand artists in Italy. He worked variously in Rome, Florence, and Perugia, among other locations. He accepted commissions from Pope Sixtus IV and Pope Julius II along with those from influential patrons of the arts. He is believed to have taught Renaissance painter Raphael, who went on to create his own masterpieces, including The School of Athens (1509–1511) and Sistine Madonna (1513–1514). Perugino's painting Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter on the wall of the Sistine Chapel is a near-textbook example of one-point linear perspective. One of his works, Resurrection of Christ, was put on rare public display in 2023 in honor of the fifth centenary of Perugino's death. The painting, part of an altarpiece done in 1499 for a family chapel, usually hangs in the papal study in the Pope's quarters in the Vatican. Although it has seldom been on public display, it has frequently been seen in official photographs of several popes.

Unlike most artists of the time, who attached themselves to particular patrons or courts, Perugino remained an independent artist throughout his entire career.

Personal Life

Perugino married Chiara Fancelli, the daughter of an architect, in 1493. After his marriage, he lived mainly in Florence for a few years. Toward the end of his life, he lived primarily in Perugia.

Bibliography

"'Excellentissimus pictor'--Perugino’s Resurrection of Christ." Museums at Work, 2023, www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/eventi-e-novita/iniziative/Eventi/2023/museums-at-work-perugino.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Kurian, George Thomas. "Perugino, Pietro (1448–1523)." The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, vol. 3, edited by George Thomas Kurian, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, p. 1812.

"Perugino ca. 1450–1523 Italian Artist." Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students, vol. 3, edited by Paul F. Grendler, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004, pp. 152–3.

"Perugino, Pietro." National Gallery of Art, 2024, www.nga.gov/Collection/artist-info.1778.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

"Perugino, Pietro." Web Gallery of Art, www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/p/perugino/biograph.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

"Perugino, Pietro (1450–1523)." The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300–1500: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Clayton J. Drees, Greenwood Press, 2001, pp. 391–2.

"Perugino's Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter." ItalianRenaissance.org, www.italianrenaissance.org/perugino-christ-handing-keys-peter/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

"Pietro Perugino." National Gallery, 2024, www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/pietro-perugino. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.