The San Francesco al Prato Resurrection is a painting by the Italian

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...

 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...

 painter Pietro Perugino

Pietro Perugino

Pietro Perugino , born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance...

, dating to c. 1499. It is housed in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, 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...

.

History

The work takes its name from the church of San Francesco al Prato of Perugia

Perugia

Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....

, where it was originally located. It was commissioned in 1499 e finished presumably areound 1501. During the artworks spoliations following the French Napoleonic invasion of Italy

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, it was brought to Paris. It returned to Italy in 1815, and thenceforth it is exhibited at the Vatican Museums

Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...

' art gallery.

According to art historian Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle

Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle

Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle was an Italian writer and art critic.-Biography:Cavalcaselle was born in Legnago, Veneto. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Cavalcaselle participated in the Revolution of 1848 and in the Roman Republic.After the latter's fall, he lived in England for...

, 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...

, then an assistant of Perugino, had a major role in the execution of the Resurrection. This opinion is however generally rejected by most other art historians.

Description

The work follows a typical scheme of Perugino's art. The divinity, in the case the resurrected Jesus, is depicted within an almond occupying the upper part of the painting, among angels. The lower part shows, above a landscape in the background, the open sarcophagus and several Roman soldiers, three of whom sleeping and one awakened by the miracle. Another example of the scheme is the contemporary Transfiguration in the Collegio del Cambio

Collegio del Cambio

The Collegio del Cambio, is the historic seat of the exchange guild in the Palazzo dei Priori in the city of Perugia, Italy. It was built between 1452 and 1457 and now houses a number of artistic masterpieces.-Sources:* NY Times -External links:* Perugia...

 in Perugia.

The figure of Christ, holding the crusader flag, has the typical harmony and softness of Perugino's mature works, with a detailed chest and a bright drapery with deep pleats. The two angels at his sides are symmetrical, and were obtained from the same cartoon (used by the artist and his workshop also in other works, such as the Madonna in Glory with Saints

Madonna in Glory with Saints

The Madonna in Glory with Saints is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino, dating to c. 1500-1501. It is housed in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Bologna, Italy....

at Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

).

The sarcophagus has its cover correctly painted according to geometrical perspective. The soldiers are also painted with attentions and details, such as the fanciful crest of the helmet, also present in the Collegio del Cambio frescoes.

Sources

• Garibaldi, Vittoria (2004). Perugino. (Pittori del Rinascimento.) Florence: Scala. ISBN 888117099