Pope Julius II. had summoned Perugino to paint the Stanza in the Vatican, now called that of the Incendio del Borgo; but he soon preferred a younger competitor, that very Raphael who had been trained by the aged master of Perugia ; and Perugino, after painting the ceiling with figures of God the Father in differ ent glories, in five medallion-subjects, retired from Rome, and was once more in Perugia from 1512. Among his last works one of the best is the extensive altar-piece (painted between 1512 and 1517) of S. Agostino in Perugia.
Perugino's last frescoes were painted for the churches S. Maggiore at Spello ; S. Maria della Lagrime at Trevi ; and S. Agnese at Perugia; and in 1523 for the church of Castello di Fontignano hard by. This, his last work, representing "The Adora tion of the Shepherds," is now in the National Gallery, London. He was still at Fontignano when the plague broke out and he died in February or March 1524. He was buried in unconsecrated ground in a field, for, on the sudden outbreak of the plague, the panic-stricken local authorities ordained that all victims should be at once interred without waiting for any religious rites. Peru gino left three sons. With him the ideal and mystic tendency of the Umbrian tradition prevailed. Perugino is, however, open to the charge of mannerism. He employed many assistants and frequently repeated the same motive in his works. Among his pupils were Raphael, Giovanni lo Spagna and Mannia. He was, after Raphael, the greatest representative of the Umbrian school. His fame spread, and he received commissions from princes and churches all over Italy. His figures are graceful, gentle and pure ; his landscapes bathed in glowing evening lights, and he excelled in compositions with graceful flowing lines.
Among the very numerous works of Perugino a few not already named require mention. Towards 1496 he painted the "Cruci fixion" in S. Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence. "The Mar riage of Joseph and the Virgin Mary" (the "Sposalizio"), now in the museum of Caen, was painted about 1503 and served indis putably as the original, to a great extent, of the still more famous "Sposalizio" which was painted by Raphael in 1504, and is now in the Brera gallery in Milan. In the chapel of the Disciplinati of Citta della Pieve is an "Adoration of the Magi," a square of 21 ft. containing about 30 life-sized figures; this was executed in 1504; about this time he finished, after much persuasion from Isabella d'Este, a panel for her study representing the struggle between chastity and sensuality, now in the Louvre. In 1507, when the master's work had for years been in a course of decline, he produced, nevertheless, one of his best pictures—the "Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis," now in the National Gallery, London. In S. Onofrio of Florence is a much-lauded and much debated fresco of the "Last Supper," a careful and blandly correct but not inspired work painted before 150o. Perugino painted a few portraits. The most noted is that of Francesco dell' Opera (1494) in the Uffizi. It is painted with great minuteness and recalls the Flemish portraiture. The sitter holds a scroll in his hand with the inscription Timete Deum.
See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy (edit. Tancred Borenius, 1914) ; G. C. Williamson, Perugino (19o3) ; Walter Bombe, Geschichte des Peruginen Malerei (1912) ; Perugino (Klassiker der Kunst, 1914).