Perin del Vaga
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
painter of the Late Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
/Mannerism
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
.
Biography
He was born near FlorenceFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
. His father ruined himself by gambling, and became a soldier in the invading army of Charles VIII
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
. His mother died when he was but two months old; but shortly afterwards he was taken up by his father's second wife. Perino was first apprenticed to a druggist, but soon passed into the hands of a mediocre painter, Andrea da Ceri, and when eleven years of age, of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.
Perino was one of Ghirlandaio's most talented pupils. Another mediocre painter, Vaga from Toscanella, undertook to settle the boy in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Perino, when he at last reached Rome, was utterly poor, and with no clear prospect beyond journey-work for trading decorators. He was eventually entrusted with some of the subordinate work undertaken by Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
in the Vatican. He assisted Giovanni da Udine
Giovanni da Udine
Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine , was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine....
in the stucco and arabesque decorations of the Loggie Vaticane
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, and executed some of those small but finely composed scriptural subjects which go by the name of Raphael's Bible, Raphael himself furnishing the designs.
Perino's examples are: Abraham and Isaac, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, Joseph and his Brothers, the Hebrews crossing the Jordan, Fall and Capture of Jericho, Joshua commanding Sun to stand still, Birth of Christ, Baptism and the Last Supper. Some of these are in bronze-tint, while others are in full color. He also painted, after Raphael's drawings, figures of the planets in the great hall of the Appartamenti Borgia. Perino was soon regarded as his major assistant, second only to Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
.
To Raphael himself he was always exceedingly attentive. His solo works in the city include the hall of Palazzo Baldassini
Palazzo Baldassini
Palazzo Baldassini is a palace in Rome, Italy, designed by the Renaissance architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in about 1516-1519. It was designed for the papal jurist from Naples, Melchiorre Baldassini...
(1520–1522), a noble building in the center of the city, and the Pietà in the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco
Santo Stefano del Cacco
Santo Stefano de Pinea or more commonly Santo Stefano del Cacco is a church in Rome dedicated to Saint Stephen, located at Via di Santo Stefano del Cacco 26.-Name:...
.
After Raphael's death in 1520 and the plague of 1523, a troubled period ensued for Perino. He returned to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, and befriended Rosso Fiorentino
Rosso Fiorentino
Giovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italian Mannerist painter, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school.-Biography:...
and executed an admirable design of 10,000 Martyrs (now lost).
Work in Genoa
In 1527 Andrea DoriaAndrea Doria
Andrea Doria was an Italian condottiere and admiral from Genoa.-Early life:Doria was born at Oneglia from the ancient Genoese family, the Doria di Oneglia branch of the old Doria, de Oria or de Auria family. His parents were related: Ceva Doria, co-lord of Oneglia, and Caracosa Doria, of the...
invited Perino to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
to decorate the Palace of Fassolo, where he also executed numerous altarpieces and designs for tapestries. Perino accepted an invitation to Genoa, to help design decorate the newly rebuilt Palazzo del Principe for Andrea Doria. Fresco decoration began in 1529, starting with a now destroyed Quos Egos from the Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
. rapidly founded a quasi-Roman school of art in the Ligurian city. He ornamented the palace in a style similar to that of Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
in the Mantuan Palazzo Te, and frescoed historical and mythological subjects in the apartments, fanciful and graceful arabesque work with sculptural and architectural details. Among the principal works are: the War between the Gods and Giants, Horatius Codes defending the Bridge, and the Fortitude of Mutius Scaevola. The most important work of all, the Shipwreck of Acneas, is no longer extant. From Genoa Perino twice visited Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, and began some painting in the cathedral.
A year later he returned to Rome and frescoed the Pucci Chapel in the Trinità dei Monti
Trinità dei Monti
The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti is a late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its commanding position above the Spanish Steps which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna...
. Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
granted him a regular salary. He retouched many works of Raphael. He painted the decoration for the Paoline Chapel and other halls of Castel Sant'Angelo
Castel Sant'Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
, some frescoes in the church of San Marcello
San Marcello al Corso
San Marcello al Corso is a church in Rome, Italy, devoted to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in via del Corso, the ancient via Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo....
, a monochrome in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
and a cartoon of the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
.
Perino was engaged in the general decoration of the Sala Reale, begun by Paul III when he died on October 19, 1547, in Rome. He is buried in the Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...
. His work in the Castel Sant'Angelo was continued by his student Pellegrino Tibaldi
Pellegrino Tibaldi
Pellegrino Tibaldi , also known as Pellegrino di Tibaldo de Pellegrini, was an Italian mannerist architect, sculptor, and mural painter.-Biography:...
.
Assessment and legacy
Del Vaga's style was renowned for his vitality and elegance. His paintings are considered important in the mediation between the RomanRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
esque tradition and the first Florentine Mannerism
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
. He combined the manners of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto
Andrea del Sarto
Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori , his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci,...
. Many of his works were engraved, even in his own lifetime. Daniele da Volterra
Daniele da Volterra
Daniele Ricciarelli , better known as Daniele da Volterra, was an Italian mannerist painter and sculptor.He is best remembered for his association, for better or worse, with the late Michelangelo. Several of Daniele's most important works were based on designs made for that purpose by Michelangelo...
, Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta
Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta
Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta was an Italian Mannerist painter active in Rome in the mid 16th century.Native to Sermoneta, he was reputed to have been a pupil of Leonardo da Pistoia. His first known work is an altarpiece once in the Valvisciolo Abbey, now in Palazzo Caetani in Rome. In...
, Luzio Romano
Luzio Luzi
Luzio Luzi , also known as Luzio Luzi da Todi and Luzio Romano , was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance/Mannerism era...
and Marcello Venusti
Marcello Venusti
Marcello Venusti was an Italian Mannnerist painter active in Rome in mid 16th century.Native to Mazzo di Valtellina near Como, he was reputed to have been a pupil of Perino del Vaga. He is known for a scaled copy of the Michelangelo's Last Judgement, commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese,...
(also known as il Mantovano) were among his principal assistants.