See Pietro Perugino Paintings.
PERUGINO, PIETRO (1446-1524), whose correct family name was VANNUCCI, Italian painter, was born in 1446 at Citta della Pieve in Umbria, and belongs to the Umbrian school of painting. The name of Perugino came to him from Perugia, the chief city of the neighborhood. Pietro was one of several children born to Cristoforo Vannucci, a member of a respectable family settled at Citta della Pieve. Though respectable, they seem to have been poor, or else, for some reason or other, to have left Pietro uncared for at the opening of his career. Before he had completed his ninth year the boy was articled to a master, a painter at Perugia. Who this may have been is very uncertain; the painter is spoken of as wholly mediocre, but sympathetic for the great things in his art. Benedetto Bonfigli [BIO] is generally surmised; if he is rejected as being above mediocrity, either Fiorenzo di Lorenzo or Niccolo da Foligno may possibly have been the man. Pietro painted a little at Arezzo; thence he went to the headquarters of art, Florence, and frequented the famous Brancacci Chapel in the church of the Carmine. It appears to be sufficiently established that he studied in the atelier of Andrea del Verrocchio, where Leonardo de Vinci was also a pupil. He may have learned perspective, in which he particularly excelled for that period of art, from Piero de Franceschi. The date of this first Florentine sojourn is by no means settled; some authorities incline to make it as early as 1470. while others, with perhaps better reason, postpone it till 1479. Pietro at this time was extremely poor; he had no bed, but slept on a chest for many months, and, bent upon making his way, resolutely denied himself every creature comfort.
other artist: James Childs Paintings Il'ya Repin Paintings George Frederick Watts Paintings Paul McCormack Paintings