Pietro Vannucci, called PeruginoWilliamson, George C.
History
Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino
Williamson, George C.
Perugino, approximately 1450-1523
I am strongly of opinion that the Borgo picture was the original work,
the Lyons one, for which he contracted to the monks of Cassino, March
6th, 1495, being either a somewhat hurried replica of it in which the
master grew tired of the monotony of repetition, or else that it was a
picture in which a certain amount of labour was left to assistants and
pupils. There is an important study for three apostles, in the Uffizi,
which was clearly prepared for the Borgo picture and not for the Lyons
one, as, while closely resembling the former, it differs from the latter
in one or two important details. This is not the accepted theory, I
know, and it is one that will probably not meet with universal
acceptance, but a careful comparison of the pictures leads me to a clear
opinion in the matter. With regard to the pilaster saints the case is
different. Those at the Vatican are all genuine work of the master and
are extremely fine, and the same may be said of three of the five at
Perugia, but two of them are not entirely Perugino's work, and bear
traces of a pupil's hand. The three predella pictures on the other hand,
which are at Rouen, are charming examples of the master's work, and are
bathed in that wonderful golden sunlight which is so distinctive of his
finest work. In each picture a strip of the foreground which was damaged
in transit has had to be restored: in the "Adoration" it is the very
slightest bit along the front of the whole picture; in the
"Resurrection" it is a wider piece, embracing part of the feet of three
of the sleeping soldiers and the edge of the stone slab on which the
tomb rests; but in the third picture, the "Baptism," the damage is
serious, as the foreground strip includes the feet of Our Lord and one
foot of the Baptist. In all other respects these three panels are
exquisite specimens of Perugino's fine and discriminative work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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