PERUGINO, PIETRO (c. 145O-1524), whose family name was VANNUCCI, Italian painter, was born at Citta della Pieve in Umbria, and belongs to the Umbrian school of painting. The name of Perugino came to him from Perugia, the chief city of the neighbourhood. Pietro was one of several children born to Cristoforo Vannucci, a member of a respectable family settled at Citta della Pieve. Before he had completed his ninth year the boy was articled to a master, a painter at Perugia. Who this may have been is very uncertain ; the painter is spoken of as mediocre, but sympathetic for the great things in his art. Fiorenzo di Lorenzo may possibly have been the man. Pietro painted a little at Arezzo, where he may have worked under Piero della Francesca; thence he went to the headquarters of art, Florence. It appears to be sufficiently established that he studied in the atelier of Andrea del Verrocchio, where Leonardo da Vinci was also a pupil. The date of this first Florentine sojourn is not settled. In 1475 he was back at Perugia and employed on work in the town hall, which is no longer extant. One of his earlier works now in existence is the fresco, dated 1478, in the church of Castel Cerqueto, near Perugia. Though much ruined it dis plays a beautifully modelled figure of St. Sebastian. Another early work is the small panel with the "Annunciation" of Conte Ranieri in Perugia, where the influence of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo is apparent. Soon afterwards Perugino proceeded to Rome. His fresco of the Virgin in the apse of St. Peter's was destroyed at the rebuild ing of the church. From 148o-82 he worked in the Sixtine chapel. The painting of that part of the chapel which is now immortalized by Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" was assigned to him by the pope ; he covered it with frescoes of the "Assumption," the "Nativity," and "Moses in the Bulrushes." These works were ruthlessly destroyed to make space for his successor's more colossal genius, but other works by Perugino still remain in the Sixtine chapel: the "Baptism of Christ" and "Christ giving the Keys to Peter." Pinturicchio accompanied Perugino to Rome, and executed the greater part of the "Baptism of Christ." "Christ giving the Keys to Peter" is the first great work of the master that has survived, and it shows him as a mature artist who had assimilated the Florentine traditions, while keeping the char acter of the native Umbrian school.
Perugino must have left Rome after the completion of the Six tine paintings. He visited Perugia and in 1486 was in Florence. Here he figures by no means advantageously in a criminal court.
In July 1487 he and another Perugian painter named Aulista di Angelo were convicted, on their own confession, of having in December waylaid with staves someone (the name does not appear) in the street near S. Pietro Maggiore. Perugino was fined ten gold florins.
Between 1486 and 1499 Perugino resided chiefly in Florence, making one journey to Rome and several to Perugia. In 1490 he completed the altarpiece for Cardinal Guiliano della Rovere, now in the Villa Albani. This is one of his most charming creations Other notable works of this period are the half-figure of "the Madonna" in the National Gallery (c. 1480) ; the tondo of "the Madonna with Saints and Angels" in the Louvre (c. 149o) ; and the "Crucifixion," now in the Uffizi (c. 149o). One of his most celebrated pictures, the "Pieta" in the Pitti gallery, belongs to the year 1495. From 1496 to 1498 he was employed on the great altarpiece for S. Pietro of Perugia, consisting of 15 panels. The greater part of these were taken by the French in 1797 and are now at Lyons, Nantes, Rouen, and in St. Gervais, Paris. Others are in the Vatican gallery. Only five small panels have remained at Perugia. In 1499 the gild of the cambio (money changers or bankers) of Perugia asked him to undertake the decoration of their audience-hall. This extensive scheme of work, which may have been finished within the year 1500, corn prised the painting of the vault with the seven planets and the signs of the zodiac (Perugino doing the designs and his pupils most probably the executive work) and the representation on the walls of two sacred subjects—the "Nativity" and "Transfigura tion"—the Eternal Father, the four virtues of Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude, Cato as the emblem of wisdom, and (in life size) numerous figures of classic worthies, prophets and sibyls. On the mid-pilaster of the hall Perugino placed his own portrait in bust-form. In Sept. 1493, Perugino married Chiara, the daughter of Luca Fancelli, architect and engineer. He was made one of the priors of Perugia in 1501. About 1500 he pro duced the chef-d'oeuvre of the "Madonna and Saints" for the Certosa of Pavia. The six constituent parts of this noble work have now been sundered. The only portion which remains in the Certosa is a figure of God the Father with cherubim. Three compartments—the Virgin adoring the infant Christ, St. Michael, and St. Raphael with Tobias—are among the choicer treasures of the National Gallery, London. Two portions representing the Annunciation have disappeared.