PERANDA— PERUGINO. 123 Saracens by the Venetians : San Bar- tolomeo, the Gathering the Manna: chnrch of the Teatini, several works. {Bidolfi, Zanetii,) PERUGIA, GiANWicoLO da, or Gio- vanni Nicola Manni, b. at Gitta della Pieve, abont 1478, d, 1544. Umbrian School. The pnpil and assistant of Pietro Perugino, in whose style he painted: his colouring is good. Works, Perugia, the Academy, a series of figures, church of San Tom- maso, over the high altar, the Incre- dulity of St Thomas. {Mariotti.) PERUGIA, SiNiBALDO DA, painted 1505-28. Umbrian School. The scholar of Pietro Perugino, and, according to Lanzi, one of the best of the school. In the cathedral at Gubbio is an altar- piece of the date of 1505. There are also some works in his native place. (Mariotti.) PERUGINO, PiETBO, correctly Pdbtbo Vannucci, called II Perugiko, h. at Gitta della Pieve, about 1446, d. at Gastello di Fontignano, 1524. Um- brian School. It is unknown from whom this celebrated painter received his first instructions. Benedetto Bon- figli was his master, according to some accounts. The works of Niccolo Alunno also probably exercised an influence upon his early impressions. At about twenty-five years of age he went to Florence, where, saysVasari, he studied under Andrea Verocchio. His first works of note were painted at Florence; he then painted at Siena, Vallombrosa, the Gertosa di Pavia, Naples, Borgo San Sepolcro, Bologna, and Rome ; earning distinction everywhere, more especially for the brilliancy of his colouring. He commenced his frescoes at Rome about 1480, and was employed there about ten years ; he returned in 1495 to Perugia, as the head or capo- scuola of the Umbrian painters. On his return to Perugia he opened his academy, in which Raphael's rising powers were gradually developed. From Yasari's account of Perugino, we learn that a strong antagonism existed be- tween the man and his art, and in spite of his skill the love of money is said to have chiefly influenced him in the pro- duction of his pictures ; he lost some important commissions by his exorbi* tant charges: and his jealousy of the new views of art, which he made no secret of, also made him obnoxious to his Florentine contemporaries. He, on one occasion, took Michelangelo before a magistrate for calling him a dunce, " Goffo nell' arte," but met with only ridicule for his pains. Yasari says he denied the immortality of the soul. He died refusing the sacrament, or to con* fess; he was accordingly buried in a field by the public road, in unconse- crated ground : he was curious to ascertain the fate of a soul that had never confessed. Such is the statement of Gaspare Gelio, a Roman painter of the sixteenth century, as coming from Niccold dalle Pomerance, whose wife was related to Pietro's. Whatever his idiosyncratic peculiarities, he was un- questionably one of the best painters of his time, or at least of the fifteenth century. His works are characterised by exquisite purity and charming senti* ment; many of his heads are also beautifully drawn, and in colour, with, perhaps, the single exception of Fran- cia, he had no equal in central Italy. But his drawing was unequal, and in male figures especially, where the limbs are shown, is mean in style: and he ever adhered to the formal convention- alities of the quaitroceniismo. His earliest works, executed at Perugia, exhibit the stiffness of Alunno ; whilst in the first years of his Florentine life, he seems to have inclined to direct imitation, as in the Adoration of the Kings, in Santa Maria Nuova, at Pe- rugia; he has introduced his own portrait into this picture. His great
