Pietro Vannucci, called PeruginoWilliamson, George C.
History
Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino
Williamson, George C.
Perugino, approximately 1450-1523
All these characteristics had direct influence upon Perugino, but even
beyond them can be seen other marks of this master's tuition. The
fantastic head-dresses that are to be seen in Piero's frescoes find
their counterpart in the frescoes of the Cambio; the very same scheme of
composition in "The Resurrection of Christ" in the Borgo San Sepolcro
Gallery is to be seen in one of Perugino's pictures; and the long vistas
of arches and careful geometric proportion and the absolutely accurate
drawing of arches and columns are to be equally realised in Piero's
picture in the Gallery at Perugia and in Perugino's altar-piece in the
Villa Albani. Even in the shape of the hand, the clear cameo-like
profile of the faces, and the detail of the feathers on the angels'
wings, the relationship between these painters is marked, and comparison
between the frescoes at Arezzo and the paintings in the Accademia will
be found to reveal these and other points of close contact.
In these early days of Perugino's life, it is therefore to the influence
of Niccolò Liberatore, of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and, above all, of Piero
della Francesca, that we attribute the growth of his art and the success
of his later life.
One more artist he must have met in these days, as Luca Signorelli, who
was some five years his senior, was probably at Arezzo with Piero della
Francesca. Certain pictures of Perugino, notably the "Crucifixion," at
La Calza, and the similar scene painted around a carved crucifix now at
Perugia, the "Pietà" in the Accademia, and the "Love and Chastity" in
Paris, betray in their vigour, hardness, and movement some of
Signorelli's influence, an influence that only occasionally was to be
seen in the great Umbrian master.
Morelli[C] considers that Perugino's journey to Florence after his
Perugian training, of which Vasari speaks, took place in 1470, at which
time Perugino would be about twenty-five years old. His name is recorded
in the roll of St. Luke in 1472, and in the roll of the Physicians in
1499.
Vasari states that it was to Verrocchio that he went. Lanzi and Orsini
confirm this; Morelli gravely doubts it; Resta distinctly denies it;
Berenson rejects it; and certainly there is but little trace of such a
tutor in Perugino's work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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