🖌️🎨 Pietro Perugino (Italian: Pietro Perugino, literally "Perugian", real name Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci; 1446-1524)

 🖌️🎨 Pietro Perugino (Italian: Pietro Perugino, literally "Perugian", real name Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci; 1446-1524) - Italian painter of the Renaissance, a representative of the Umbrian school.

Pietro Perugino was born in 1446 (according to other versions - in 1447 or 1448) into a poor Italian family, in the small town of Città della Pieve near Perugia. At that time, Perugia was one of the artistic centers of Italy: here in the 13th century an influential school of painting arose, called Umbrian (after the name of the area - Umbria).
The boy, who showed talent for drawing, was sent as an apprentice to an artist - not very famous, but who introduced his protégé to the basics of the craft.
At the age of 24, the young man went to the brilliant Florence, to the outstanding master Andrea del Verrocchio, who also taught Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci.
The young man arrived in Florence without a penny in his pocket. According to Vasari, he did not even have money for a decent bed, so he had to sleep on a chest. Perhaps that is why in the future, having become rich and started to receive fabulous payments for his masterpieces, Perugino was quite stingy.
However, many researchers believe that Vasari exaggerated somewhat, calling the artist a miser - perhaps personal hostility played a role.
The talent of the young man was highly appreciated by colleagues and customers. In 1475, he became a member of the professional guild of St. Luke, and in 1481, among the most famous painters in the country, he was invited by Pope Sixtus IV to paint the newly built chapel (later it would be named in honor of this pontiff and would become one of the main attractions of Rome).
The last decade of the 15th century was the peak of Perugino's career, the zenith of his fame. During this period, he created his main masterpieces, including the "Pieta" and "The Presentation of the Keys to the Apostle Peter".
After his return from Rome, he led an extremely fruitful activity, working in Perugia and Florence; he had workshops in both cities. Perugino was Raphael's teacher and in many of his works he anticipated the achievements of his great student.
He worked hard to perfect the techniques of figurative depiction - the construction of the human figure, its poses and movements, achieving the nobility of the images of the High Renaissance. Vasari calls Perugino the inventor of a new style of painting, characterized by a special "tenderness of colors" and so enchanting that "people flock like crazy to look at this unsurpassed beauty."
His work seems to be an ideal of a serene balance of rhythms of architectural forms and open space, in which the characters coexist in harmony with each other. They are immersed in an atmosphere of peace, satisfied, even somewhat satiated with contemplation, and open to the feelings of a religious viewer.
Pietro Perugino gained fame during his lifetime. He was invited to create frescoes in temples and palazzos, and the customers were influential heads of the church and secular aristocrats. He headed a large workshop and enjoyed significant authority in the professional environment.
According to Giorgio Vasari, who wrote the Lives with biographies of artists of the 14th-16th centuries, this master asked for exceptionally high fees. However, given the workload of the workshop with orders and the regular invitations that the artist received from different cities of Italy, this was quite justified.
Perugino became famous for his pensive Madonnas.

Sources: vakin; veryimportantlot; art-assorty.