Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino

by George C. Williamson

Anderson photo] [San Severo, Perugia

THE HOLY TRINITY AND VARIOUS SAINTS
(Raphael and Perugino), 1505 and 1521

The tale of the 1521 pictures is not yet, however, nearly complete, but in the works now coming under consideration an improvement will be perceptible.

The six figures of St. Scholastica, St. Jerome, St. John, St. Gregory, St. Boniface, and St. Martha, which Perugino added in the church of San Severo, below the fresco painted by his great pupil in 1505, are dignified and impressive. They are far removed from the power of early work; there is a cumbersomeness about their draperies, and a sameness in pose and style, but the face of St. Boniface is lovely, and those of St. Jerome and St. John solemn and grand, while all the figures are well-proportioned, and stand well on their feet.

It was a melancholy duty to complete the unfinished and early work of the great pupil who had so far surpassed his master, but evidently the old master did it as well as he could, lingered lovingly over its details, and proudly recorded his name upon his work. The whole fresco is of notable interest, as the combination of the works of master and pupil, with the inscriptions recording the names of the artists and of the patrons who employed them, is unique. Sixteen years had passed since the upper fresco was painted. Raphael had mounted on from glory to glory, leaving behind him all his contemporaries, and had been reckoned as the king of them now; and now, in the year after his death, his old master is called up to complete the work, and he gives to the commission the best abilities of a fading old age.

Perhaps his neighbours commiserated too much with him, or taunted him with the decay of his powers. Whatever may have been the cause, it is quite clear that, rising superior to the quaintness, stiffness, and formality of Spello, Perugino suddenly wakened up into some old vigour, and much of the old spirit is to be seen in his last works.

In the church of San Francesco at Montefalco is his Presepio, which it is absurd to give to Tiberio d' Assisi, Lo Spagna, or Manni. Works by all these men hang close by in the deserted church, which now forms a wonderful picture gallery, and the comparison can easily be made.

There is a record of a visit from Perugino to the town en route for Trevi in this very year, and with him came two at least of these pupils, but no pupil ever painted this Presepio, although it is most probable that the lunette above it is by Tiberio d' Assisi. The lower picture, however, glows with golden sunshine, and the landscape is full of beauty, and represents, as was so often the case, the view to be seen from the very walls of this wonderful old city. Some of the faces are formal, the draperies are coarse and stiff, and show signs of hurried work, but the sense of distance proclaims the author of the fresco, and the faces of St. Joseph and of the Virgin and the dainty decoration of the columns are with the landscape really good pieces of work, and a wonderful improvement upon the pictures at Spello, Bettona, or in the Duomo at Città della Pieve.