Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/156

 PERUZZI— PESELLO. 125 tares rather lean to the quattrocentumo, or the old style of the fifteenth centniy, and they are distinguished by the art- less grace and dignified expression characteristic of the art of that period; he excelled in drawing, and became in some measure an imitator of Raphael. His oil pictures are extremely scarce. He appears to have gone to Rome early, in the pontificate of Julius II., after having earned some distinction at Yolterra. His first Roman patron was Agostino Chigi, for whom Feruzzi built the celebrated villa on the Tiber, afterwards known as the Famesina. He now practised chiefly as an archi- tect, and in 1520 succeeded Raphael as architect of St. Peter's. Peruzzi was also a distinguished decorator, parti- cularly skilful in those elegant cinque- cento arabesques, which the Vatican Loggie had contributed to make ex- tremely popular in Rome in the earlier half of the sixteenth century. The Pa- lazzo Massimi by Peruzzi, presents a remarkable example of this ornamental work, in stucco, &c. He also decorated facades with architectural schemes in chiaroscuro, enriched with bas-reliefs, after the style of Polidoro da Cara- vaggio: he executed similar works at Siena. Peruzzi also introduced thea- trical decorations into Rome in the time of Leo X. As an architect he ranks with the greatest of Italy. Works. Rome, Famesina, ceiling of the saloon, the History of Perseus: Sant' Onofrio, frescoes on the walls of the tribune, the Madonna enthroned, with Saints; the Adoration of the Kings; and the Flight into Egypt (all early works) : Santa Maria della Pace, the Presentation of the Virgin. Near Siena, the church of Fonte Giusta, the Sibyl announcing the Birth of Christ to Augustus. Torre Balbiana, St. Jerome (in oil). London, National Gallery,, the Adoration of the Kings, a drawing (1522), the kings being por- traits of Titian, Raphael, and Michel- angelo ; also the copy in oil-colours by Girolamo da Trevigi, or Bartolomeo Cesi: Bridgewater Gallery, an Adora- tion of the Kings. Berlin Museum, a figure of Charity (an early work). {Vasari.) PESELLO, GiuuAwo, painted, 1390, living in 1457. Tuscan School. Va- sari states that Pesello studied with Andrea del Castagno till the age of 30, but as Andrea was bom only in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and Pesello painted in 1390, this is an error. That Pesello imitated Andrea in his later years may be a fact, espe- cially in painting animals, which he represented with great skill, and, says Vasari, better than any painter of his time. His works are extremely scarce; there was an altar-piece by Giuliano, of the Trinity, with San Zeno and San Jacopo, formerly in the church of the Santissima Trinita at Pistoja, in the possession of Mr. Young Ottley ; it is described by Waagen. In the Berlin Gallery is a Virgin and Child by Pe- sello. ' Giuliano's son, Francesco Pesello, called Pe SELLING, h. about 1426, d, July 29, 1457, was the scholar of Fra Filippo lippi. Vasari praises some pictures of a Predella, of an altar-piece by Fra Filippo (of which two are in the Louvre, and three in the Floren- tine Academy), which he says are hardly to be distinguished from the hand of Fra Filippo himself: they are, the Nativity ; a Miracle of St. Anthony ; and the Martyrdom of saints Cosimus and Damianus. The exhibition of a relic in the cathedral of Florence, now in the Liverpoollnstitution, a Predella, containing portraits of Cosmo, Piero, Lorenzo, and Giuliano de Medici, is spoken equally highly of by Waagen, who remarks that it recalls Masaccio in its sharply-defined character, and in the figures. {Fasari,)