Perugino, IL

(real name, Pietro Vannucci). Born between 1445 and 1452, in Città della Pieve, Umbria; died in February or March 1523 in Fontignano, Umbria. Italian painter; representative of the Umbrian school of the late quattrocento.

Perugino was influenced by Piero della Francesca, the Netherlandish masters, and Verrocchio. In 1470 he went to work in Florence in Verrocchio’s studio. His painting is contemplative in mood and marked by flowing compositional rhythms. The lyrical landscape backgrounds depict the distant hills of Umbria. The kinship of Perugino’s art with the classical art of the High Renaissance lies in the clarity and balance of spatial organization, which impart to his works a distinctive harmony. Examples of his painting are the fresco Christ Delivering the Keys to St. Peter (1481-82, Vatican’s Sistine Chapel), The Pietà (c. 1494-95, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), and the fresco The Crucifixion (1496, Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, Florence).

Perugino’s late works are marked by a certain monotony and limpness of execution. The artist greatly influenced his pupil Raphael.