Art in Tuscany | Pietro Perugino | The Adoration of the Magi (Epiphany) | Podere Santa Pia, Holiday house in the south of Tuscany

Pietro Perugino | The Adoration of the Magi (Epiphany)

The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino, housed in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria of Perugia, Italy.
According to Italian art historian Vittoria Garibaldi, it was one of the earliest commissions received by Perugino around the end of his apprenticeship in Florence (1472)[1], while others date it to the late 1470s. The painting was originally executed for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Perugia, connected to the Baglioni family; in 1543 it was moved to the church of Santa Maria Nuova in the same city°.

The Adoration of the Magi (Epiphany) was executed for the church Santa Maria dei Servi in Perugia by the young Perugino. In 1543 it was transferred to the church Santa Maria Nuova in Perugia.
The head at the left is supposed to be the self-portrait of the young artist. The influence of the Florentine school can be observed in the figures of the Madonna and Joseph.

The scene follows a standard layout, with the nativity hut on the right and the visitors' procession, developing horizontally, on the left. On the background, behind the ox and the donkey, is a rocky, hilly landscape painted using aerial perspective. The Virgin holds the blessing child on her knees, and behind her is St. Joseph, standing, with a stick. The oldest of the magi is already kneeled, while the other two are offering the gifts. The crowded procession includes figures which are common in Perugino's works, such as the boy with a turban and the blonde youngsters in elegant postures. The man on the extreme left is perhaps a self-portrait of Perugino. The influence of his friend Luca Signorelli strengthened his draughtsmanship, that of Flemings like Hans Memling suggested the landscape background for his portraits as well as their general composition, and to the persistence of Piero della Francesca's influence is due the use of architectural and landscape settings for his figure compositions. Style The Virgin and Child are reminiscent of Perugino's Gambier Parry Madonna at the Courtauld Institute in London[2], dating to the very early 1470s. In general, the scene's style is related to Verrocchio's workshop, where Perugino made his apprenticeship. The characters, forming a crowd typical of late-Gothic art, show a robust appearance seen in the works of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, perhaps the earliest master of Perugino. The integration between the characters and the landscape is inspired to Piero della Francesca, such as the golden ratio tree; the landscape is similar to works by Leonardo da Vinci.		Pietro Perugino, The Adoration of the Magi


Perugino, The Adoration of the Magi (detail), 1470 - 1473 o al 1476 circa, olio su tela, Galleria nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia


[1] Contemporaries regarded Perugino as one of the leading painters in Florence in the 1480s and as the "best master in Italy" in 1500, but soon afterward his reputation suffered a decline from which it has only partly recovered. The grounds for this criticism, then as now, is the formulaic quality of his work, in particular his tendency to repeat figure types or even whole compositions again and again. He was also head of a very large workshop, which, operating for a time in both Florence and Perugia, turned out innumerable devotional pictures and frescoes in his distinctive style. Perugino's most famous pupil was, of course, Raphael. Born in Città della Pieve about 1450, Pietro Vannucci evidently received his initial training in his native Umbria. According to Vasari, his teacher was the Florentine painter/sculptor Verrocchio, and several Verrocchiesque pictures have accordingly been assigned to Perugino's early years as an artist. His first documented work consists of a fresco fragment of 1478 in Cerqueto. Perugino's career was launched by the wall frescoes he completed, together with Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and other painters, in the Sistine Chapel in 1481-1482. He continued to work in Rome, as well as Venice and elsewhere, throughout his career. Though he fulfilled a commission from Isabella d'Este, Perugino was unusual among the major painters of his time in never having been attached to a princely court. After his work no longer satisfied progressive taste in Florence, he retired to the Umbrian countryside, where the once-great master produced feeble replicas of the works that had brought him fame. Perugino died in 1523. [This is the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue \| National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC - Pietro Perugino] Arte in Toscana \| Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori (1550) \| Pietro Perugino Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Giorgio Vasari \| download pdf Pietro Perugino and the Trasimeno lake scenary \| Renaissance and Mannerism Painting in Città della Pieve, Paciano, Panicale and Castiglione del Lago Several of the artist's works are on display in Città della Pieve, including The Adoration of the Magi (1504) in the Oratory of Santa Maria dei Bianchi. The story is presented as a great procession of horsemen that disappears into the distant and vast andscape conceived by Il Perugino. One can recognise, even though it is stylised, the view that Città della Pieve has of the Trasimeno Lake.		Pietro Perugino, autoritratto dall'affresco del Collegio del Cambio a Perugia, 1497–1500, Collegio del Cambio, Perugia The Adoration of the Magi (1504), Oratory of Santa Maria dei Bianchi, Città della Pieve


Podere Santa Pia seemsto be the ideal choice for those seeking a peaceful, uncontaminated environment
Podere Santa Pia is located in south of the ‘Crete Senesi’, a beautiful clay hills landscape which is an ideal starting point to discover Tuscany. The guesthouse is located in Castiglioncello Bandini, a charming medieval village situated on a hill, which offers a spectacular view on the Alta Valle dell’Ombrone and the Maremma. Montalcino, the abbey of Sant'Antimo, Pienza and are within easy reach. Holiday houses in Tuscany \| Podere Santa Pia


Podere Santa Pia	Podere Santa Pia, garden	Century-old olive trees, between Podere Santa Pia and Cinigiano



La Galleria Nazionale Umbria
The Palazzo dei Priori houses some of the best museums in Perugia. The foremost art gallery in Umbria is the stunning Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, entered from Corso Vannucci. It’s an art historian’s dream, with 30 rooms of artwork dating back to Byzantine-like art from the 13th century, as well as rooms dedicated to works from hometown heroes Pinturicchio and Perugino. The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria is the Italian national paintings collection of Umbria, housed in the Palazzo dei Priori, Perugia, in central Italy. Its collection comprises the greatest representation of the Umbrian School of painting, ranging from the 13th to the 19th century, strongest in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. The collection is presented in twenty-three galleries in the Palazzo. The origins of the collection lie in the founding of the Perugian Accademia del Disegno in the mid-16th century. The Academy had its original seat in the Convento degli Olivetani at Montemorcino, where a collection of paintings and drawings began to be assembled. With the suppression of religious houses imposed by the Napoleonic administration, and imposed once again by the united Kingdom of Italy, much of the heritage of Italian art that had come to be the property of the Church became the property of the State. In 1863, the civic paintings collection was formally named to commemorate Pietro Vannucci, but the problem of establishing an appropriate site to house the collection was not solved until 1873, when it came to be housed on the third floor of the Palazzo dei Priori, in the center of Perugia. With the addition of acquisitions, donations and bequests, the pinacoteca became the Regia Galleria Vannucci in 1918, under the patronage of the king Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria Corso Vannucci, 19 - 06121 PERUGIA Tel. +39 075 58668410 [La Galleria Nazionale Umbria \| www.gallerianazionaleumbria.it] Opening hours 8.30-19.30 da martedì a domenica chiusura: tutti i lunedì, 1° gennaio, 1° maggio, 25 dicembre.		Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria
This article incorporates material from the Wikipedia article Pietro Perugino and Adorazione dei Magi (Perugino Perugia) published under the GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adorazione dei Magi (Perugino Perugia).