PERUGINO, pfi'r3U-Wno, PIETRO, properly PIETRO VANNtCCI (1.4.46-1523). An Italian painter. one of the chief masters of the Umbrian Schools during the earlier Renaissance. Born at ChM della Pieve, a mountain town near Perugia, in 1446, Perugino was the natural heir of the traditions of the Umbrian School, the leading note of which was the atmosphere of sentiment and mystic poetry, which found its best expression in the portrayal of the ideals of devotional art. In 1455 he was apprenticed to a Perugian artist, probably Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, whose influence is manifest in his work. Benedetto Buonfiglio and NiecoF) da Foligno have likewise been credited with his tutelage. According to Vasari, Perugino completed his studies under Verrocchio at Flor ence. but this seems unlikely in view of the severe tactile tendencies of Verrocchio's art and the un varying Umbrian characteristics exhibited in Pe rugino's work. His first public commission was received in 1475 and related to the execution of certain frescoes for the Palazzo Communale in Perugia. From this time Ids rise was rapid, and when, in 1480, Sixtus IV. gathered together the best artistic talent in Tuscany and Umbria to embellish his newly completed chapel with fresco, although the company included such men as Ros selli,Ghirlandajo, and Botticelli, the major works were assigned to Perugino. The most important of these Sistine creations is the "Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter," a work showing great breadth of treatment, and peculiarly typical of his meth ods of bringing out the effects of space and atmo sphere. The accurate knowledge of perspective, the feeling for the true values of distance, and the balancing and relation of these values make the work of Pcrugino peculiarly significant in view of the fact that these very elements of space composition were fundamental in the works of his pupil Raphael.
Perugino led a wandering life, lint after 1502 he worked mostly in Florence, where he married and purchased a house, while retaining his citi zenship in l'erugia. In 1450 Perugino finished
the decoration of the Sala del Cambio. Peru gia. with frescoes allegorical of "Fortitude," "Temperance," "Justice," and "Prudence," and sacred subjects like "God, the Father." the "Na tivity," and "Transfiguration." This work marks the height of his art. The "Marriage of the Vir gin," now in the museum at Caen. belongs to this time. Painted for the cathedral at Perugia, it was the model of Raphael's production of the same subject. The most remarkable of Peru gino's nnn•al paintings. excepting those noted above, are the fresco of "Crucifixion." Santa Maria Maddalena. Florence ( I492-1490). those at Citt:1 della i'ieve, Panicale, Spello, and Trevi. Among the altar pieces may be selected "Virgin Enthroned" (1496). in the Vatican; the "Annun ciation," Fano (1447l; "Crucifixion," "Gethse mane," and "Assumption" (15001. from Vallom hrosa. now in the Florence Academy: "The Vision of Saint Bernard." at the triptych painted for the Certosa. near Pavia, now in the National Gallery. London. His heads of "Two Monks of Vallombrosa" (Florence Academy) show him as a portraitist of high ability. His later pic tures, of which he produced large numbers, show decline. The artist's last work, the "Nativity" (1522) from Fontignano, is now in the South Kensington Museum. He died of the plague at Castello di Fontignano in 1523.
Consult: Mezzanotte. Della rite e dale opere di Pietro Vannueci (Perugia. 18361: Juhinal. Prru.ain. so ric rt sex a-acres (Saint Germain, I$C) ; Braghirolli. Xotizie c documenti i,ed ti intorno a Pietro Lannucei &Ito it Pcrugino (Pe rugia. 1R74(: Ca]etti. Lo stile di Perugino (Bo logna. 1587) ; Williamson, Perugino (London, 1900).