PERUGINO: CELEBRATED ART WORK REUNITED
The section of a celebrated polyptych by Perugino has finally been re-united to its other panels for the major exhibition in the National Gallery of Umbria celebrating the 5th centenary of the death of the Renaissance maestro. The greater part of the Polyptych of the Certosa di Pavia featuring the Madonna and Child flanked by the Archangels Michael and Raphael are part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery, London, which has lent the panels for the occasion. Only the upper part of the work, featuring God the Father Blessing, has remained in its original site, while the central panels were so clumsily removed some time in the past that the foot of the Christ Child has been amputated.
The Perugino Exhibition, “Il Meglio Mastro d'Italia” (Italy's Best Maestro) which runs till the 11th June 2023, features over 70 works, many from some of the world's major galleries and collections, including the National Gallery of Washington, the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Gemaldegalerie of Berlin and others and gives a unique opportunity to study the development and career of an artist who, in his heyday was hailed as “the best maestro in Italy”.
Lauded for much of his life, especially for his unequalled use of colour, Pietro di Cristofono Vannucci (better known as Perugino) 's career unfortunately took a dip when he was in his late 50s, probably due to over-production and too much reliance on his apprentices to help him carry out the flood of requests and assignments that kept pouring in. A commission of an altar piece for the Church of the Holy Annunciation in Florence was refused because he had used figures copied from other of his works. Giorgio Vasari, the historic chronicler of “The Lives of the Artists”, described him as having “a rock-hard brain” and recounted that he took Michelangelo to court because he had accused him of being “clumsy in his trade”. Perugino retired after these episodes and his fame was overtaken by that of one of his ex-pupils: Raphael Sanzio.
The exhibition intends to give a more balanced view of an artist now universally acknowledged as “a leading maestro of the Renaissance.”
M. STENHOUSE
Info: Tel. +39.075.58668436 www.perugino2023.org gan-umb@cultura.gov.it